MYTH BUILDING

FIVE OTHER GAIMAN TALES EDGING TOWARDS THE SCREEN

ANANSI BOYS

Anansi Boys is, essentially, a spin-off from American Gods; a comedy about the african spider god Mr nancy and his two sons. there have been rumblings about a bbc adaptation but nothing has come of it so far (except on the radio). a shame, as it would no doubt be a fun and funny farce.

SANDMAN

an adaptation of the

sandman comics has been mooted for decades. Most recently it looked like it would be developed by

Arrival screenwriter eric heisserer, but he quit after saying the material was unworkable as a film, and would better suit a tv series. step on up, bryan fuller!

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK

another case of development hell: neil gaiman’s story of a boy raised in a graveyard was originally mooted by disney as a stop-motion animation, before then being announced as a live-action film, directed by Ron howard, in 2014. since then, though, there’s been no signs of a pulse.

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

even before its publication, there was talk of turning this magical 2013 novel into a film. tom hanks’s production company bought the rights; Joe Wright

(Atonement, Hanna) was attached to direct. there hasn’t been much progress since then, however.

FORTUNATELY, THE MILK

in 2015 it was announced that this children’s book, in which a father gets abducted by aliens while trying to buy milk, already had a script from Flight of

The conchords’ bret Mckenzie, with edgar Wright interested in directing. too good to be true?