If you've ever seen a film at NYC's Angelika Film Center, you know the auditoriums are in its building's basement, down where you can feel and hear the 6 train beneath you. But what you probably didn't see -- unless you worked there like I did -- is the hallway that leads from the basement lobby to the concession stockrooms and beyond, to the secret passageway that leads to an underground world. OK, I don't know where the passageway really continued; it likely could take you to the subway tracks, but with my imagination and my intrigue for NYC folklore, I assumed it led to the mythically legendary subterranean community. Maybe I read too many X-Men comics, or saw Ghostbusters II (no community, but there are secret tunnels of goo!) too many times. Surprisingly, I still haven't yet seen Dark Days, the documentary about NYC's underground squatters.

Anyway, I would love to go on and on speculating about who or what might be living far beneath the sidewalks, but instead I'll tell you what got me all excited about the topic: The Night Tourist, a young adult book that Universal has just bought the rights to. Written by Katherine Marsh and released last month, the book is about a ninth-grade prodigy from Connecticut who, during a visit to the city to see a doctor, is introduced to an underground world beneath Manhattan, which is reached by way of Grand Central Station. From what I can gather, the dwellers of this underground place are the ghosts of all the city's dead, including the kid's mother. According to Variety, The Night Tourist will be produced by Universal's new animation and family banner, which plans to make two to three animated and live-action films a year. However, the trade doesn't specify in which medium this adaptation will be. Either way, the most important issue is whether or it will have to compete with the in-works adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere?

I'm a little surprised by the opening box office of Stardust, which only made $9 million over the weekend. The movie was certainly advertised plenty, it features fantasy and pirates and other popular elements and it has received pretty good reviews. Maybe it will do well in the long run thanks to word of mouth, but if it doesn't, I hope its lack of success doesn't affect other Neil Gaiman adaptations. One of these adaptations is Neverwhere, which Gaiman actually wrote a script for back in 2000. In our own Comic-Con interview with Gaiman, the writer revealed some new developments happening with the project and mentioned that a director was very interested in finally bringing it to the big screen. Unfortunately he wouldn't tell us the director's name. But MTV Movies Blog's Jennifer Vineyard was apparently able to get it out of him. According to her, the director of Neverwhere will be David Slade, who made the excellent Sundance sensation Hard Candy and the upcoming vampire pic 30 Days of Night.

Other names mentioned in Vineyard's report include Harvey Weinstein, who may be looking to distribute via The Weinstein Co., and Lisa Henson, who was involved with Gaiman's Mirrormask, which pretty much ruined my love for Jim Henson Productions by utitlizing CG instead of Muppets. Gaiman will do a rewrite of his earlier draft, which is based on a 1996 mini-series he wrote for the BBC. He also wrote a very popular novelization of the series in 1997, and since then, there has also been a Vertigo comic book and a stage production. The story follows a bumbling businessman named Richard Mayhew, who ends up in an alternate dimension world called London Below. While there he must help a girl named Door, who is looking for answers regarding the murder of her family members. Gaiman has a number of other adaptations in development or soon to be in development, including the upcoming animated film Coraline, Interworld, Death: The High Cost of Living, Sandman and hopefully one day Good Omens.

Given the fact that everywhere you turn at this year's Comic-Con you see something else with Neil Gaiman's name on it, it's surprising that I was able to corner him for an interview with Cinematical.

He had just arrived in San Diego and was busy signing boxes full of books for people attending the convention. I'm surprised his hand didn't give out after writing his own signature over and over. If I fill out the "memo" section on a check, my hand starts to cramp.

We cover all things Stardust, Beowulf, and Neverwhere, and he drops a few tidbits in about Coraline, Sandman, the Death movie, and the new novel he's working on, The Graveyard Book.

He just celebrated passing one million words on his own blog/journal, although one of his favorite moments on it was when his daughter Maddy took over and guest-blogged. Now, if he could just get her started on writing more books ...

Check out the audio interview here, or click on Neil's picture to hear what he has to say in his own words.