Saturday, May 26, 2007

Want To Know Who Is Going To Play Neil Gaiman's Death? Don't We All

Later this year - if all goes well - Neil Gaiman will be directing his first feature film. It's an adaptation of his Death: The High Cost of Living mini-series, and - of course - he's scripted it.

This was the film he was discussing with Guillermo del Toro at the meeting a couple of weeks back, as I suspected. I've now had this 100% confirmed.

What more do I know? That the film will most likely shoot in late autumn, early winter, and in the UK, though the comic takes place (mainly) in the US. I'm also pretty sure that, as he's discussed before, Shia LaBeouf is almost certainly going to play the male lead (he certainly talks about it enough) - in the comics he was called Sexton Furnival; and that Death, or Didi as she calls herself in her mortal form, has snagged the interest of one famous young actress in particular. The Death hunt is done, if the deal works out, and soon she'll be named.

No news at all on who will play the Eremite or Mad Hetty, though it's hard to believe Miriam Margolyes won't get offered the latter role once casting moves into top gear.

Gaiman has mentioned that there is some business in the film's script that there was simply no room for in the comic - something about Buddhist monks 'running around', for example.

I really want to read this one - the original comic is one of my very few favourites, as was true of We3 and you know how head-over-heels I ended up with that one. If anybody out there has a copy, you know where to send it.


You can download the first issue of the miniseries as a PDF. That should get you off to the bookstore to buy the whole thing pretty sharpish, I'd imagine. And pick up Fragile Things while you're there. It's Gaiman's latest published book, a collection of short stories (and the occaisonal poem) and it is, to be absolutely clear, the very next book you should buy.

7 comments:

Le Ted said...

Shia needs to be as far as possible from any and all Vertigo film adaptations. Turning John Constantine's sidekick into a whiny reprisal of his character from I, ROBOT was the worst mistake in a movie filled with missteps.

I'm glad Neil's directing, but Shia LaBoeuf is NOT Sexton Furnival.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention, Shia publicly stated he's interested in playing the lead in the movie adaptation of "Y: the last man". A real Vertigo fan.

Rafa Martín said...

Holy Sh...
You got it, brendon.

Sorry!.

Rafa Martín
Las Horas Perdidas

Anonymous said...

Apparently none of you morons have read the graphic novel. Shia would be perfect for the main role. The real mystery is who would play Death. 10 years ago Winona Ryder would of been perfect.

A Million Monkeys said...

** Crosses fingers for Fairuza Balk as Death **

Anonymous said...

Fairuza Balk would make a horrible Death. I'm a fan of Fairuza Balk, but it would be a very bad decision.

I agree about Winona Ryder....I wonder if she could still pull it off...probably not.

Anonymous said...

Dare I suggest...Zooey Deschanel for Death? Or maybe Christina Ricci?