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After 30 years of existing in comic book form, Neil Gaiman's magnum opus about dreams and the lord of their realm is finally coming to life as a Netflix series that drops on August 5th.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWJTB6FPVaA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJXamnPUm0I What is The Sandman you may ask? The Sandman is based on the wildly successful and influential comic series that initially ran in DC/Vertigo Comics for 75 issues from 1989 to 1996 and tells the saga of Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams who after being captured for a century by a wannabe hedge magician must reclaim his tools of power, fix his crumbling realm and face the consequences of the many mistakes he has made over eons. He is part of a family of powerful beings called The Endless, all anthropomorphic embodiments of different aspects of life in the universe including Death, Destiny, Despair, Desire, Delirium, and the long-lost Destruction. Apart from his siblings, there is a colorful cast of characters from his realm, The Dreaming, and the many mortal humans his journey will change the lives of along the way. I can't believe this is finally happening. Over the years, there have been many attempts to adapt Sandman into a movie, and according to Gaiman, they were all lacking. (Producer Jon Peters almost made a version with a giant mechanical spider that he finally put in Wild Wild West!) The last attempt was in 2013 when Joseph Gordon Leavitt signed on to produce and star as one of Dream's chief nightmares, The Corinthian. Eventually, Gordon-Leavitt left due to creative differences with the production, and Gaiman and fellow producer David Goyer turned their attention to streaming television. After the huge success of Good Omens, which Gaiman wrote and show-ran, their pitch was unique: Have Gaiman directly involved in the writing and production of the adaptation, which according to Goyer had never been suggested prior. Netflix leaped at the chance and secured the rights to distribute the show, co-producing it alongside Warner Brothers Television. Production was delayed due to the pandemic, but began shooting in October of 2020 and lasted almost an entire year, wrapping in August of 2021. Gaiman and Goyer produce alongside Allan Heinberg (writer for Sex in the City, Gilmore Girls, and Wonder Woman) who also acts as the showrunner. Gaiman says the show is faithful to the comics but will provide new surprises for even the most ardent fan of the comics. The first season is set to adapt the first two major storylines from the comics, Preludes and Nocturnes about Dream's escape and search for his tools, and The Doll's House about a young girl searching for her brother and her encounters with Morpheus and several of his dreams.   A large diverse cast fills the roles of these iconic characters. Tom Sturridge (Far From The Maddening Crowd, Velvet Buzzsaw) is Dream/Morpheus Kirby Howell-Baptiste (The Good Place, Barry) is Death, Dream's older (and favorite) sister Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones, Star Wars) is Lucifer, lord of Hell and an obstacle Dream must face Boyd Holbrook (Logan, The Predator) is The Corinthian, one of Dream's worst nightmares who has escaped Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who, Victoria) is Johanna Constantine, a gender-flipped take on John Constantine (and also plays her ancestor with the same name) Mason Alexander Park (Cowboy Bebop) is Desire, Dream's non-binary sibling that holds a grudge against their brother. David Thewlis (Harry Potter, Wonder Woman) is John Dee/Doctor Destiny, a madman who has one of Dream's totems of power and uses it to terrible effect Charles Dance (Game of Thrones, Last Action Hero) is Roderick Burgess, the hedge magician and occultist that captures Dream Stephen Fry (God what do I even put here. It's that Stephen Fry. He's awesome) is Gilbert, a mysterious mustached man who aids a young girl important to Dream's journey oh and Patton Oswalt is voicing Matthew, Dream's Raven and Mark Hamill is voicing Mervyn Pumpkinhead, Dream's scarecrow janitor. And that's just to name a few. Now some of these casting choices have ruffled some feathers out there in ol' internet land, but I think it's an incredibly solid cast that will hopefully do the story justice.  The Sandman is arguably one of the most influential comic books/graphic novels that has ever been published, standing alongside classics like Watchmen and set Gaiman's career into motion. As a fan of the series, which i read in college and have loved ever since I am very excited to see it finally brought to the screen, and to have Gaiman personally writing and producing along with the showrunner is really the best case scenario (especially after the mess that is American Gods final season) and considering how good Good Omens turned out, I have faith this will be a very entertaining show and the trailers they've released, short as they are, seem to corroborate that story. August 5th can't come soon enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBXqrBl6pEo TheBigBudgetSequel fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 10, 2022 03:39
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So how is this going to work? Are they going to cover the entire comic series in one season, or what?
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Jul 10, 2022 04:04
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Rappaport posted:So how is this going to work? Are they going to cover the entire comic series in one season, or what? I forgot to put it in the OP but the first season covers the first two collected editions, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll's House, and potentially one or two of the short stories from Dream Country, but they have been vague about what stories will show up if any from that volume.
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Jul 10, 2022 04:08
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:I forgot to put it in the OP but the first season covers the first two collected editions, Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll's House, and potentially one or two of the short stories from Dream Country, but they have been vague about what stories will show up if any from that volume. Cool, thanks! Needless to say I am jazzed as gently caress  That cast list looks incredible.
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Jul 10, 2022 04:13
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I'm familiar with a lot of the plot beats via osmosis, but I've never read the series and I'm really looking forward to seeing this. That's a hell of a cast they've got, too.
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Jul 10, 2022 04:35
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The cast is amazing. The Dirk Maggs / Gaiman audible series also had some amazing casting, even in minor roles -- I don't think there's better casting for Despair than Miriam Margolyes, for instance, or Bebe Newrith as the various cats of dream. The casting for this new series looks loving fantastic too (in all fairness to Kat Dennings, but is there any universe where Howell-Baptiste isn't a step up?) but I kinda wish they'd kept Riz Ahmed as The Corinthian. Christie as Lucifer is loving inspired though. Genuinely cannot think of a better actor for the role. I'm less convinced by what I've seen of the cinematography though tbh. Maybe it'll look better edited together in situ, but the visuals look kinda smeary and digital, and some of that framing doesn't look good at all. I guess we'll see? TheBigBudgetSequel posted:The Sandman - Everybody's favorite problematic dream lord comes to Netflix It's been a loooong time since I read the comics, but beyond the typical expectations the come with reading a text that's thirty years old, is there anything particularly problematic about The Sandman? (I assume this is something to do with A Game of You (comics spoilers) featuring a TERF?) Also what's the thread's spoiler policy? IMO adaptation threads can get pretty tendentious, it's worth establishing a clear policy in the OP and then sticking with it, or we'll end up with a bunch of toxic circular conversations.
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Jul 10, 2022 04:36
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Open Source Idiom posted:It's been a loooong time since I read the comics, but beyond the typical expectations the come with reading a text that's thirty years old, is there anything particularly problematic about The Sandman? (I assume this is something to do with A Game of You (comics spoilers) featuring a TERF?) He cast a woman into literal Hell for thousands of years because she turned him down, that doesn't seem OK. But the comic does address this.
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Jul 10, 2022 04:47
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^^^ There it is! Open Source Idiom posted:It's been a loooong time since I read the comics, but beyond the typical expectations the come with reading a text that's thirty years old, is there anything particularly problematic about The Sandman? (I assume this is something to do with A Game of You (comics spoilers) featuring a TERF?) When I called him problematic it was purely because Morpheus as a character is a gigantic rear end in a top hat who does problematic poo poo and has to face the consequences of it through the entire series. The series isn't problematic, it was me making, perhaps poorly, a joke at the expense of the main character. (I still love Morpheus though. he's a mess, but he's a fun mess) A Game of You is actually pretty good representation and the TERFY stuff is given to characters who are clearly not intended to be good or well-intentioned, and very clearly dont' share the opinion of the writer Open Source Idiom posted:Also what's the thread's spoiler policy? IMO adaptation threads can get pretty tendentious, it's worth establishing a clear policy in the OP and then sticking with it, or we'll end up with a bunch of toxic circular conversations. I'd say the general rules of TVIV Spoilers goes. Before it airs, some plot points may need to be spoiled (I omitted a few things from the OP that I felt were spoiler-y for non-readers)
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Jul 10, 2022 04:49
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It'll be interesting to see how much of the DC comics stuff survives. I assume it will mostly just be the characters with the greater context stripped out. So like David Thewlis' character won't mention fighting the Justice League and we're not going to see Arkham Asylum.
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Jul 10, 2022 05:25
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muscles like this! posted:It'll be interesting to see how much of the DC comics stuff survives. I assume it will mostly just be the characters with the greater context stripped out. So like David Thewlis' character won't mention fighting the Justice League and we're not going to see Arkham Asylum. The biggest DC stuff that will probably be brought up is Hector and Lyta Hall, since Lyta plays such an important role in the overall series, but yeah I imagine we won't get much DC content. No Scarecrow hanging himself or Martian Manhunter seeing Dream as a giant flaming head (although the second one would be dope as hell)
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Jul 10, 2022 05:34
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I wonder. The Gaiman/Maggs adaptation was very explicit about the DC connections (e.g. they do go go Arkham) but the Joanna Constantine change is, I suspect, a sop to DC's weirdly proprietorial use of comics characters (i.e. there's that Hellraiser show that's purportedly still in development).Rappaport posted:He cast a woman into literal Hell for thousands of years because she turned him down, that doesn't seem OK. But the comic does address this. Aight, thanks. Yeah I remember this plot now. Seasons of Mist was one of the few arcs I never had a chance to read since my highschool library didn't stock it. But they had three copies of Preludes, for some reason.
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Jul 10, 2022 07:12
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I'm very disappointed that this show isn't going to be about Morpheus solving murders with his skeptical detective partner, Rose Walker (who doesn't believe he can really enter people's dreams, and whose dreams he is unable to enter). There could have been a whole season where Tom Ellis shows up and gives Dream ownership of his nightclub, and then all the other gods would show up vying for ownership of Lux and each of them would be accompanied by their own skeptical detective partners, and
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Jul 10, 2022 07:39
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I really, really, really hope this doesn’t suck.
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Jul 10, 2022 08:21
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:^^^ There it is! Ironically the one merciful thing he does, killing his son, is the one thing that dooms him. Not the endless rear end in a top hat stuff he does.
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Jul 10, 2022 13:30
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Still think they should have his eyes pure black and occasional white pupils
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Jul 10, 2022 14:28
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Alhazred posted:Ironically the one merciful thing he does, killing his son, is the one thing that dooms him. Not the endless rear end in a top hat stuff he does. For sure, although his treatment of Lyta and claiming her son as his own certainly started that path. But his kindness to Orpheus was very much the coffin nail. Gaiman really nailed the Greek Tragedy feel he was going for.
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Jul 10, 2022 16:01
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Open Source Idiom posted:I wonder. The Gaiman/Maggs adaptation was very explicit about the DC connections (e.g. they do go go Arkham) but the Joanna Constantine change is, I suspect, a sop to DC's weirdly proprietorial use of comics characters (i.e. there's that Hellraiser show that's purportedly still in development). Constantine is scouse as well.
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Jul 10, 2022 16:12
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Actor Asim Chaudhry plays Abel in the series (for non-readers, Cain and Able from the biblical story got new jobs as basically horror hosts like the Cryptkeeper and live in Morpheus' kingdom now) and he just posted a high-res expanded photo that was recently featured in Empire Magazine of him and his lil' pet Gargoyle Goldie   Abel is one of my favorite side characters and this is almost a perfect re-creation of him. Holy Moly. TheBigBudgetSequel fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Jul 10, 2022 |
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Jul 10, 2022 17:31
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Open Source Idiom posted:I wonder. The Gaiman/Maggs adaptation was very explicit about the DC connections (e.g. they do go go Arkham) but the Joanna Constantine change is, I suspect, a sop to DC's weirdly proprietorial use of comics characters I honestly wish that they'd kept Matt Ryan as Constantine. The show wasn't all that, but he was perfect. Jenna Coleman is okay at best. I also wish that they'd kept Lucien's weird hair and ears.
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Jul 10, 2022 22:49
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Alhazred posted:I honestly wish that they'd kept Matt Ryan as Constantine. The show wasn't all that, but he was perfect. Jenna Coleman is okay at best. I also wish that they'd kept Lucien's weird hair and ears. Constantine is specifically being done because JJ Abrahms is doing an HBO Max show about him so the character isn't avalible for use elsewhere. It's Matt Ryan was booted from the CW shows he was guesting on. Jenna playing both the ancestor and the modern day occultist is just a workaround that Neil thought worked well enough. (They are attempting to spin it as "we always wanted female Constantine, but it is very clearly just that...spin) I LOVE the look of the actress playing Lucien/Lucienne, but I agree about the hair. She does have pointy ears though.
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Jul 10, 2022 23:26
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Pretty excited for this. I love the graphic novel. And the audiobook for The Sandman is outstanding.
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Jul 11, 2022 03:15
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Actor Asim Chaudhry plays Abel in the series (for non-readers, Cain and Able from the biblical story got new jobs as basically horror hosts like the Cryptkeeper and live in Morpheus' kingdom now) and he just posted a high-res expanded photo that was recently featured in Empire Magazine of him and his lil' pet Gargoyle Goldie Chaudry as Abel and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain are utterly perfect casting. I'm so pumped due those two that I regularly forget Charles Dance is here too.
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Jul 11, 2022 09:19
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Strom Cuzewon posted:Chaudry as Abel and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Cain are utterly perfect casting. I'm so pumped due those two that I regularly forget Charles Dance is here too. I hope Sanjeev sports the really spikey hair with the insane widows peak because then the two of them are spot on. When I first read Sandman if you asked me what characters would be cut for time in an adaptation, I'd say Cain and Abel but I'm so glad they arent.
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Jul 11, 2022 15:56
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This has been in production hell for a long time, so I'm very skeptical about it being good. Well, it might be an American God situation where the first season is good, but every season after is bad. Its also Netflix, so even if turns out good, it will only get 1 or 2 seasons before being cancelled unless its super popular on a international level.
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Jul 11, 2022 16:23
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IShallRiseAgain posted:This has been in production hell for a long time, so I'm very skeptical about it being good. Well, it might be an American God situation where the first season is good, but every season after is bad. Now going off what Neil Gaiman has said (which, to be fair, he is very polite even about things he dislikes*) he says that the series is as good as he could have hoped for, with most episodes rating 8 out of 10 for him with one in particular being a 10 out of 10 and he says that the ones that didn't hit were the product of shooting during COVID which presented limitations they couldn't really work around. He also says that he is MUCH happier with this than any of American Gods, which apart from the few episodes he helped write, he seems to be less and less fond of as time goes on. (Because WOOF that show took a dive) As for Netflix, apparently part of the deal they signed for Sandman, if they decide to pull the plug, Warner Brothers can shop it around, and considering they are looking for content for HBO Max I assume it would just shift to MAX if Netflix ditches after a season or two. *I once met him and his second episode of Doctor Who had just aired, which I had enjoyed and told him as much. He thanked me and very kindly told me all the things he didn't like about the episode, but it was the most polite way to possibly say "They hosed up my script"
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Jul 11, 2022 16:28
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:As for Netflix, apparently part of the deal they signed for Sandman, if they decide to pull the plug, Warner Brothers can shop it around, and considering they are looking for content for HBO Max I assume it would just shift to MAX if Netflix ditches after a season or two. HBO Max is not interested in having big budget shows at the moment though, and Sandman is very much one.
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Jul 11, 2022 16:41
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:Now going off what Neil Gaiman has said (which, to be fair, he is very polite even about things he dislikes*) he says that the series is as good as he could have hoped for, with most episodes rating 8 out of 10 for him with one in particular being a 10 out of 10 and he says that the ones that didn't hit were the product of shooting during COVID which presented limitations they couldn't really work around. He also says that he is MUCH happier with this than any of American Gods, which apart from the few episodes he helped write, he seems to be less and less fond of as time goes on. (Because WOOF that show took a dive) I loved s1 of American gods and Neil gaiman seemed to hate it enough that he kicked off the show runner and got personally involved, I feel like he had a lot to do with it taking a dive
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Jul 11, 2022 18:18
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THE AWESOME GHOST posted:I loved s1 of American gods and Neil gaiman seemed to hate it enough that he kicked off the show runner and got personally involved, I feel like he had a lot to do with it taking a dive Quite possibly, although he had very little to do with Season 3 and that's when it bit it for me. From what it seems it was more a Stars/Freemantle productions issue that kicked off Brian Fuller but Neil didn't seem to mind them leaving either so.... Regardless, Neil is very secretive in public when it comes to not liking something if he can be, because his public persona isn't someone who is rude, so he keeps a lot of that behind the scenes stuff to himself, I've noticed.
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Jul 11, 2022 18:51
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more higher-res photos from the recent Empire Magazine spread about the show have been released, to tide us over until they release a final trailer (Which will likely be next week during Comic-Con) and the actual release on the 5th.  Dream pays his sibling Desire a visit in their domain, known as The Threshold. A fun thing with this shot is the collection of sigils hanging from the ceiling. Spoiler for non-readers Each Endless has a sigil, and in each of their realms they have copies of the sigils so they can summon each other if needed. The sigils in this shot are ordered identical to the panel from the comic, but the comic had them in the wrong order, since the egyptian Ankh should be second, rather than first. When Neil Gaiman noticed they had replicated the shot faithfully he told them because he found it funny and they asked him if they wanted to change it and he said no, keep it just like the comic book  Dream standing beside Lucienne (his gender swapped Librarian, formerly Lucien) admiring several new dreams and nightmares he is creating to help rebuild his realm after being gone so long This next one is a bit of a spoiler for non-readers so caution  John Dee stands in a firey ruin during his climactic battle with Dream for control of Dream's powerful ruby and the Dream realm itself TheBigBudgetSequel fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Jul 17, 2022 |
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Jul 17, 2022 04:18
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TheBigBudgetSequel posted:*I once met him and his second episode of Doctor Who had just aired, which I had enjoyed and told him as much. He thanked me and very kindly told me all the things he didn't like about the episode, but it was the most polite way to possibly say "They hosed up my script" I was bitterly disappointed in his second Doctor Who episode after the first was so good, so I'm actually glad he (very politely) didn't like it either! 
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Jul 17, 2022 06:26
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Yeah this isn’t the first time I’ve heard they hosed with his second script badly
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Jul 17, 2022 10:14
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this is gonna look amazing and the casting is fantastic please don't suck, please don't suck
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Jul 17, 2022 15:46
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Jerusalem posted:I was bitterly disappointed in his second Doctor Who episode after the first was so good, so I'm actually glad he (very politely) didn't like it either! He told me that the scene with the Cyberman stepping into the water and "upgrading" so the others could walk in water too was actually meant to be cybermen going in the water, dying, and then eventually a bridge of CYBERMAN CORPSES would allow the others to cross and get into the castle. HOLY gently caress what could have been.
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Jul 18, 2022 02:45
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For SDCC, Den of Geek just dropped a new issue of their magazine and Sandman gets the cover spot with what amounts to a theatrical poster for the show. It features the first real look at Despair who seems to be quite the departure from the comic book version (probably to avoid full frontal nudity, tbh) Also, J.H. Williams who did the art for the prequel Sandman: Overture did a piece for the magazine featuring both his version of Dream from Overture as well as his take on Tom Sturridge's Dream, which is super cool. 
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Jul 21, 2022 03:04
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83ClbRPRDXU New trailer showing off some stuff from the second half of the season. Also first good look at the Corinthian's eyes.
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Jul 24, 2022 00:32
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the Corinthian reminds me of Anthony Michael Hall, and i love it
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Jul 24, 2022 00:36
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Looks like they are really beefing up The Corinthian to be THE big bad of the show and I am okay with that because Boyd Holbrook looks to be just scary as hell in the role. That trailer is WAY more impressive than the last one. Holy poo poo. TheBigBudgetSequel fucked around with this message at 05:05 on Jul 24, 2022 |
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Jul 24, 2022 00:49
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it looks at least as good as S1 of American Gods, which is 
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Jul 24, 2022 00:49
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It'll be interesting to see if they keep the original format of the second volume where Morpheus mostly takes a backseat until the very end.
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Jul 24, 2022 01:06
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muscles like this! posted:It'll be interesting to see if they keep the original format of the second volume where Morpheus mostly takes a backseat until the very end. I think he'll be more involved in it than the comics, from what they were saying at the Geeked Week panel in June, but they also appear to be bringing some stuff from Dolls House forward to kind of give it a season long arc. It'll be interesting how they balance the need to make it a season of television and an adaptation of a very episodic comic
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Jul 24, 2022 01:12
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