In the 1990s, a film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel The Sandman was canceled after its script leaked online. This week, Gaiman let slip that he was the one who leaked the script, and he did it on purpose.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, prolific fantasy author Gaiman said that the script for the 1990s film adaptation of The Sandmanwas the worst script that I’ve ever read by anybody,” and that he couldn't even get through the whole thing. After receiving a copy from producer Jon Peters, Gaiman sent it anonymously to the online news site Ain't It Cool News in the hopes that the leak would sabotage the production. Indeed, the site “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.”

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Gaiman recalled the initial conversation he had about the Sandman adaptation with Peters''assistant over the phone. “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,'" Gaiman recalled. "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.' And then there was a pause. He says, 'Oh, come on. That thing where we made the Corinthian the Sandman’s brother, that was good. Huh?' And I said, 'No, that was really stupid.' And he said, 'Oh, well, OK. You can’t win them all.' And I said, 'No, you really can’t.'”

Daniel The New Dream The-Sandman
DC Comics

Apparently, the script turned Lucifer, Morpheus, and the Corinthian into identical triplets. It also had had them scurrying about in “a race to see who could get the ruby, the helm, and the bag of sand before midnight on 1999, before the new millennium started, because whoever got it would be the winner.” In the interview, Gaiman also dropped the little nugget that producer Jon Peters tried to insert a giant mechanical spider into the film.

Previously, Kevin Smith has detailed the behind-the-scenes of his canceled Superman Lives film, in which Peters similarly insisted Superman should fight a giant mechanical spider in the third act. Although the film was shelved, Peters went on to produce Wild Wild West the next year, and finally got his way. In the film's climax, Will Smith and Kevin Kline fight a giant mechanical spider in the 1860s.

The Sandman is available to stream on Netflix.

MORE: The Sandman: 8 Things The Netflix Adaptation Does Right

Source: Rolling Stone