>If you’re trying to launch a new streaming service to compete with Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Apple and the other big players, the most valuable asset you can bring to the table is a can’t-miss original series along the lines of Game of Thrones. That is, an accessible, character-driven story featuring a dense mythology and plenty of long-simmering plot threads; a story that’s already proven itself a fan-favorite, created by a brand-name author with a following that transcends genre boundaries.
>Luckily, WarnerMedia has such a property in its portfolio. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman – the comic series owned and published by Warner subsidiary DC’s (now defunct) Vertigo imprint – not only established Gaiman as the era’s preeminent horror/fantasy author, but also changed comics at a time when they badly needed changing. The story of the Lord of Dreams brought unprecedented sophistication to the medium, and brought in a whole new audience as well. Old fans loved it; so did younger ones; and so did women of all ages, which was not so common with comics in the early 1990s. That’s what’s known in the biz a four-quadrant tentpole, and its commercial viability has been proven over the years through best-selling trade collections that lived on long after the series concluded in 1996.
....
>But honestly, in light of the to-the-death streaming battle that’s looming, this deal feels like Marvel handing the film rights for X-Men and Fantastic Four to Fox for a song, if not the Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees: the kind of thing that history will not view kindly, whatever pressing motives made it look like a good idea at the time.
Im biased because i do not enjoy most Netflix programming when compared to HBO's, but business wise, it makes absolutely no sense. It can only be explained by a lack of vision and/or faith in the property.
i have feard this for a long time since in the last 2 years they are pumping out half arsed productions of comic adaptions the only cool thing about it is were gonna get a twink killer who eats eyes
How could Sandman possibly be the next GOT unless it's completely changed? Sandman is just SO verbose and its storylines don't lend themselves to being ~epic~ or having content that appeals to normies.
The first arc with Morpheus getting all his gear back is about as normie comic book show as this is going to get.
Andrew Stewart
I go with the lack of faith part. I don’t think anyone at WB knows what Sandman is. >Isn’t he that the Spider-Man villain? I think that they think their Watchmen Seuqel series/whatever is going to be their “next GoT” over some “obscure” comic they don’t know. Heck, I think Swamp-Thing would have been better on HBO than the Watchmen.
Jonathan Peterson
AT&T will do better by DC in that Cartoon Network won't do shit like cancel DC properties because it doesn't benefit 'them' as there won't be this Game of Thrones style territorialism between the business units.
But ultimately, AT&T only cares about their stockholders first.
Hunter Sanders
eh, the DCW is not half arsed, and what they do outside The CW proves that it's not a DC or Warners Television issue, but CW issue as far as the problem with those, likewise DC Universe's shows.
Kayden Jenkins
As much as I like it, Sandman is too pretentious and boring to appeal to mass audiences.
Isaac Reyes
GOT was changed, adapted.
Tyler Parker
Netflix isn't in the business of making things like Aquaman, Transformers, Fast & Furious or the Star Wars films that have to play in multiple territories and deal with the censorship and cultural issues there.
Their most expensive thing, for example, is The Crown, which cost for one season about what Disney, Universal, Sony or WB throw at their most expensive blockbuster pictures if you cut their CGI budgets out.
Since Netflix doesn't release (or really have 'ratings') we don't really know for a fact how many people are viewing but they've already said it's one of their most popular shows in every market they are in and I'm sure you think it's pretentious, too, amirite?
Jose Ortiz
The article itself suggests that - did you even read it? He said ten seasons for the ten collections. I doubt that's what anyone has in mind, but compress them to 5 seasons (since Netflix doesn't really want to seem to go over 3-5 seasons unless it's animated, and even then that's also rare) and trim down a lot of things in doing so.
Jordan Evans
That's why theyre making it a procedural and creating a comic relief human sidekick.
Hudson Morris
IMO I think WB has seen that the DC Universe app isn't doing as good as they hoped it was financially. Critically, their shows do great, but people torrent or use non-North American Netflix to watch them. Pure speculation, but if Sandman does well, they'll probably move all DC Universe shows over to Netflix and maybe scrap the app altogether.
Benjamin King
that is the real kicker. sandman actually lends itself pretty well to being shortened, a lot of the bulk in the sandman volumes is comprised by one shots and tiny self contained stories and those are the first thing that is going to go away to leave place for a more streamlined overarching story. i mean, really, the entire plot can be reduced to sandman going to hell to look for his things insulting lucifer in the process, lucifer then offering him the keys to hell ending with loki being freed, morpheus looking for his brother with delirium, killing his son and the the kindly ones going after him.
PROBLEM IS that is precisely the one-shots the places where sandman was at its best, the emperor of america, dream of a thousand cats, ramadan, the president of america, the dream of a city, hob's story as an immortal, hell, that is the reason why endless nights is in my opinion the best sandman book, is a bunch of self contained stories that in hindsigh all hold a narrative thread connecting them in the background.
now netflix is actually no stranger to anthology series what with black mirror and love death robots, so there is a small chance the show might go in that direction though i have little hope.
Ryder Hernandez
what really kills me is that it will either be completly generic procedural with a very small patina of magic on top OR they will try to go all overstylistic and quirky and whimsical like they did with good omens or american gods. and now a days we have way too many would be "auteurs" on tv who try to be weird and stylized to stand out but who dont have the actual genius to pull it off, every one wants to be wes anderson or tim burton and the end result always ends up looking either cheap or incoherent cgi and shitty editing.
Lincoln Hall
Maverick criminal psychologist Dr E.A. Morpheus agrees to use experimental hypnotherapy to help his old friend Captain Warren of the NYPD investigate a series of murders in the occult community, and with the assistance of wisecracking forensic pathologist Morticia Muerte they uncover a conspiracy that seems to be endless...
Xavier Jackson
Gaiman said on twitter that they're not reinventing anything, they are plain making Sandman. Season 1 will be preludes and nocturnes and "a bit more"
Take that as you will, but after AG and GO it would be weird if they didn't try to keep Morpheus as close to the source as possible, the weight if changing too much stuff will fall over netflix executives this time
Owen Reyes
Oh for fucks sake I can already see a shitstorm about the transexual character not being considered a real woman for the ritual that let them go to what'shername's dreams. Even though she shows up later with Death as a woman.
Lucas Jenkins
They'll change that.
Eli Moore
ok that is actually a huge step forward in terms of my comfidence for this project.
id say im 40% optimistic this might turn alright
Lucas Morales
Looks like Gaiman won't have a decent adaptation this time either.
Ian Green
>implying that won't cause a whole other problem
Ethan Jones
Who put these poison words in my eyes?
Joshua Torres
>It can only be explained by a lack of vision and/or faith in the property. They put Goyer as showrunner, it's already dead.
Julian Jenkins
A bit off-topic but what streaming service delivers the best content right now?
Owen Wilson
Coraline and American Gods season 1 are ok
Xavier Jackson
>been looking forward to a Sandman adaptation for years >suddenly remember it's owned by DC >who are owned by warner brothers >who have been doing nothing but shit adaptations for years, and cancel any good ones that slip through the cracks
>also an avid gamer >suddenly remember what warner brothers has done to monolith productions >and the batman arkham games >and mortal kombat
it's like all the pieces are only just now clicking in my head and I'm suddenly realising the common thread between all these disasters is fucking warner brothers
Nathan Turner
>>Luckily, WarnerMedia has such a property in its portfolio. Neil Gaiman’s Sandman – the comic series owned and published by Warner subsidiary DC’s (now defunct) Vertigo imprint – not only established Gaiman as the era’s preeminent horror/fantasy author, but also changed comics at a time when they badly needed changing. The story of the Lord of Dreams brought unprecedented sophistication to the medium, and brought in a whole new audience as well. Old fans loved it; so did younger ones; and so did women of all ages, which was not so common with comics in the early 1990s. That’s what’s known in the biz a four-quadrant tentpole, and its commercial viability has been proven over the years through best-selling trade collections that lived on long after the series concluded in 1996.
....
>But honestly, in light of the to-the-death streaming battle that’s looming, this deal feels like Marvel handing the film rights for X-Men and Fantastic Four to Fox for a song, if not the Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees: the kind of thing that history will not view kindly, whatever pressing motives made it look like a good idea at the time.
Please don't. I honestly wish they wouldn't, live-action seems to be ruining and harming franchises more than anything. I love Sandman and don't want to see it dragged through the mode with a shitty adaption where everyone involved doesn't read the comic and just wants to do whatever they want with the cool-looking character.
Liam Lopez
This might sound weird but I'm trying to get into game development and animation and I really wanted to be the studio that brought Sandman to life, putting Dream in animation and game stuff. But now Netflix is going to soil that Dream, MY Dream... It's depressing as fuck. I don't know what keeps me going.
Liam White
Yeah I don't want Christians hating on it either and it being filled with liberal propoganda. It deals with Lucifer and the church and angels, but remember Dream said to Shakesphere he's stil "off his faith"... Meaning he isn't anti-Christian or anything. Dream is kind of neutral towards heaven, hell and all the other gods and realms. He has his friends and enemies too. But I fear they'd just turn into "WHITE MALE CHRISTIAN RELIGION BAD!"
Benjamin Harris
It's stupid too because I want to play Dream in a movie. But I'd have to get back into acting and cosplaying and get there eventually. It could be done and I've been thinking about it, but then this happens to it squanders THAT dream. Perhaps I should have acted sooner...
Michael Scott
Gaiman himself said the first season will just be Preludes and Nocturnes
Jose Ross
>established Gaiman as the era’s preeminent horror/fantasy author
Lol, what? No it didn't. He bareley releases enough consistent material and hardly writes horror.
>The story of the Lord of Dreams brought unprecedented sophistication to the medium,
What?!?! Has this asshole never read a comic before? Tons of more "sophisticated" books had already come out way before Gaiman, namel the works of Eisner like "A Contract with God" and stuff like Pekar's "American Splendor". What a shitty article.
You sound like a retarded autist that buys into memes too hard. Warners has been releasing great tv outside of CW recently.
>Gotham >Krypton >Titans >Swamp Thing (the only cancelled one on this list) >Doom Patrol Even within the CW, season 2 of Arrow was kino.
Jordan Richardson
>now a days we have way too many would be "auteurs" on tv who try to be weird and stylized to stand out That's why I couldn't get into Legion
>the weight if changing too much stuff will fall over netflix executives this time They do it all the time, they don't give a shit
Logan Hughes
Can't think of one that has a stellar record really. But all of them seem to have really good online marketing teams, so tread lightly
John Young
>You sound like a retarded autist that buys into memes too hard. Warners has been releasing great tv outside of CW recently.
You sound like someone too retarded to read comics in the first place, dipshit. Those shows suck too.
Ryan Wright
Sandman is the most normie friendly comics ever.. 13 year old girls get it for Xmas pressies it's so fucking normie ffs. People who don't touch comics will have the entire tpb collection.
Gee. Maybe because it's such a critically acclaimed book or something. Though 13 sounds a bit young. It's also quite a horror book. Then again I guess 13 year olds read Steven King too.
