First visiting Brazil in 1995, writer Neil Gaiman had to stand out from hysterical fans to accept the HQ Mix Award in São Paulo. On Monday, six years later, the Brit lost his voice while spending the night signing autographs. In the third and last, in 2008, another fivehour subscriptions for people who had traveled to Paraty on the Rio de Janeiro coast to meet the idol.
There was a reason for all the excitement. “Sandman,” his 1989 comic book created for DC Comics’ erotica label Vertigo, had become a cultural phenomenon in Brazil, with Gaiman being the first modern comic book star to visit the country at its peak.
“Brazil was the first country to adopt ‘Sandman’,” says the Briton in an interview in Los Angeles. “It was the first translation, in a beautiful edition, full of explanatory text and a back cover with artistic details. I still have her poster on my wall.”
But since Netflix announced that it would be turning the comic into a liveaction series, that is, with fleshandblood actors, that fancreator relationship has changed. In 2020, Gaiman had to confront conservative Brazilian accounts on Twitter, who, even before the series’ first image was released online, were clamoring for the streaming service’s “culture of political correctness” to taint history.
In November of that year, Gaiman attended an online event sponsored by publishers Intrinseca and CCXP, where he criticized the noninclusive mentality. “It seems to be a specifically Brazilian phenomenon on Twitter,” the author said at the time.
With the premiere of the first season of “Sandman” scheduled for this Friday, tempers seem to have calmed down. “If Netflix tells me ‘Sandman’ will be well received in Brazil, I’m sure it will be well received in the rest of the world as well. I have no problem with my Brazilian fans, I love them,” he says.
“Brazil has a lot of excited and happy people [com a série], but there are some Bolsonaristas who say awful things like “why do you put black people in your magazine?” and “Nazis are good”. I won’t assume for a minute that they represent Brazil as a whole. I know it’s not like I’m welcome in the country.”
Ironically, the suspicions of fans expressing hatred and prejudice under the pretense of fighting for “faithfulness” could not be more unjustified.
All ten episodes of “Sandman” follow a faithful series to the comics written by Gaiman and drawn by Sam Keith and Mike Dringenberg the few changes were to accommodate the storyline, like the removal of minor DC characters and the greater prominence the “villain” Corinthian, played by Boyd Holbrook, a nightmare invading the waking world.
Just like in the comics, “Sandman” is the story of Morpheus, played by Tom Sturridge, Lord of the Dreaming, who is captured by an occultist played by Charles Dance from “Game of Thrones” in the early 20th century. After being freed, Dream embarks on a journey to Hell to recover the magical artifacts that contain some of his power.
Blending classic fantasy, Shakespearean fiction, and existential themes like addiction, religion, and death, the magazine was one of the first graphic novels to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list. The storyline won 26 Eisner Awards, the most important of its kind, and was praised by writer Norman Mailer, who called it “a comic for intellectuals”.
everything to read
With this prestige, the magazine attracted the attention of Hollywood. In 1991, just two years after the release of “Sandman”, DC Comics, owner of the rights to the character, began receiving offers for a theatrical adaptation of the work.
The first screenplay was not finished until five years later, written by Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, from animation “Aladdin”, for Roger Avary, one of the writers of “Pulp Fiction”, to direct. Gaiman liked what he read, but producer Jon Peters wasn’t happy and asked for changes. Avary refused and was fired.
In 1998, Peters submitted a new screenplay to the British author. In it, Sandman was a superhero who had to fight with punches and kicks against his twin brothers Lucifer and Corinthium for the Helm’s power, which would be triggered at the turn of the millennium.
“I could only read to page 30 and then I felt nauseous,” Gaiman recalls. “I just flipped through it to see if it hadn’t improved. When they called and asked my opinion, I said it was the worst script I’ve ever read.”
The adaptation was shelved and didn’t resurface until 2013, when Blade’s David Goyer came up with the idea of producing the feature film, starring Joseph GordonLevitt in the role of Morpheus and possibly directing it. After three years of work, GordonLevitt dropped the project. Eric Heisserer took over the script, but it didn’t last long as he felt it would be impossible to translate the soul of “Sandman” into a film. “The best version should be an HBO series or miniseries,” he said at the time.
In 2010, development had begun on a series for HBO, with director James Mangold at the helm. Again, an internal war at Warner, which owns DC and HBO, thwarted the idea. The ball even went to Supernatural creator Eric Kripke, but Gaiman disagreed with his vision.
Goyer and Gaiman then decided to try one last gamble. The duo occupied a small space at Warner’s in Los Angeles and decorated it with posters, plaques, replica objects and statues related to “Sandman.” Then they started inviting the streaming service bosses over for a presentation.
Netflix liked what they heard and greenlit the first season in 2019, which adapts two story arcs from the comic, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House. For the lead role, Gaiman and Allan Heinberg auditioned hundreds of actors but chose one of the first to submit a tape.
“My first conversation with Neil was terrifying. It felt like I was testing my soul,” says chosen Tom Sturridge, who read and reread the 3,000 pages of 75 issues and some specials of Sandman during the pandemic.
marathon
The 36yearold Londoner fit the dirty, cold and authoritarian vision of Sonho, which originally emerged as a meeting between Robert Smith, head of the band The Cure, and Ian McCulloch, frontman of Echo & The Bunnymen.
“I took those inspirations into account, but I don’t see Robert Smith walking in hell,” jokes Sturridge, who took a long time to find the character’s deep voice. “Neil told me to imagine the voice we have in our heads that drives us to sleep and dream. She must have authority and be in danger.”
Although the production went well, conservative fans were once again upset when the rest of the cast was announced. First, because Lucien, the librarian of The Dreaming, would now be Lucienne, played by actress Vivienne Acheampong. After that came the choice of Gwendoline Christie for the role of Lucifer, Lord of Hell.
After casting Mason Alexander Park, a nonbinary person, to play Entity Desire and Kirby HowellBaptiste, a black woman, to play Death, portrayed as a pale girl in the comics, prejudice attacks not only from Brazilians tripled.
“We live in a world with a lot of feedback, but our job is to filter it all out. True fans will understand,” says HowellBaptiste, who steals the show in the thrilling sixth installment of the series.
“The stupidest thing about those who are yelling at me for picking black actors is that they don’t seem to have read ‘Sandman.’ Everyone has their own vision of Morpheus,” Gaiman complains, recalling the Contos na Areia comic. as an example, since they are black characters. “But of course I’ll hear, ‘I fell in love with the image of death years ago and now you’ve ruined my life’.”