Very weird.

I totally love the stories and books of Neil Gaiman, I really do.
In fact - I adore his writing.
He's attracting lots of succes, rightfully so, but with the succes comes the marketing driven proces of turning his stories into movies.

Bad idea ...

For some reason, they just don't work on screen. In 3 weeks, the Stardust movie will premiere. Here's the trailer:


hmm, looks awfull to me.
Don't get me wrong; it looks good, sounds good and with names like Michelle Pfeiffer and Rober De Niro ... you can't get much bigger then that. But I believe that everybody who has read the book will agree: it feels completely wrong ...
Stardust is about little longings that achieve great things without even knowing it.
It has little to do with an epic adventure like the trailer shows ...
I've read the book both in Dutch and in English - loving every word of it - for the same reason I love most of Neils writing: they are fantastic epic stories, but told through simple and human things. Things like emotions, or fragile thoughts, or a cough in agony.
The themes are often mythical, but used in everyday life, not in grand actions.

The title of his latest book is perfect for his stories: Fragile Things.

And books are their home. Unlike some stories that translate well into big movies (Potter anyone?) - Neils stories get lost in translation ...
from the Painfully bad "neverwhere" TV-series - to the pompeous Mirrormask ... I can't bear to watch them. They make me feel flat and dull, while his books make me think and feel special in some secret way ...

Well, I do hope (again) that I'm wrong ... we'll see. (on august 10 in a movie theater)