Will Sandman finally be adapted… For TV?

And can you have Sandman without a McKean?Various movie adaptions of Neil Gaiman’s highly-acclaimed and much-beloved Sandman comic series have ended up stuck in development hell over the years – much to the relief of the fans.

Now, however, a new challenger emerges: TV. The Hollywood Reporter said Wednesday that Warner Bros. is looking to get the rights for the series from DC Entertainment, and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke is their first choice to helm it. Neil Gaiman is not (yet?) involved.

As a fan of Sandman, I’ve never really wanted it on screen: The story works wonderfully as a comic, and I can’t see how doing it otherwise would any favors. (With all apologies to Dark Horse and their Star Wars folks, it was Sandman that finally showed me of the heights the format was capable of.)

I can’t pretend to be an expert on Kripke, but his name does not exactly install faith in the project: I’ve never been able to make it through an entire episode of Supernatural, and little I’ve heard about the series makes me want to keep trying.

If Gaiman gets on board, I would be a little less OH HELL NO about the very idea. But for now? Here’s hoping for another round of development hell.

One way or another, now is a good time to check the series out if you haven’t already. The first volume is a tad shaky, as all newborn comics are, but things start shaping up with the second.

Jediism founder suing supermarket over hood

Man, that Jedi religion guy just can’t stay out of trouble, can he? Daniel Jones, co-founder of the Jedi Church in Wales, is suing a supermarket because they told him to remove his hood.

“It states in our Jedi doctrination that I can wear headwear. It just covers the back of my head,” he said.

“You have a choice of wearing headwear in your home or at work but you have to wear a cover for your head when you are in public.”

Uh-huh. Props to Tesco for their response:

Tesco said: “He hasn’t been banned. Jedis are very welcome to shop in our stores although we would ask them to remove their hoods.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Luke Skywalker all appeared hoodless without ever going over to the Dark Side and we are only aware of the Emperor as one who never removed his hood.

“If Jedi walk around our stores with their hoods on, they’ll miss lots of special offers.”

Something’s actually rotten at Livejournal this time

To be honestly I thought Strikethrough and all the related panic-filled hubris about naked Harry Potters were much ado about nothing… But Livejournal has finally done something to make me worry about the future of the site: They’ve laid off their product managers and engineers, according to Valleywag. Is the end nigh? Or will LJ’s large user base find some sort of salvation? Back up, and stay tuned…

UPDATE: There’s another report on LJ itself. It has a smaller number of layoffs, and lots of links, and I’d trust it more than Valleywag. Though I’d still do a backup.

Hide your eyes!

The Sci-Fi Channel is doing a makeover on The Wizard of Oz. I’ll let the article speak for itself:

Using adjectives such as psychedelic, twisted and bizarre to describe “Tin Man,” Sci Fi said the mini turns Dorothy into a young woman named DG, who finds herself plunged into a netherworld called the Outer Zone. Other celebrated characters are reimagined in “Tin Man”: the cowardly lion as a wolverine-like creature without backbone, the wicked witch as a sorceress called Azkadellia and the wizard as a larger-than-life figure called the Mystic Man.

Umm…

Cue the music… and the giggles.

Revenge of the Sith soundtrack with bonus Palpatine! Well, and a DVD. But mostly Ian McDiarmid. Oddly enough, does not come out on April 2nd with the rest of the prequel stuff…

We also get a look at some new toys. The highlight? An Obi-Wan lightsaber that, um, vibrates:

Obi-Wan Kenobi Electronic Lightsaber — Turn it on and it vibrates with the power of the mystic energy field that surrounds all living things.

Mystical power of the Force. Sure.