Neil Gaiman Says Michael Jackson Was Almost Cast As Morpheus In A ‘Sandman’ Movie
27.08.2022 - 03:19
/ etcanada.com
Neil Gaiman is revealing secrets behind the long process to adapt the “The Sandman” comics for Hollywood.
On a new episode of “Happy Sad Confused”, the creator sat down with Josh Horowitz to talk about his much-anticipated “Sandman” series for Netflix.
Gaiman created the comics in the late ’80s and ’90s where it became a cult classic with comic fans. Talks around adapting the series for a movie have also been around for just as long.
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In fact, one attempted adaptation imagined Michael Jackson in the titular role.
“By 1996, I was being taken to Warners, where the then-president of Warner Bros. sat me down and told me that Michael Jackson had phoned him the day before and asked him if he could star as Morpheus in ‘The Sandman’,” Gaiman shared. “So, there was a lot of interest in this and they knew that it was one of the Crown Jewels and what did I think? And I was like, ‘Ooh.'”
Another name that was thrown in the casting hat was Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 2016.
It wasn’t until Netflix’s “The Sandman” that the comics were finally adapted into a series with Tom Sturridge in the role of Morpheus. His audition was actually one of the first ones Gaiman saw with the team.
“I figured that, at the end of a couple of weeks, we’d have a shortlist of five or ten just as good as him, just as right as him, just as — you could say the lines as well as him — and we didn’t. At the end of a week, we had Tom. At the end of two weeks, we had Tom. At the end of a month, we had Tom,” he said. “At the end of six weeks, we said to Warner Bros: ‘It’s Tom, isn’t it?'”
Despite having their hearts set on Sturridge, Netflix encouraged them to see