AmericanGods Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Neil Gaiman, the darling of comic book and fantasy fans everywhere, has been alluding to a short film project he's been working on on Twitter. Apparently, his fans aren't the only ones who can't resist snapping up his every project, because Variety is reporting the British TV channel has already picked up the short film as part of a "12 Days of Christmas" series.

Gaiman, who is very open to fan interaction and uses Twitter both effectively and charmingly, Tweeted in August, "Oh good. I have my star, who was my first (and only) choice. I have a costume designer. We agree about things. This is fun."

The dapper Bill Nighy is the star of Gaiman's short silent film which is "a love story involving two statues and Christmas shoppers." We can, no doubt, expect music from Gaiman's muse and collaborator Amanda Palmer for the soundtrack. it's so cool that he wrote a short silent movie screenplay, got it made, and sold it all in one summer. Such is the power of Neil.

The real question is, when does the rest of the world get to see it? Can we hope that Neil releases the film the same way he released videos of him reading The Graveyard Book to adoring audiences around the world?

So, fan girls and boys, let's hope this holiday season will bring another treat under the tree or Hanukkah bush from the prolific author behind Coraline (the book), American Gods, Stardust (the book), Anansi Boys, and of course, the graphic novel series Sandman. Along with that lump of coal you no doubt deserve.

It seems that you can't turn around without bumping into another Neil Gaiman news item, some of which seem like downright wishful thinking. On the author's personal site, he announced that Dreamworks Animation has optioned his upcoming novel, Interworld. Written by Gaiman and Michael Reaves, the story centers on Joey, a man with the ability to travel into different dimensions, making him "prey to two terrible forces-armies of magic and science who will do anything to harness his power to travel between dimensions. When he sees the evil those forces are capable of, Joey makes the only possible choice: to join an army of his own, an army of versions of himself from different dimensions who all share his amazing power and who are all determined to fight to save the worlds".

Gaiman's work is probably familiar to fans of fantasy fiction, and Reaves has made a name for himself writing scripts for TV, ranging from The Father Dowling Mysteries to Star Trek. Reaves and Gaiman had originally pitched the project to studios back in 1996, when Reaves was working on a Dreamworks animated serial, but the project failed to generate much enthusiasm. In 1999, the two decided to turn the story into a novel and sold it to Harper Collins last year -- so if you are keeping track, Interworld has gone from a movie idea that turned into a book, and then went back to being a movie. It might just be me, but it seems that when it comes to Gaiman and the movies, nothing is ever easy.