In the Doctor Who episode “Nightmare in Silver” (written by best-selling author Neil Gaiman), Hedgewick’s World of Wonders, which once the greatest theme park in the galaxy, is now merely the dilapidated home to a shabby showman, a chess playing dwarf and a dysfunctional army platoon.  So, when one of the Doctor’s (Matt Smith) oldest foes, the Cybermen, return, it’s up to Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) to not only help save the day, but also help rescue the Doctor.

During this recent interview to promote his most recent Doctor Who episode (his last one was “The Doctor’s Wife”), Neil Gaiman talked about how the different elements of the story all came together, why he decided the Cybermen needed to evolve, creating the cybermites, where he would draw the line with cybernetic augmentation, how he views the TARDIS, that he would love to create a monster for the Doctor Who universe, that he prefers to be given parameters to write within, what he enjoyed most about Patrick Troughton’s era as the Doctor, and how much Doctor Who has influenced his life and his writing.  Check out what he had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers. 

Entertainment Weekly has announced the complete lineup for the upcoming EW CapeTown Film Festival, and it’s chock-full of great films and exciting guests.  Screenings include Shaun of the Dead, The Thing, Escape from New York, The Goonies, Twelve Monkeys, and Star Trek (2009), with a special “May the 4th Be With You” all-day marathon of Return of the Jedi.  More excitingly, though, is the fact that Edgar Wright, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Richard Donner, Neil Gaiman, Terry Gilliam, Leonard Nemoy, and more will be onhand to introduce and discuss the various films.

Hit the jump to check out the full lineup, which also includes a special announcement that’s coming soon.  EW CapeTown Film Festival will run in Los Angeles from April 30th – May 6th.

Author Neil Gaiman (Coraline) will release his first adult book since 2005′s Anansi Boys with The Ocean at the End of the Lane, due to drop later this summer.  Focus Features and the Playtone team of Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman are currently closing a deal to acquire the novel’s feature rights.  It looks like the producers are tapping Joe Wright (Anna Karenina) to direct the adaptation.

The latest of Gaiman’s works to be put into development, The Ocean at the End of the Lane centers on a narrator who tells a tale from his childhood that involves suicide, horrible monsters and the protection provided him by three strange women in a rundown farm at the end of the lane.  Hit the jump for more details.

Disney’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book finds new life in director Ron Howard.  Last April, Disney picked up the feature rights to The Graveyard Book with plans to reunite director Henry Selick (Coraline) with another Gaiman work.  Then, just this past August, Disney put a halt to the production, which was then slotted for stop-motion animation, citing creative issues.  The latest twist is not only that Howard is reportedly in negotiations to helm the picture, but that it will be a live-action adaptation (which is interesting considering most of the characters are dead…).  Hit the jump for more.

At last weekend’s London Comic-Con, I was able to participate in a very small roundtable interview with Matt Smith for Doctor Who.  While many were nervous when Smith took over the role from David Tennant, I think he’s done an incredible job and I’m glad he’s committed to being the Doctor for at least a few more years.  During the interview Smith revealed:

• When he first got the job, a little boy gave him a very small Dalek that can fit in his jacket pocket and he always has it with him when he wears that coat.
• He’s open to a Sherlock crossover/cameo, but he’s pretty sure Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss are against it.
• The upcoming Christmas episode features Richard E. Grant as the villain and we’ll meet a very important new character.
• They filmed the first episode of season 7 part 2 and they’ve got five more weeks of filming.
• Neil Gaiman is writing an upcoming episode and Smith says, “he’s going to do something brilliantly reinventive.”
• With next year being the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, Smith says, “I think we’re going to make it a big year for Doctor Who on the BBC.”

Hit the jump to listen to or read the full interview.

Neil Gaiman‘s brilliant comic book series The Sandman should probably never be adapted into a movie.  Even a TV series would be difficult because the books are so intricately tied to the varied artwork, styles, and tones of the stories.  But back in the early 1990s, Warner Bros. wanted to turn The Sandman into a movie even though Gaiman said [via David Hughes' book Tales from Development Hell], it would be “like taking a baby and cutting off both of its arms and one its legs and nose and trying to cram it in this little box, and filling the rest of the box up with meat.” (He does have a way with words)  However, he did try to “pitch/explain” Sandman to the studio, and he and artist Jill Thompson drew up some concept art for their pitch.  Gaiman has now tweeted the concept art, which was part of a pitch for a Sandman trilogy.

I haven’t read Sandman in a decade, but I can tell from the images that this covers the first graphic novel, Preludes and Nocturnes and maybe some of the second book, The Doll’s House.  Hit the jump to check out the artwork, and if you want to read the whole torrid history of The Sandman movie, be sure to pick up Tales from Development Hell.

As most of you know, I recently did an epic hour-long video interview with director Guillermo del Toro, and over the past two weeks I’ve been breaking it down into smaller segments. For today’s installment, del Toro talks about his rumored Dr. Strange movie with Neil Gaiman, how the 24/7 news cycle of the internet has changed the way projects get reported,  the length of time it really takes to get a movie made, how many projects he’s been developing have never leaked, his thoughts on what it will take to make a kick-ass video game adaptation and the inherent difficulty in transitioning to movie screens, and more.  In addition, for all you Halo fans, del Toro talks about the Halo movie he developed with D.B. Weiss, who is now very famous for HBO’s Game of Thrones.  Hit the jump for more.

Every so often, Comic-Con is still about comic books.  Cross-platform author Neil Gaiman (Coraline) is legendary in the comic world and crosses over into novels, short fiction and films.  Unfortunately he couldn’t be here with us in San Diego, but he did record a message for his fans.  Gaiman talks to us from Vertigo’s office and shares some quotes from previous Sandman stories before announcing that he’ll be releasing The Sandman, a prequel to his wildly successful graphic novel.  The new mini-series will be released in 2013 for the franchise’s 25th anniversary.  Fans will be happy to hear that Gaiman’s as-of-yet untitled (or at least unannounced) project will be drawn by J.H. Williams III. Hit the jump to check out the video message from Gaiman along with details on The Sandman.

Disney has proffered a deal that will reunite author Neil Gaiman and director Henry Selick (Coraline) to bring The Graveyard Book to life.  The best-selling children’s title drew attention from every major studio but Disney ultimately won out on the adaptation rights with a high six-figure bid.  The Newbury Award-winning The Graveyard Book is a one-off take on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book which replaces the boy raised by wolves with a young orphan raised by ghosts in a graveyard.   Those familiar with Gaiman’s other works (The Sandman comics, Stardust, American Gods) and, equally, those who were fans of Coraline will be happy to hear that The Graveyard Book is a high priority for Disney.  Hit the jump for more.

Since it was announced that Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman’s Playtone Company was working with HBO to develop American Gods as a six-season series of 10 to 12 episodes, possibly premiering in 2013, fans of the best-selling Neil Gaiman novel have been all abuzz.  So, when I had a few minutes to chat with HBO Co-President Richard Plepler and President of Programming Michael Lombardo, following the executive session for the network at the TCA Press Tour, of course I asked them to update the status of that development and confirm whether or not they were actually going ahead with what seems like such a huge commitment.  While they clearly haven’t made any promises, they both said that it is in the very early stages of development and that they haven’t even seen a script yet. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

We’re now in the sixth week of the “Top 5″ feature and I’m glad to report that it’s becoming popular enough that it looks as if I’m going to get to keep my job. Briefly, I’d like to thank the Academy (that doesn’t know I exist), my agent (that I don’t have), family and friends (luckily I have those), and the readers for making me a little less disposable than I was six weeks ago. Now, onto the important stuff.

In this week’s installment, you can find our exclusive Saturn Awards interview with Thomas Jane, a hilariously bizarre trailer for the 1990 Captain America film, our report from the Alamo Drafthouse’s Party Down marathon, Neil Gaiman talking American Gods on a book appearance celebrating the release of its 10th anniversary special hardcover edition, and our inaugural hosting of the For Your Consideration weekly video and audio podcast. Hit the jump for brief recaps and links to each.

Neil Gaiman is a brilliant storyteller, whether it’s in books, graphic novels, scripts or just in speaking to an audience. He has been one of my favorite writers from the moment I was first introduced to his work, and he has been a huge inspiration on my own writing and life, in general. So, when it was announced earlier this month that Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions was set to produce an open-ended series of American Gods, based on Gaiman’s award-winning novel, for the fearless cable network HBO (to debut in 2013 at the earliest), and that Gaiman himself was on board as an executive producer and writer, I certainly got very excited.

Now in its 10^th anniversary, a special hardcover edition of American Gods has been released and Gaiman is currently on tour promoting it. Instead of the typical book signing, where fans wait in line for hours and barely have time to say more than a passing greeting, the acclaimed and much-loved writer instead sells pre-signed books and uses the time to chat about everything from where his ideas come from to his writing process to what he’s currently working on. Hosted by Patton Oswalt, who is a self-admitted Gaiman fanboy, and including a reading with him, the author and actress Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin Williams), the conversation included the things that Gaiman wants to make sure are in the television adaptation of American Gods, what supplemental material he would like to include with the series, the story he’s looking to write for a Ray Bradbury tribute, how much it meant to him to be able to write an episode of Doctor Who, how China has inspired him to do some projects related to the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, his next children’s book, Chu’s Day, and his latest venture, writing his first musical with Stephin Merritt. Check out the highlights from his June 28^th book appearance in Los Angeles after the jump.

HBO started kicking the tires of Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods back in April as a possible series to be produced by Playtone’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, with Gaiman on board as writer and executive producer.  Goetzman revealed details this weekend to THR: Playtone is planning six season of 10-12 hourlong episodes with a budget of $35-40 million each season.  American Gods will premiere in 2013 at the earliest.

That’s a lot of money for a weekly series — minimally $3 million per episode, more than most broadcast shows.  Playtone is used to the Daddy Warbucks treatment from HBO — the network reportedly budgeted The Pacific around $225 million (over $20 million per hour).  But Goetzman promises they’ll put the money to good use:

“There are some crazy things in [American Gods]. We’ll probably be doing more effects in there than it’s been done on a television series.”

Hit the jump for a synopsis of the crazy things in Gaiman’s novel after the break.

Looking to build on the slate of compelling original programming they already have at their disposal, HBO is currently in talks to acquire Neil Gaiman’s 2002 novel American Gods. Deadline reports that HBO would like to develop the fantasy tome into a series after having been presented with the material by Playtone’s Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. Word has it that Hanks and Goetzman were initially made aware of the property by Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (The Aviator) who, as it were, will most likely co-write the pilot alongside Gaiman.

Briefly, American Gods documents the struggle between two sets of gods: the mythological ones who have garnered their power via society’s willingness to believe in them and a contemporary set made up of technology, celebrities, drugs, and the like. For more on the project, hit the jump to read a full synopsis of Gaiman’s novel.

Before this weekend’s Doctor Who panel at WonderCon, I got to speak with Neil Gaiman.  The reason Gaiman was on the press line is that he wrote next season’s fourth episode called “The Doctor’s Wife.”  While I didn’t ask him for any specifics about the story, he did talk about how he got involved in writing the episode, what he wanted to have happen, and he said his favorite line.  In addition, Gaiman talked about how much he tweaked the script and we ended the interview talking about his future directing plans.  Hit the jump to watch: