The Four Color Media Monitor

Another film project based on one of the disgraced Neil Gaiman's writings has been halted by Disney, as reported by Indiewire:

Disney has paused its adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s “The Graveyard Book,” which had set up production offices. The move comes after five women alleged sexual assault against author Gaiman, who wrote young adult novel “The Graveyard Book” in 2008.

Insiders tell IndieWire the film has not been scrapped but multiple factors, including the allegations, contributed to putting it on hold. Marc Forster was attached to direct. [...]

No cast had been announced for “The Graveyard Book,” which tells the story of a young boy raised by the supernatural denizens of a graveyard after his family is murdered. The director of “Coraline,” Henry Selick, was attached to the project right after Disney acquired the rights to the book in 2012. Forster came onboard in 2022 to direct and produce with partner Renée Wolfe with a screenplay by David Magee (“Finding Neverland”).

If no cast has been auditioned and selected for the project, which may have been intended to be a cartoon, then it's highly unlikely the film project will be greenlighted for a long time, if at all. And seriously, what's the use, if we're to consider what a grisly premise it builds upon? Again, this has got to be a big problem with Gaiman's MO when it comes to writing, and suggests it could've been part of the influence that led him to do nasty things to women in real life. Gaiman reportedly wasn't involved in the film's development, but it wouldn't be surprising if he were guaranteed residuals if any film produced became a box office bonanza. That's one of the prime reasons to avoid paying for tickets to the Graveyard Book adaptation, if it ever gets the go-ahead. Also note it was originally written for the Young Adult genre, which has long been flooded with wokeness.

In addition to a prominent trade paper like Indiewire reporting this, Variety's also brought up the issue of the sexual assault accusations against Gaiman. And when major trade journals like these begin to discuss the topics seriously, it shows that the news is finally getting more mainstream. Not only that, even ComicBook's reported on the subject, after 2 months of the specialty press keeping quiet about it. Even CBR's finally said something more, after they too seemed to steer clear of the Gaiman scandal for many weeks after originally providing their own report, but not keeping anybody updated on what's occurred since. Yet so far, the news still doesn't seem to be covered by a majority of specialty news sites, and if Comics Beat, in example, is still refusing to say anything, that speaks volumes.

This must be the 3rd film and TV project adapting a Gaiman comic or book to be cancelled so far. It remains to be seen how much longer the Sandman Netflix series will last, and if the 2nd season flops, it won't be a surprise, though neither will it if the producers have quietly dismissed Gaiman from any role he had in supervising the production. The AV Club said:

News of the film getting “paused” comes not long after another setback for Gaiman adaptation plans: Dead Boy Detectives was canceled last week at Netflix, after just a single season on the streamer. The series was presented as a spin-off of the TV adaptation of Gaiman’s Sandman, which is set to return for a second season at an undetermined—but probably 2025-based—date. Nobody said at the time whether the Dead Boy cancellation could be attributed to the allegations, with the show having been dumped on a Friday night, as one does in TV executive land—although we can’t imagine the accusations helped keep Gaiman’s latest TV show on the air.

Good point. The court of public opinion can even determine how much longer the Sandman series will remain in production, and if the 2nd season will only be broadcast next year, fortunes can certainly be reversed within that time. Depending how things go, they could release the 2nd season with little or no fanfare, if more victims turn up and things get more embarrassing as a result. Until then, let's hope Gaiman was at least dismissed from the show's consultation crew.

Labels: animation, dc comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, violence