Eavesdropping At The Dream Factory

Nevermore

Although "Mirror Mask" has obviously been challenging for Gaiman and McKean, it has to have been easier for Neil than his experience writing "Neverwhere" for the BBC. The production turned out so badly that Gaiman would eventually rewrite it as a novel, producing what he terms his "Director's Cut" of the story.

"The trouble with being a writer on a television series is that you lose the power of 'Because I say so,' which is a power I really like," Gaiman explained. "No, it's not a cow. It's a huge boar. It has one eye. It has things sticking out of it. It's not a cow. The BBC, at least at the time, had kind of a sausage mentality. It didn't really matter what you put in at one end, you got 'Doctor Who' out."

In fact, the Henson Company has bought the rights to remake "Neverwhere" as a feature film, which may or may not happen.

"After writing eight drafts of the script, I retired myself," Gaiman said. "After writing the television series, the English novel, the American Novel, and eight drafts of the script, I was beginning to turn into someone who wrote 'Neverwhere.' Yes, it may well happen. If anyone has any other questions about movies, the answer is always yes, it may well happen. Some of them are nearer and some of them are farther and they do little dances…"

"It's like those fairy stories," Gaiman continued. "People do work for the fairies and they pay you in fairy gold, which you work very hard for. You wake up the next morning and the gold has turned into leaves and blown away. Working in Hollywood is exactly like that except that one day you wake up and the work has turned into leaves but you still have a very decent amount of money."

With that in mind, it seems that Gaiman and McKean are much more in mind to do the things they find interesting, which turn out better in the end anyway. Coming up on the heels of "Mirror Mask" will be another children's book, "Crazy Hair," as well as a BBC Radio production of their graphic novel, "Mr. Punch," with McKean using old mechanical music boxes to score the production.

"I've learned that if I did projects because I wanted to do them, even if something terrible happened and I lost all the money, I had done something really cool that I was proud of whereas every time I did something for the money, it usually went terribly wrong and I would turn around and realize that I had never actually gotten the money anyway. It just sort of became easier doing the things you wanted to do and the things you thought were cool and letting that be the guide," Gaiman said.

Dreams For You

Much of the Gaiman/McKean output sits squarely in the realm of the fantastic so it is no great surprise to learn that some of it is informed by their dreams. One of McKean's solved a major plot point of Mirror Mask, and Gaiman was kind enough to elaborate on his own.

"I rarely get to steal whole plots," he began. "I'll steal scenes and bits from dreams. I had most of 'American Gods' in my head but there was still something missing and something that didn't work. Then I had a very peculiar dream in which I was going across America and my wife, who wasn't my wife in real life but just some woman from the dream, had died and then kept following me around America. I woke up and thought that was the bit I needed."

Gaiman has recently revisited the world of the "Sandman" with "Sandman: Endless Nights," a collection of seven stories illustrated by some of the finest artists in the world. Ironically, the series that launched him into international success was also the thing that killed the dream feed.

"While I was writing 'Sandman,' it was great because I could use a really good nightmare," Gaiman said. "Writing Sandman was the only time I kept a piece of paper by the bed. I would wake up and write, 'Great, I can use that. It was on a train and it had a cellar so I went down into the cellar and there was a dead baby there and it started weeping. Great."

"I actually suffered from nightmares in my teens and early twenties," Gaiman continued. "I didn't like the nightmares but halfway through "Sandman," they stopped. I still think it's because these little nightmares would come and do their bit and then they would report back to head office. 'Er, they didn't work. He's woken up and he thinks it's great. He's happy.' 'Well, did you do that bit where you turn your face inside out?' 'Yeah, he thinks it's great.' And so they gave up and went away.'"

More information on Gaiman and McKean's projects is nearly always available by visiting Neil Gaiman's online journal at www.neilgaiman.com.