God Dammit.

After the recent swing and a miss for iZombie, Hellblazer, and the upcoming Lucifer, we were really hoping to finally see a Vertigo adaptation that would stay true to the purpose of its source material.  In a lot of ways Sandman is really the flagship of Vertigo, defining what the brand became.  It is certainly the most beloved of its older line-up, still topping the charts every month as an ‘evergreen’ property with the public.

Actor Joseph Gordon Levitt has been working to bring Sandman to the screen for several years, with rumors circling that he will both star as Dream and direct.  He seemed to have a good sensibility that would take the property into the right direction.

Now this.

At the recent celebration of douchebaggery known as Spike TV’s ‘Guys Choice Award,’ he was quoted as saying that Sandman will be an ‘action film without punches.’

“Big spectacular action movies are generally about crime fighters fighting crime and blowing sh-t up. This has nothing to do with that,” Joseph Gordon-Levitt told MTV News. “And it was actually one of the things that Neil Gaiman said to me, he said ‘Don’t have any punching.’ Because he never does. If you read the comics, Morpheus doesn’t punch anybody. That’s not what he does. It’s going to be like a grand spectacular action film, but that relies on none of those same old ordinary cliches. So, that’s why it’s taking a lot time to write, but it’s going to be really good.”

We are really hoping he is playing up the ‘action’ elements since he is at a retrograde event at Spike, but now we are not so sure.  Let’s hope this is just a mischaracterization of what’s happening.  It would be hard to believe that Gaiman would support it turning into the Avengers in Dreamspace.