Neil Gaiman And the Collaborative Process

Posted on July 26, 2006

It is always a nervewracking time for an author when his book is made into a feature film. Will the director change his vision? Will the film even resemble the book? How will the casting go? Luckily, bestselling author Neil Gaiman appears to have had a pleasant experience watching director Matthew Vaughn adapt his novel Stardust to the silver screen.

Neil discussed the process with Sci Fi Wire:

"They let me look over their shoulder and occasionally kibitz," Gaiman said about his own involvement in the project in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend.
*****
While some authors find it difficult to see their work adapted to another medium, Gaiman said that he understands the need to shape the work to fit the format. "I always love watching something as it moves from medium to medium. It's always fun," he said. "And some things you can move without changing very much, and some things you really have to sort of chop off the legs in order to get it through the door." Of his first glimpse of Stardust Gaiman remarked: "For me, the biggest surprise was finding myself sitting there at the end of the half hour of footage they put together ... going, 'I wonder what happens next. I wonder what happens next,' ... which I thought had to be the mark of a good director."

Stardust -- which has some good early buzz -- is an adult fairy tale which has a release date of March, 2007. Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro and Sienna Miller are starring.