Harry here... My favorite thing about the below email I received was that it led me to Gaiman's journal page, where you can read the ramblings of a self-declared non-genius talking about the world he finds himself in the midst of. You can read the frustrations, the incredulity of his day to day life. His email answerings, hopes, dreams.... all of that. Personally I am in eager anticipation of his words finding visions upon a screen. Gaiman may dislike being referred to as a genius, so I will call his writings visionary and inspiring. Getting lost in a volume of Gaiman lore is one of the certain joys we geeks have, can't wait to see folks like Selick, Gilliam, Zemeckis and others dive in... Should be interesting...
Hi,
Quick note... This is from Neil Gaiman's (Sandman) journal at Neil Gaiman.Com
"Last night's e-mail brought Henry ("Nightmare Before Christmas") Selick's second draft script for CORALINE. Henry's first draft of the script was utterly faithful to the text of the book -- if anything, too faithful. This version was both looser and truer to the spirit of the book -- he'd added a character, made the beats in the first act slightly different, but the changes were the all kind of changes that need to exist when translating a book into a film, and the core characters -- Coraline, her parents, the Cat, the Other Mother -- and the story are still just the same. Very creepy and a great deal of fun. Apparently it was very well received by the studio.
It's weird -- there are so many movie projects out there based on stories or books of mine that I (a) lose track and (b) assume as a general rule for piece of mind that none of them will happen. But i think we're getting to the point where the probabilities are starting to suggest that something has to happen.
Really we need a tote board, with Coraline, Good Omens, Murder Mysteries, Stardust, Books of Magic, Neverwhere, Death, and (trailing way behind) Sandman on it, along with anything I?ve forgotten or intentionally not mentioned (like the Robert Zemeckis project, or the Dave McKean film), not to mention various of the odd projects I've collaborated on over the years, like Beowulf, or Interworld, which, just as I'm certain they're utterly dead, stir in their graves and yawn and blink and sit up and ask for coffee. I think Good Omens will probably come in first, but an outsider like Books of Magic or Murder Mysteries might come in and pip it at the post...."
