Despite the difficulties of shooting a series during a pandemic, the cast and crew of Netflix's upcoming adaptation of The Sandman have been hard at work bringing the beloved graphic novel to life. Now you can take a look behind the scenes with author Neil Gaiman as he tours the sets, mingles with various art departments, and talks about what makes this series so special.
The two-minute feature starts with Gaiman describing The Sandman as "the story of the place that we go when we close our eyes at night." He describes this place as "the dreaming," which is ruled by the character Morpheus. Gaiman then explains that for years anyone interested in The Sandman would simply read the comics, but as he puts it "that world is ending." He's not wrong, comics are definitely not as popular as they once were, but live-action adaptations, on the other hand, are all the craze. Whether it's the MCU or other streaming giants, comic book adaptations have become a staple of our modern entertainment business, and a Sandman adaptation has been in the works for years now.
The video then follows Gaiman as he takes a tour of Shepperton Studios and gets to see his work brought to life. We see Gaiman looks over props, concept art, and a set pulled right from the pages of his novel, which he describes as simply "amazing." Gaiman seems impressed by everything he sees. Near the end of the video, he spends a considerable amount of time complimenting the art department and the set decorators on their impressive work. It's always nice to see the original creator give their stamp of approval on an adaptation, since not every comic book writer would be so enthusiastic. It's hard to imagine Watchmen author Alan Moore taking a tour of the set of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The sneak peek also contains brief interview snippets with actors Tom Sturridge and Gwendoline Christie. In the series, Sturridge plays the titular Sandman, who is often referred to as either Morpheus or Dream. Sturridge describes himself as an "obsessive Sandman fan" and talks about the responsibility of doing a faithful adaptation of something that is so beloved. Christie, who plays Lucifer in the series, says that as someone who has read the Sandman comics she knew that she had to be involved in this project. She describes the sets as "vast" and says that a great amount of detail and care has been put into bringing this story to life.
The Sandman was developed by Allan Heinberg, who serves as executive producer along with Gaiman and David S. Goyer. The Sandman series also stars Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Mason Alexander Park, Donna Preston, Jenna Coleman, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Kyo Ra, Stephen Fry, Razane Jammal, Sandra James-Young, and Patton Oswalt.
Netflix's The Sandman does not currently have a release date but is expected to wrap production in June 2021.
Source: Netflix Geeked/Twitter