Even for a well respected and loved writer like Neil Gaiman, it's not easy to have your books turned into movies. Comic Book Resources has a very interesting interview with the writer up on their site, in which he not only shows his admiration for what director Matthew Vaughn has done to his brainchild, but also tells in detail why it took so long for his award winning Stardust to get to the big screen. "I don't think it ever was a plan [to sell the movie rights], but I sort of learned my lesson back in 1998. That's when I sold the rights to "Stardust" to Miramax. They actually spent a full two years of their option not developing the film, but instead negotiating contracts with various other companies to co-develop "Stardust," at the end of which we were no closer to making a "Stardust" movie than we were before and I no longer had any confidence in them. So, I got to take my toys and go home.
I then spent most of the next five years saying no to people. There were lots of people who wanted to make "Stardust" movies and there were lots of chiefly beautiful young starlets and directors who would say, "We love 'Stardust,' we will give you lots of money, please give it to us and go away." I would say no and I kept it."
Buzz for Stardust is slowly getting more noisy, and rightfully so. Judging from the early reviews of this movie, it could be one of the most fun and imaginative movies of the summer, which is exactly what we need in these threequel-infested times. There are three new clips online for the movie, which should give you a bit of an impression of what you can expect from the full feature. Click!
