Joseph Gordon-Levitt has exited the film adaptation of Neil Gaiman's comic book "Sandman," which he had planned to direct and star in. The news came one day after the movie found a screenwriter.
Gordon-Levitt announced his departure in a Facebook post on Saturday. He cited issues with New Line, the studio that inherited the movie rights from its parent company Warner Bros., and creative differences as reasons for leaving.
"I came to realize that the folks at New Line and I 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," the 35-year-old actor wrote.
"Sandman," published by DC Comics imprint Vertigo, follows Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, who is one of the seven Endless, a group of powerful brothers and sisters that also include Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium and Destruction. The dark fantasy comic series was the flagship publication for Vertigo, and the original series ran for 75 issues between January 1989 and March 1996.
Gordon-Levitt was producing with David S. Goyer, who wrote the treatment for the film, which New Line hopes to turn into a trilogy. The studio announced on Friday that horror writer Eric Heisserer would write the script.
Heisserer was the screenwriter for the remakes of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Thing," as well as "Final Destination 5." His upcoming projects include sci-fi movie "Story of Your Life," starring Amy Adams, and "Lights Out," adapted from the short film of the same name by David Sandberg.
Gordon-Levitt recently signed onto the Amazon movie "K Troop" about the rise of the KKK in the American South following the Civil War. It also tells the story of the man who led the U.S. Army's elite K Troop that brought down the group in 1871 (the white supremacist group has since resurrected multiple times and continues today). He will produce and possibly star as Major Lewis Merrill, the leader of the Army division.
He will next star in the Oliver Stone film "Snowden" about the CIA contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked classified U.S. government information and fled the country. The movie premieres on Sept. 16.
