Despite despite numerous attempts to adapt Neil Gaiman's acclaimed fantasy comic "The Sandman" for both film and television, the project remains in development hell after the latest effort seemingly fell apart last year. But with a TV drama based on the author's bestselling novel "American Gods" premiering on Starz, there may be renewed hope for the King of Dreams.

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Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Gaiman said if controlled the rights to "The Sandman," it would be the next project headed to television -- "if" being the operative word. "If I had control over 'Sandman'," he underscored, "which I do not, because I signed the deal when I was 26, and I knew what I was getting into."

However, he did offer a potential silver lining for fans waiting for that "Sandman" TV series.

"For a long time, I've been saying with a movie, you'll have to throw so many things out. ...Why not take all the things that make [it difficult to adapt], take all the bugs in 'Sandman,' and make them features. The fact that you have 75 issues, plus a whole bunch of stories? You have 80 episodes. That's a good thing! The fact that you have adult themes and adult things? That's now a good thing. It will be very strange to take 'Sandman' to TV, but I really do think it's the most important thing we could do. And I hope if 'American Gods' goes big? Between that and 'Lucifer,' that could help."

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Debuting Sunday in the United States on Starz and internationally on Amazon Prime Video the following day, “American Gods” stars Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon, Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday, Emily Browning as Laura Moon, Pablo Schreiber as Mad Sweeney, Bruce Langley as Technical Boy, Yetide Badaki as Bilquis and Jonathan Tucker as Low Key Lyesmith.