Being the astoundingly legendary writer that he is, Neil Gaiman did a perplexing job while creating The Sandman comic book series back in the late 1980s. So, for a sensational storyline like the one in his book series published by DC Comics, the writer was looking for nothing less than something spectacular, that can blow even his mind away.
However, out of all the scripts he received for film adaptations of The Sandman, there was one particular that didn’t sit well with him to the point where he was disgusted and horrified by it. Thus, calling it ‘the worst script ever written’, Gaiman found a way to sabotage this one particular adaptation, which ended in a hilariously successful way.
Neil Gaiman Couldn’t Keep His Calm After Reading The ‘Worst Script’ For The Sandman
Considering the masterpiece that The Sandman comic book series is, numerous filmmakers and producers wanted to get the chance to adapt the story into a live-action movie. Among these was the Superman Returns (2006) producer, Jon Peters.
However, the script he wrote was nothing short of a disaster for The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman. During an interview with Rolling Stone, the writer shared how he couldn’t keep his calm (which was unlike him) when he got the phone call from Peters’ team asking for his review of the script:
“A guy in Jon Peters’ office phoned me up and he said, ‘So Neil, have you had a chance to read the script we sent you?’ And I said, ‘Well, yes. Yes, I did. I haven’t read all of it, but I’ve read enough.’ He says, ‘So, pretty good. Huh?’ And I said, ‘Well, no. It really isn’t. […] There was nothing in there I loved. There was nothing in there I liked. It was the worst script that I’ve ever read by anybody. It’s not just the worst Sandman script. That was the worst script I’ve ever been sent.’”
Keeping the phone down, the writer realized he had to do something if he wanted to stop the movie adaptation from taking place. Thus, he settled on leaking the script to the media.
“So I sent the script to Ain’t It Cool News, which back then was read by people. And I thought, ‘I wonder what Ain’t It Cool News will think of the script that they’re going to receive anonymously.’ And they wrote a fabulous article about how it was the worst script they’d ever been sent. And suddenly the prospect of that film happening went away. And instead, Jon Peters turned his attention to Wild Wild West.”
With Jon Peters‘ script rejected, several others tried to please Neil Gaiman with their own versions of their scripts, however, all of them failed to charm the author until the creation of the Netflix series The Sandman in 2022.
Neil Gaiman’s True Agenda Behind Creating The Sandman
Continuing in the interview, Neil Gaiman then shared how he felt he created The Sandman for himself before he did it for anyone else.
“That was always how I felt about Sandman. At the end of the day, I was making it for me. My idea with Sandman was there aren’t really many comics that would make me, at that time, a 28-year-old person, go down to the comic store once a month and buy a comic. I want to make a comic that would make me go and buy a comic. I want to write a comic that I would love. That was my agenda.”
The same went for the Netflix adaptation of the comic books as well:
“Here, I feel like me and Allan Heinberg, with the connivance and assistance and support of David Goyer, that’s what we’ve made. We’ve made the show that we’d like to watch. We’ve made the Sandman that we’d like to see. Obviously, this is a commercial thing. I very much want it to be commercial. But at the end of the day, I think we made it for us because I don’t know how to make it for anybody else.”
So far, the Netflix version of The Sandman is being received even better than the comic books, with a stunning 88% rating on the Tomatometer and fans looking forward to a second season for the same.
