The Independent talks with comics writer-novelist-screenwriter Neil Gaiman about the film adaptation of Stardust, the November-debuting BBC version of Anansi Boys, and the disappointing 1996 TV adaptation production of Neverwhere:
“They had one model at that point for television fantasy from the BBC, which was the previous model of Dr Who. That meant, ‘it has to be video, it has to be 28 minute episodes, and here is a very good light entertainment director straight from The Vicar of Dibley, a very nice man with no experience of special effects and no real understanding of fantasy’.”
Gaiman reveals he’s been in talks with BBC Television for the past two years to create an original fantasy series.
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Actually (and I realize that you pick up this error from the article) the TV Neverwhere is not an adaptation of Neil’s novel. It’s the other way around — Neil wrote the TV series, then adapted that into a novel.
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Oh, good catch. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that, too. Thanks.