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Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN on Netflix (TBD)
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It takes a long time to find the perfect actor to portray a character as iconic as Morpheus, the dour personification of dreams in Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. Auditioning actors for the upcoming Netflix adaptation, Gaiman and the production sat through literally hundreds of tapes. At least now we have our perfect Morpheus, although we still don’t know for certain who it is.

 

“I can say we had 200-odd auditions for Morpheus before we found someone that we really liked,” Gaiman recently told Yahoo Entertainment.  “And then we watched another 300 or 400 auditions, but it was clear that we’d found the one person capable of saying those lines and making them actually work. So we hired him!”

 

Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novel has long been deemed unfilmable, with numerous failed attempts made over the years. But Netflix’s version is slowly coming together. The rumor is that English actor Tom Sturridge (Mary Shelley, The Boat That Rocked) is playing the lead role of Dream, but we can’t be sure. Gaiman teases us.

 

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In any case, The Sandman is now multiple weeks into filming, and Gaiman shared his reaction to seeing Dream in his glass prison, where we meet him near the beginning of the story. “I’ve been watching dailies, but nothing produced the profound, emotional reaction on me that watching a camera test of our Morpheus in his glass prison did. I saw him and said, ‘Oh, this is Sandman.”

 

That’s an iconic scene from issue #1 of the comic, “Sleep of the Just,” so I don’t blame him for getting emotional.

 

In other casting news, we’ve heard that the Corinthian — the charming-but-violent nightmare with teeth for eyes — may be played either Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) or Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things). I very much like the idea of Montgomery!

 

And then there’s Dream’s sister Death, one of the comic’s most popular characters. Gaiman thinks they cast the  “perfect” Death for the TV show, finding an actor able to capture her “love and sensibleness.” Personally, I think Kat Dennings, who voiced the character in the Audible audiobook, would still be a great option to carry over to the Netflix show.

 

Whoever it is, Gaiman is confident she can pull off the character. “I don’t think anybody is going to have any complaints,” he said. Then, entertainingly, he took that right back. “Why would I say that? It’s fandom, of course they’re going to have complaints! That’s what they do.”

 

Still, he thinks that when “they watch Death’s first appearance in ‘The Sound of Her Wings,’ it’ll all be OK.” The sooner the better.

 

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The much anticipated Netflix adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman has been shrouded in mystery for the most part since its announcement, but we do have a new casting to celebrate, as the project has brought on Gwendoline Christie as part of the cast (via Discussing Film). The identity of who the Game of Thrones and Star Wars star will be playing in The Sandman was not revealed, but she joins Tom Sturridge on the project, who will be playing the main role of Dream (Morpheus). We still aren't sure who is playing Desire or Death yet, so she could very well be playing one of those roles.

 

Christie is well acquainted with Gaiman's work, as she worked with him on a radio adaptation of The Sleeper and the Spindle. Christie adds yet another fan-favorite franchise to her resume with The Sandman, as she's starred in Star Wars (Captain Phasma), Game of Thrones (Brienne of Tarth), and The Hunger Games, where she played Commander Lyme.

 

The Sandman is being executive produced by Gaiman and David Goyer, and Allan Heinberg will be writing the series and serving as showrunner. So far the team behind the project has managed to keep everything under wraps, which is impressive in this day and age.

 

The Sandman is also being adapted into audiobook form in a new series from Audible, and Gaiman recently compared the two projects and how they differ in vision.

 

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On 9/30/2020 at 11:39 AM, kimik said:

I really hope they get this adaptation right. :wishluck:

I cannot imagine not losing my poop if they do! If should be fantastic and wonderful to watch. American Gods had some of that Gaiman flavor, so I hope Sandman kills it.

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A year and a half after being picked up to series, Netflix has revealed the cast for its big-budget adaptation of Neil Gaiman's beloved Sandman.

 

Tom Sturridge will topline the drama based on Gaiman's DC Comics series, playing Dream, the Lord of the Dreaming. Gwendoline Christie co-stars as Lucifer, Ruller of Hell. Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry and Sanjeeve Bhaskar round out the dark fantasy drama.

 

Here's how Netflix describes its live-action Sandman: "A rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama and legend are seamlessly interwoven, The Sandman follows the people and places affected by Morpheus, the Dream King, as he mends the cosmic — and human — mistakes he's made during his vast existence."


Sturridge (Starz's Sweetbitter) takes on a role that was briefly attached to Joseph Gordon-Levitt when Sandman was being developed as a feature film for New Line in early 2016. With Christie and Dance, Sandman is also staging a mini-Game of Thrones reunion for the duo. Dance will portray Roderick Burgess, a charlatan, blackmailer and magician.

 

Acheampong (The Witches) plays Lucienne, the chief librarian and trusted guardian of Dream's realm. Holbrook (Narcos) is set as The Corinthian, an escaped nightmare who wishes to taste all that the world has in store. Chaudhry (Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) and Bhaskar (Yesterday) take on the roles of Abel and Cain, the first victim and the first predator, who are residents and loyal subjects of the Dream Realm.

 

Gaiman (American Gods) and Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman, Grey's Anatomy) are co-writing the series, with the latter on board as showrunner. David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Foundation) exec produces the drama from Warner Bros. Television.

 

"For the last 33 years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head," Gaiman said. "I'm unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality. I can't wait until the people out there get to see what we've been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there. This is astonishing, and I'm so grateful to the actors and to all of The Sandman collaborators — Netflix, Warner Bros., DC, to Allan Heinberg and David Goyer, and the legions of crafters and geniuses on the show — for making the wildest of all my dreams into reality."

 

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