New Line to Adapt Gaiman's Death

Source: Variety Friday, July 23, 2004

Variety has announced that New Line Cinema has picked up feature rights to Neil Gaiman's graphic novel "Death: The High Cost of Living". Gaiman is in talks to make his directorial debut on the film.

Gaiman wrote the script based on his own work. The project is currently titled Death's Day.

The story involves a teenager named Sexton who's been contemplating suicide. He is rescued by a mysterious teenager who claims she is Death herself, spending one day every 100 years on earth to learn the value of the lives she takes.

The film takes place over 24 hours as Sexton learns to love life by spending a day with Death.



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[This message was edited Fri Jul 23 7:13:39 2004 by JediMaster]

C'mon Pook! D:THCOL would make a great film! Its so different from typical comic fare, no superheroes at all.

interesting premise....

sosgemini said:

The story is a part of Gaiman's Sandman series. Death is one of seven siblings (second oldest, after Destiny) called The Endless. Each is a personification of their name: Destiny, Death, Destruction, Dream, Desire, Despair and Delerium (who used to be Delight). Its a VERY cool series!

Man I hope New Line doesn't screw this up-it's good to hear Gaiman might direct though, has to be his vision-this has to be one of my all time favorite graphic novels/characters.

I love Neil Gaiman's work (especially the Sandman series) but you're right JediMaster, it really is unlike what you'd expect when told about this plot.

Death: The High Cost of Living is such a wonderful story-funnier and more emotional than you'd think. Hopefully it can translate well to the silver screen and doesn't end up in development hell.

It IS a very cool series-probably the best of read in a long, long time. The Sandman series alone is well worth your time if anyone is wondering.

Check out Death: The High Cost of Living for an introduction to the world of Neil Gaiman. Then start the Sandman series-you'll be hooked.

I've always thought of Neil Gaiman's work to be more than just "comic book" fare. It isn't a comic book. It's a novel with illustrations, broken into chapters. Neil raises the bar on what you'd expect a graphic novel can be.

Great comic, after i read this thread, i pulled my copies out and read them again.

Winona Rider would make a good Death.....

And BTW, Sandman was an art of work as a whole series....

And Delirium is def. the coolest of the siblings....LOL
[This message was edited Fri Jul 23 17:20:12 2004 by jerseykrs]

irresistibleb1tch said:

Yep, it is. It's pronounced Gye-man. I wondered that myself when I started reading his work.

I LOVE Neil Gaiman. Since he's moved to the states he's even a local artist for me, hanging out at Deamhaven and the like. A movie based on the death series could be very interesting.

I'm feeling very dubious about this...
I mean...how many more properties from DC Comics must be screwed up?
Look what they've done recently...
Smallville, Birds Of Prey, and Catwoman...
All of them just barely have anything to do with the DC Universe Proper...
I realize that to translate these themes to movies/TV, there must be some things that have to be changed around...but...damn...how hard is it to keep Catwoman the same as the comics?
It's an interesting idea...but...well...as much as I love DC Comics, they have no clue how to properly treat their characters outside of the comic books.
I'm not looking forward to Constantine either...Keanu Reeves?...*ugh*...
[This message was edited Sat Jul 24 5:08:55 2004 by TheMadMonkey]