Hey folks, Harry here... Well so far the only word we've had about this project came from that stunning beauty of the manual typewriters, Dorothy Parker (Click here to read her review of the draft mentioned below!!!) But thankfully this sounds like better news than that.... So read on, and be in fear... apparently a director announcement is coming soon... WHO WILL IT BE? Given the recent rash of terrible director/project assignments, it'll probably be Paul Anderson.... Shit, I can't believe I put that out there.... ACK!

Today Neil Gaiman did a signing at Borders here in New York, and during the Q& A someone asked him about the Death: High Cost of Living movie. It seems to be proceeding nicely. It was due at the studio April 1, so he had to rush to get it ready. When the execs reviewed it, they broke it down into what they liked and didn't. Neil was pleased about this generally, since what they didn't like were the things he had to fudge because the script was due on April 1 instead of the 15th. So we are guaranteed a script Neil is pleased with.

The big announcement is that today he was notifed who the director will be, and declined to tell us because the press release will be made sometime this week or next. But Neil was happy about the choice, and it's someone good.

~ Lampbane

Breaker of Lamps, Destroyer of Vases

Defender of the Faith

Father Geek here with an update that just arrived here at Austin's GEEK HEADQUARTERS... Check it out...

Hey Harry, RENO here. . .

I saw Lampbane's report on the Gaiman signing last night in NYC and I'd like to clarify a thing or two that they wrote, by way of passing along a complete transcription of what Neil had to say about the film, the state of the script, etc. (Portable tape recorders are such a handy thing. . .)

When asked about the status film, Gaiman replied-

"I had handed in a script on the first of April. This was because there was going to be a writer's strike and we were really under the gun. It was 'Get the script in so that anything that needed to happen before the writer's strike could happen.'

"Warner Brothers loved it. They were meant to be doing it in collaboration with another production company, whom I'm not going to name, but are most famous for big slam bang action movies and who had said 'Oh, we like the idea of doing a cool little movie.' They read the script and said 'Hang on, this is not a big slam bang action movie.'

"And Warner Brothers, bless their little cotton socks, said 'OK, you can go now' to them. You have to be involved with films to understand how incredibly unlikely that is. Normally, they'd turn to ME and say 'OK, you can go now.' And then they'd get Shane Black in to write 'Death:The High Cost of Living.'

"So what had been going on backstage at Warner Brothers for the past month and a half is Warner Brothers has been having talks with various production companies to see who would be most appropriate for 'Death' to go and live at.

"They now have one which I'm not going to announce as they will issue a press release in the next day or two.

"I had today a long conference call with the guys from Warners and the guys from the production company and they were talking about what they liked and what they didn't like about the 'Death' script. What was nice about that was all the stuff they didn't like was the stuff where I was saying 'You know, if it hadn't of had to be on your desk on the first of April, that would have disappeared by the 14th of April.'

"It was kind of frustrating with 'Death.' What I wound up handing in didn't feel like a first draft, it felt more like a seven-eighths draft. It wasn't quite there yet, even at first draft. It was 110 pages long and ended with the words 'Fade to Black.' It was a script.

"I think its going to be fun going back into it. I want to stop Sexton whinning so much. He whines! I didn't mind so much in the comic because there's always stuff going on. But in the script you go 'Twenty minutes into this film the audience is going to want someone to kil him. And if he isn't shot by someone they'll be disappointed.' So I do want to make him less whiney."

Please note, Harry, that Neil did not make mention of a director (And I listened to the tape again this morning.) for the film. (I didn't get a chance to ask him myself as when he was signing my copy of his new book "American Gods" and my copy of the script he wrote for "Babylon 5" we got into a short discussion about Penn and Teller and I was whisked away by store personnel before I could ask.)

On a side note for Bruce Campbell fans: The MAN himself will be at the same Boarders at theWorld Trade Center this Friday (his birthday) to sign copies of his new book "If Chins Could Kill." Groovy.

RENO out.