How would YOU cast a Sandman movie?

[DKT]

I'd like Sandman to be more of an HBO/Showtime miniseries, though.  It's such a freaking long involved story that condensing it would be... tricky.  Very tricky.  I mean, which story would you tell?

The movie currently in Development Hell is supposed to cover the first two arcs/books: Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll's House.

And I thought The High Cost of Living was the Death movie that's in the works.  Admittedly Gaiman mentioned this when he was touring American Gods, so it's old news, but still ...

It's the High Cost of Living Story, but it's titled Death and Me. Not 100% sure why...

ETA: Neil says "mostly because it's Sexton's film as much as it is Didi's, and I wanted a title that reflected that"

I hadn't heard that about the first two Sandman arcs...what I'd heard was more of a mess than that, with Sandman getting into a fistfight with someone. Although I suppose that someone could've been the Corinthian.

[Talia]

Fistfights? wtf.. hehe. That's hardly Morpheus' style.

[Heradel]

I think Sandman as a whole would probably work best as a series with occasional movies, kinda like BSG. You'd probably also need some directors with widely different shooting styles to mimic the different feels of the volumes.

[DKT]

I completely agree. What you'd really need is a great team of writers and a showrunner who was unafraid.

Not sure it would ever happen, but it would be cool. Especially if it started out with an end-date.

[Heradel]

I completely agree. What you'd really need is a great team of writers and a showrunner who was unafraid.

Not sure it would ever happen, but it would be cool. Especially if it started out with an end-date.

Brian Fuller would be a good choice, but I'm hoping that he gets his ST series. It could be a chance for Minear or Espenson to graduate (again in the case of Minear). Or, in a dream state Gaiman himself, if he decided to spend the next few years doing it or had a good deputy to take care of the production aspect. If they handed it to an experienced showrunner, JMS or RTD. (Thinking about it, Gaiman couldn't do it, he doesn't use a middle name/initial.)

[DKT]

Clearly, we read some of the same websites

Fuller would be my pick out of the three but him doing a new ST would be coooooooooool.

[stePH]

I hadn't heard that about the first two Sandman arcs...what I'd heard was more of a mess than that, with Sandman getting into a fistfight with someone. Although I suppose that someone could've been the Corinthian.

I think I heard the same.  Basically what Neil said back in 2001 was that the first script he saw was pretty awful, and that each successive rewrite only made things worse. 

At that rate, I'd rather the movie remain eternally in Development Hell.

[lowky]

Fairuza Balk as Delirium.  She can play crazy

I like the idea of Helena Bonham Carter but I think she is getting a bit long in the tooth.

what about Laura Fraser aka (Door from Neverwhere) to play death?

[deflective]

Annette Badland for Despair




i kinda want to change my Dream choice to David Bowie since that would give me six of seven from the uk. are you guys hiding any goth hmong actresses over there so i can complete my set?

[Poppydragon]

Morpheus as muppet (from Neil Gaiman's Twitter) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PM9SPI7FEq0/Skrv-FctGmI/AAAAAAAAANQ/4O4rOPaEON8/s1600-h/Sandman+Muppet.jpg

[oddpod]

ace :-)

[Listener]

Zooey Deschanel as Death. Hands-down. She has the look and the ethereal quality.

Joanna Canton as Delirium (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0134631/). Though these days I bet it would go to one of the Fannings.

Desire is really hard to cast, because you need someone androgynous ENOUGH. I might pick Jackson Rathbone (who was in Twilight, but I've also seen him do good work in other things so you can forgive him Twilight), or even Daniel Radcliffe, who has kind of a feminine face even though he's a dude.

Kathy Bates as Despair.

Liam Neeson as Destiny -- I think he has the gravitas to play that role. It would also be HILARIOUS to see Hugh Laurie do it -- because I love House -- but as a professional actor you KNOW he could pull off the gravitas as well. I just don't see him in the role.

None of the Endless are dark-skinned (ie: Black) in their "natural" forms, though I really think you need a big black guy to play Destruction -- someone like Michael Clarke Duncan. I can't really think of anyone else to play the role who isn't a professional wrestler, and really, I'm sure Hulk Hogan's a nice enough guy but I really don't want to see him in movies anymore.

For Dream, I would accept:

Guy Pearce -- suitably skinny, good actor
Billy Crudup -- he proved he can play that kind of role by doing it as Dr. Manhattan
James Marsters

I also think Dream could go to a relative unknown in the same way that Chris Pine made Captain Kirk his own, but I'd hate to risk it.

[Talia]

Morpheus as muppet (from Neil Gaiman's Twitter) http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PM9SPI7FEq0/Skrv-FctGmI/AAAAAAAAANQ/4O4rOPaEON8/s1600-h/Sandman+Muppet.jpg

haha, nice!

Good call on Zooey Deschanel, she does seem a good fit.

[DarkKnightJRK]

Zooey Deschanel as Death. Hands-down. She has the look and the ethereal quality.

Joanna Canton as Delirium (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0134631/). Though these days I bet it would go to one of the Fannings.

Desire is really hard to cast, because you need someone androgynous ENOUGH. I might pick Jackson Rathbone (who was in Twilight, but I've also seen him do good work in other things so you can forgive him Twilight), or even Daniel Radcliffe, who has kind of a feminine face even though he's a dude.

Kathy Bates as Despair.

Liam Neeson as Destiny -- I think he has the gravitas to play that role. It would also be HILARIOUS to see Hugh Laurie do it -- because I love House -- but as a professional actor you KNOW he could pull off the gravitas as well. I just don't see him in the role.

None of the Endless are dark-skinned (ie: Black) in their "natural" forms, though I really think you need a big black guy to play Destruction -- someone like Michael Clarke Duncan. I can't really think of anyone else to play the role who isn't a professional wrestler, and really, I'm sure Hulk Hogan's a nice enough guy but I really don't want to see him in movies anymore.

For Dream, I would accept:

Guy Pearce -- suitably skinny, good actor
Billy Crudup -- he proved he can play that kind of role by doing it as Dr. Manhattan
James Marsters

I also think Dream could go to a relative unknown in the same way that Chris Pine made Captain Kirk his own, but I'd hate to risk it.

I can dig that list.

As for Desire, how about Tilda Swinton? She pulled of the androgeny pretty well in Constantine, playing Gabriel.