While doing press for Coraline, author Neil Gaiman heaped praise on the director chosen to adapt Gaiman's novel The Graveyard Book into a movie, Neil Jordan. The story, about an orphan who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard, may seem a somewhat unusual choice for Jordan, but Gaiman told ReelzChannel the choice was a natural one.
At the first lunch that I had with the guys from [production company] Framestore -- I was in London -- we settled down for a lunch, and it was really just to talk. Really, we were just trying to have the kind of conversation that establishes that we do all have the same kind of film in our heads. And what's interesting is the three of us at the table kept going back to 'Company of Wolves,' [Jordan's 1984 movie] in terms of what we were talking about.
Gaiman was far from finished:
[Jordan's] a writer and director, he's a really good writer, he's a novelist as well. He is one of those people who just makes movies, and sometimes they're hits and sometimes they're aren't, but they are a tremendous body of work when you look at it. He's comfortable with special effects, he's really good with actors, and all of his films have wonderful sort of textured look to them, and if you want somebody to direct a film that is all set in a little graveyard on a hill, and it covers sixteen years...so we sent the book to Neil.
Sounds like The Graveyard Book is in good hands, but what about Gaiman's other works, such as the Sandman graphic novel? Is anything else in a stage of adaptation?
"Yes," he said, then paused. "'The Graveyard Book.'"
Posted 02.04.09 by Ryan