Sandman: Joseph Gordon-Levitt exits Neil Gaiman adaptation

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has exited Sandman, the long-gestating film adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s comic book about the melancholy lord of dreams.

The actor and filmmaker announced on Facebook Saturday that he and New Line, the Warner Bros. division where the project is set up, “just don’t see eye to eye on what makes Sandman special, and what a film adaptation could/should be. So unfortunately, I decided to remove myself from the project. I wish nothing but the best for the team moving forward.”

Gordon-Levitt had announced in 2013 that he was producing the film, and speculation swirled that he might also star as Morpheus (a.k.a. Dream) and direct. He went on to offer some incremental updates on the project: In 2014 he told Moviefone he was working on the script with Gaiman, producer-writer David S. Goyer, and screenwriter Jack Thorne, and last June he told MTV News progress was “slow but steady” on the film, which he described as “a really complicated adaptation.”

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Sandman is still in development at New Line, which recently hired veteran horror screenwriter Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing) to pen a new draft. The Hollywood Reporter first reported Heisserer’s involvement.

Read Gordon-Levitt’s statement below.