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We can't believe these 5 Neil Gaiman books haven't been turned into movies or TV shows yet
Neil Gaiman has many works that deserve the live-action adaptation treatment. These are our five favorites.
Neil Gaiman has been busy lately. The author is involved in several adaptations of his work, from Good Omens and Anansi Boys at Prime Video, to The Sandman adaptation at Netflix.
These current projects aren’t the only on-screen adaptations of Gaiman’s work, either. Starz’s American Gods series was based on Gaiman’s eponymous work, and 2007’s Stardust as well as 2009’s Coraline, are two features whose source material comes from Gaiman.
With so many Gaiman adaptations out there, we can’t help but think about what other books Gaiman has written that would make a great movie or TV show. Here are five of them.
The Graveyard Book
The Graveyard Book is about a child named Bod (short for Nobody) who ends up being raised by ghosts and other supernatural residents of a cemetery near the home where his parents were killed. It’s ostensibly a children’s book, but this tale resonates with older folks as well and earned several awards when it came out in 2009. In the right hands, a feature adaptation of the book would work in either animated or live-action form.
Neverwhere
Published in 1996, Neverwhere is Gaiman's first solo published novel (Good Omens, co-written by Terry Pratchett, arrived earlier), and is technically already a TV show. The book is an official novelization of the 1996 TV series of the same name, but since the show came first, and Gaiman has been vocal about his disappointment with the series, Neverwhere feels ripe for a new adaptation. The story follows Richard Mayhew, a young businessman who finds himself in the magical world underneath London, where monsters, murderers, angels, and others who have fallen between the cracks reside. The tale has already been adapted into an audio drama with talents such as Benedict Cumberbatch, James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, and Anthony Head playing respective parts. Imagine how great a Neverwhere television series would be with these actors reprising their roles! We can dream, can't we? Plus, thanks to the follow-up story "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" and Gaiman's tease of a sequel novel sometime in the future, there's lots of extra stuff to adapt now.
Norse Mythology
Norse Mythology is Gaiman’s retelling of the myths about Norse gods like Thor, Odin, and Loki. Gaiman takes these ancient stories and weaves them together into an overarching narrative arc, although the stories do stand separately as well. These would translate well into a limited series anthology that would introduce to a version of the Norse gods that differs from what we’ve seen in other iterations (though there's nothing wrong with Chris Hemsworth's version in the MCU, of course!).
The Ocean At the End of the Lane
At 181 pages, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a short book that contains a lot of story. In it, we follow an (unreliable) adult narrator who visits his childhood home and remembers a series of magically terrible events from his family life. The story explores how we as adults lose the wonder and the cruelty that can make up childhood. The novel wrenches the heart, and would make for a darkly poignant feature film.
Fortunately, the Milk
Gaiman has written several illustrated children’s books, and Fortunately, the Milk is one of them, with two versions of the book illustrated by Skottie Young and Chris Riddell respectively. The story is a whimsically humorous tale about a dad going out to get milk for his kids’ cereal. It takes him a very long time to return, and when his kids demand to know where he was, the father tells a tale full of unbelievably unfortunate events like time travel, aliens, and pirates, among other things. This would make for a fun animated feature and would be something a bit lighter than Gaiman’s better-known fare.
