Joseph Gordon-Levitt No Longer Working On Sandman Movie

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt recently announced that he will no longer be participating in the project to bring Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman to the big screen. Gordon-Levitt had been connected with the project since 2013 when he tweeted his excitement in coming in as producer and trying to bring the difficult comic to life. Long considered an “unfilmable” project, it finally seemed that it was making strides in development under Gordon-Levitt and executive producer Neil Gaiman. Screenwriter Jack Thorne had been brought in to wrangle the complicated story into a movie.

According to Gordon-Levitt, Warner Brothers, who have the rights to make the adaptation, shifted the “entire catalogue of Vertigo comics (an imprint of DC) to their subsidiary New Line.” Apparently, when that change was made, there were some issues that Gordon-Levitt and New Line could not agree on. One major change included the replacement of Jack Thorne as screenwriter with Eric Heisserer. In a lengthy post on his Facebook page, Gordon-Levitt provided a detailed reason for his departure:

Once announcement of the shake-up was made, many fans turned to Neil Gaiman to see how he was feeling about the whole affair.

And, for the record, my respect for @hitRECordJoe, is undiminished. Getting to know him was the best bit of the last round. He’s special.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 5, 2016

I very much hope so. I would love to work with @hitRECordJoe some more. He’s smart, honest & really nice. https://t.co/lbFrNLAycJ

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 6, 2016

It is unclear how production on The Sandman will carry on from here, but the loss of such an enthusiastic supporter is bound to slow things down a bit.