Screenwriter Eric Heisserer’s sci-fi film Arrival is out today, and to very good reviews. But the scripter also has several other genre projects in the works, including the Universal monsters reboot Van Helsing and an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s classic comic Sandman.

The Sandman

We had a chance to talk to Heisserer recently, and while he didn’t have much to say about Van Helsing because it’s so early for that project, the writer did say that he’s reached a point where he just doesn’t think Sandman works as a movie.“It’s still early days on Van Helsing,” he laughed. “Hopefully we’ll have some news soon, but who knows? It’s fairly early on in the process, and you know with Sandman, I’ve done about a year’s worth of work on that and I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t believe it can be adapted into a film, or if it can I’m not the person to make it one. I think the best version of it is as a series, and therefore I am recommending that they fire me [laughs]. So hopefully it will find the best iteration possible.”Huh, that’s got to be a first -- a screenwriter asking to be fired, if even half-jokingly. Of course, Sandman has proved notoriously difficult to adapt to the screen over the years, so perhaps Heisserer has a point. Most recently, Joseph Gordon-Levitt had signed on to produce and possibly star in a film version before dropping out, but attempts to bring the character to either the big or small screen have been going on at least as far back as the late ’90s. Perhaps the Sandman is best served living only in our dreams…