DE: You told your wife that you would only move to
Minnesota if she found an Addam’s Family house, what
is your house like?
NG: The part you can see from the road looks like
the Addam’s Family house. As for the back of the
house, about 5 years ago we found that they built
parts of the house without a foundation so it was
falling down a bit. It's about 120 years old. So we
knocked all that down and put up this giant kitchen,
office and another bedroom. It’s still the same
color brick but looks less gothic and creepy. The
front is still so magnificently creepy. Every
Halloween we go out and buy bags of candy and every
Halloween, nobody ever shows up.
DE: Well at least you finished it. Eddie Campbell
was telling me that Alan Moore's house is a shambles.
NG: Last time I was at Alan's he had built this
amazing bathroom. Alan was also digging down for more
space and all his money goes to that, the Mines of
Morea beneath Northampton.
DE: I just want to spin through the movie projects.
Good Omens will never happen right?
NG: Oh, Good Omens may happen. The whole
thing about movies is that you never say it might or
might not happen until the first day of shooting, and
then it's happening. And even then you’ve got your
fingers crossed. There is a great script by him and
Tony Grisoni. They got the budget down to $65 million
and they raised about 50 million dollars from abroad.
All the investors wanted was for an American entity to
go in on the final $15 million and guarantee an
American distribution deal. There is the problem…they
can’t find one.
There's no American with the balls enough to agree
to fund it and have a Terry Gilliam movie. They are
scared of him but he's funny, wise and brilliant. Not
only that, but he made Twelve Monkeys and The
Fisher King which demonstrated that he could
easily bring in a movie on time and under budget.
Currently the last e-mail that I heard from Gilliam
is that Tony Grisoni is doing a rewrite to try and get
the budget down to $45 million.
DE: I wish I had $15 million to give to Terry
Gilliam to make the movie.
NG: You know what? So do I. That's the single most
frustrating thing. You want to walk around Hollywood
asking everyone where are their balls.
So it's not dead until the option is not renewed
and the option just came up and it was renewed again.
I got the check.
You never know what happens with a picture until
you're sitting there eating popcorn at the premiere.
I wrote a script for Beowulf with Roger
Avary [writer/director of Killing Zoe and
writer of Pulp Fiction] in 1997. It was
immediately bought by a major studio for a lot of
money then put immediately into production. They even
signed up the special effects people. They were one
day away from flying to scout for locations in Canada
when somebody at the top of the studio read the
script, hated it, and pulled the plug. I won't tell
you the studio.
It was one of those things of how close something
can come to happening and easily not happen. Oddly
enough it may happen because Roger made a film called Rules
of Attraction. It’s hot and everyone is asking
him what his dream project is and what he wants to do
next. And he says, “The Beowulf script I did
with Neil.”
The joy for us doing Beowulf was doing
Trainspotting in 4th century England. They’re all
drunk on mead, with blood and dirt everywhere and
swearing. We took our cue from Jabberwocky and Monty
Python and the Holy Grail but more serious. They
now want to greenlight Beowulf as long as it
can be PG like Lord of the Rings.
DE: I know a Modesty Blaise movie was just
finished kind of under radar [directed by Scott
Spiegel]. I had heard you wrote a script for that a
few years ago.
NG: What they hired me to do a few years ago was a
screenplay for the second Modesty Blaise movie
[laughs]. They wanted it to be a franchise and I would
adapt a story called I Lucifer.
With the Death: High Cost of Living movie, a
lot of patient and kind people are waiting for me to
send in a second draft. I got my notes about the first
draft the day before I went on the book tour. Then
September 11th happened and I didn't feel like writing
a story about Death wandering around New York City. It
was supposed to be in San Francisco after that but I
moved it back to New York.
Ask me about more movies.
DE: The Neverwhere screenplay for Jim Henson
Productions?
NG: They've got Vincenzo Natali [director of CUBE]
attached to it. They've been waiting for him to be
free for a year and a half.
DE: Murder Mysteries?
NG: David Goyer did an amazing script for Dimension
Films and they didn't get it on a sort of fundamental
level. They put it into turnaround and Goyer got the
rights back. I have no doubt someone will pick it up.
DE: Here is something really old: The David Lynch
radio drama?
NG: I don't think that will ever happen. I actually
took some elements of it and put them into American
Gods. Like the car on the ice.
DE: I think all the goth kids' heads would explode
if that happened.
NG: I think you're right.
Books of Magic is doing brilliantly right now.
Last thing I heard was that they are ready to go on
it. The director is named Nick Terry, I think. He's a
French director with a script by Matt Greenberg. They
had to un-Harry Potter Tim Hunter but I think they've
done it wonderfully.
Jim Henson Production has also commissioned me to
write something for Dave McKean to direct.
DE: Would it be live-action?
NG: Part live-action and part animated.
Then, of course, the big one which looks closest to
happening of everything is Coraline, which is
my next novel which is another children’s book I
wrote with some Dave McKean illustrationing. It comes
out in June.
When I finished the book I gave it to my agent who
printed two copies of it. They sent one to Tim Burton
and one to Henry Selick. I don’t know if Tim read it
but within a week Selick had read and closed Bill
Mechanic [An independent producer, who was once
chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox Film
Entertainment from 1994 to 2000] on it. Henry has
written some brilliant drafts of the scripts. It’s
currently out to a top actress for the main character.
DE: Jennifer Connelly. [laughs]
NG: She was on our list but it’s someone actually
odder. I think Coraline may be in production
very soon.
DE: Update us on the McFarlane/Miracleman suit.
NG: There was a motion to dismiss from their side
and the judge handed down a judgment throwing out
every one of their reasons to dismiss. So I have a
case.
DE: What’s another new medium you want to tackle?
NG: The next one I’m excited about is that Coraline
audio book which I read myself. It’s the first time
I’ve ever actually read an entire book on CD. I
loved doing it and I’m thrilled.
I’m also looking forward to getting on the road
with Coraline. I want to do lots of readings
for it. It’s going to be really interesting doing
readings for kids. I was talking with the children’s
author Lemony Snicket, who writes the “A Series of
Unfortunate Events.” I told him I’ve signed for
adults all my life but never for kids, what advice can
you give me? He said to ignore the adults behind them,
just talk to the kids and if anytime the adults behind
them say stuff like, “Jimmy is a big fan of yours,”
just say to the kid, “Who is this woman? If she is
bothering you I can have some people throw her out.”
DE: Neil, thank you so much.
NG: Thanks, Dan.
Coming up next on Slush: This week sees a new installment of John Byrne's ongoing column. Plus, be sure to check back Monday for an exclusive interview with Stephen J. Cannell, creator of The A-Team, 21 Jump Street, Wiseguy, The Commish, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Baretta, The Rockford Files, and many others. Stephen is also the bestselling author of "The Tin Collectors." We speak to him about his new and past projects, including his latest novel, "The Viking Funeral."
NeilGaiman.com
Discuss
this article on the Slush Forums!
