Neil Gaiman revealed he was the one who leaked Jon Peters The sand man script for Ain’t It Cool News.
The sand man is a property that many have tried to adapt over the years. The first hit was the Netflix show which was released earlier this month, although it’s unclear if it will get a second season. An attempted live-action adaptation was also tackled by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, but most infamous was Jon Peters’ attempt.
Jon Peters is a producer with a somewhat controversial reputation, known for his eccentric behavior, and has faced multiple accusations of sexual harassment. He was a producer on Tim Burton’s Batman, wild west wild, The Return of Supermanand A star is born. He was also one of the main driving forces behind the famously canceled Superman movie, superman lives. But before that, he was one of the first producers to attempt to develop a live-action adaptation of The sand man.
Another giant mechanical spider
In the past, Neil Gaiman has talked about Jon Peters’ version of The sand man and has nothing good to say about it. At one point he received a script for the movie they were trying to make and was flabbergasted by what he read. The script also included a giant mechanical spider which was a bizarre obsession of Peters in the 90s. In a recent interview with Rolling Stones, he revealed that he hated the script so much that he sent it to Ain’t It. Cool News in the hope that the leaked script would kill the movie:
“I heard about it later. And people were like, ‘Oh, you’re kidding.’ And I’m like, ‘No, there was a giant mechanical spider.’ But far more important than that, Lucifer, Morpheus, and the Corinthian were identical triplets. They were a family of identical brothers, and it was a race to see who could get the ruby, the bar and the sandbag before midnight in 1999, before the start of the new millennium, because whoever got it would be the winner. . That was the plot. I remember they called me. And I’m normally, I’m polite and nice if you’re on the phone. I try to find positive things to say to the people who call you. And a guy from Jon Peters’ office called me up and said, ‘So Neil, did you get a chance to read the script we sent you?’
And I said, ‘Well, yes. Yes I did it. I haven’t read everything, but I’ve read enough. He says, ‘So, pretty good. Eh?’ And I said, ‘Well, no. This is really not the case. He said, ‘Oh, come on. There must have been stuff in there that you liked. I said, ‘There was nothing in it that I liked. There was nothing in there that I liked. It was the worst scenario I have ever read. It’s not just Sandman’s worst-case scenario. This is the worst scenario anyone has ever sent me. 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. Eh?’ And I said, ‘No, that was really stupid.’ And he said, ‘Oh, well, okay. You can’t win them all. And I said, ‘No, you really can’t.’ And I hung up the phone and I thought, what do I do now?
So I sent the script to Ain’t It Cool News, which at the time was being read by people. And I thought, I wonder what Ain’t It Cool News is going to think about the script that they’re going to receive anonymously. And they wrote a fabulous article about it being the worst case scenario anyone ever sent them. And suddenly, the prospect of this film happening was gone. And instead, Jon Peters turned his attention to Wild Wild West.
Here is the synopsis from Netflix The sand man:
There is another world that awaits us all when we close our eyes and sleep – a place called the Dream, where The Sandman, Master of Dreams (Tom Sturridge), gives form to all our deepest fears and fantasies. But when Dream is unexpectedly captured and held prisoner for a century, his absence triggers a series of events that will forever change the worlds of Dream and Eve. To restore order, Dream must travel across different worlds and timelines to undo the mistakes he has made over his vast existence, revisiting old friends and foes and encountering new entities – both cosmic and human – along the way.
The Netflix series stars Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Vivienne Acheampong, Boyd Holbrook, Charles Dance, Asim Chaudhry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Jenna Coleman, Joely Richardson, David Thewlis, Stephen Fry, Patton Oswalt and Mark Hamill.
wonder woman co-writer Allan Heinberg is showrunner, writer and executive producer on Sand seller. In addition to their writing duties, Neil Gaiman and David S. Goyer are also on board as executive producers.
The sand man is streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the future of the series and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content.
