Neil Gaiman has a confession to make. He was a key figure in the demise of a film adaptation of his classic graphic novel series, The Sandman.
Gaiman told Rolling Stone that he leaked a script of what he thought was a poor attempt to adapt The Sandman to film.
“I sent the script to Ain’t It Cool News, which was read by people back then,” Gaiman explained. “And I wondered, ‘I wonder what Ain’t It Cool News will think of the script they’ll receive anonymously?” They also wrote a fantastic article about how it was the worst script they’d ever received. And then the possibility of making that film vanished.”
Jon Peters was hard at work on the script.
“It was the worst script I’d ever read by anyone,” Gaiman said. “An employee in Jon Peters’ office called me and asked, ‘So Neil, have you had a chance to read the script we sent you?’ ‘Well, yes,’ I replied. I did, indeed. I haven’t read everything, but I have read enough.’ ‘So, pretty good,’ he says. Huh?’ ‘Well, no,’ I replied. It truly isn’t.’ ‘Oh, come on,’ he said. There had to be something in there you liked.’ ‘There was nothing in there I liked,’ I said. There was nothing there that I liked. It was the worst script I’d ever read from anyone. It’s not just the worst ‘Sandman’ script ever written. That was the worst script I’d ever received.”
Several other versions of The Sandman died before they could be produced. The rights were then sold to Netflix, which released it this month.