The recent Sandman television series is leading Netflix as one of the best series since its release. The series is based on Neil Gaiman’s comics and although it falls under the DC umbrella, there are many stark contrasts between this series and the other projects of DC. While the fans are busy appreciating the show, Neil Gaiman revealed that earlier once he was pitched such a bad movie adaptation, he deliberately leaked the script.
It is reported that Jon Peters who is one of the most prominent Hollywood producers was planning to make a movie on Gaiman’s written material. Having rejected other Sandman scripts earlier, Neil Gaiman described the script as not only the worst Sandman script but also the worst among every script he read.
The worst script in Neil Gaiman’s life
According to Neil Gaiman, the Wild Wild West fame Jon Peters’ team pitched him a script that he hated the most. He described that the script was a complete mess and there was nothing in it worth to be read.
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The conversation between him and Peters’ team as described by Neil Gaiman was like this:
“A guy in Jon Peters’ office phoned me up and he said, ‘So Neil, have you had a chance to read the script we sent you?’ And I said, ‘Well, yes. Yes, I did. I haven’t read all of it, but I’ve read enough.’ He says, ‘So, pretty good. Huh?’ And I said, ‘Well, no. It really isn’t.’ He said, ‘Oh, come on. There must have been stuff in there you loved.’ I said, ‘There was nothing in there I loved. There was nothing in there I liked. It was the worst script that I’ve ever read by anybody. It’s not just the worst Sandman script. That was the worst script I’ve ever been sent.’”
Neil Gaiman also expressed that the script was originally planning to introduce Morpheus, Lucifer, and the Corinthian as identical triplets and even featured giant mechanical spiders that didn’t make any sense.
How did Neil Gaiman got rid of the Sandman movie?
Neil Gaiman further continued to reveal that he didn’t stop himself after rejecting the script. The writer then added that he deliberately leaked the script so that the movie can’t make it to the final stage. Explaining his mischievous move, Gaiman said that he deliberately sent the script to the media anonymously:
“I sent the script to Ain’t It Cool News, which back then was read by people. And I thought, I wonder what Ain’t It Cool News will think of the script that they’re going to receive anonymously. And they wrote a fabulous article about how it was the worst script they’d ever been sent. And suddenly the prospect of that film happening went away. And instead Jon Peters turned his attention to ‘Wild Wild West.’”
Following that Jon Peters never thought again about The Sandman and thus before the Netflix series, we didn’t get any cinematic adaptation of the comics. Now it will be interesting to watch if the Tom Sturridge series gets a second season or not.
The Sandman is streaming on Netflix
Source: Rolling Stone
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