Soon, Helena discovers that the Queen Of Light (McKee) lies comatose while her realm crumbles around her, and that only a mythical MirrorMask can undo the spell cast by the Queen Of Shadows (again, McKee). When the mom is hospitalized, facing a life-or-death operation, her daughter drifts into sleep, then a daguerrotype dreamworld where cats talk, books act as flying carpets and fish dart fervently through the air. On the surface, “MirrorMask” is a simple morality play, a cautionary Pandora’s box tale of a young English girl, Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) who wants to quit the traveling circus of her demanding mother Gina (the underrated Gina McKee). Aided by CGI and special effects from the Jim Henson Co., the duo has built a sprawling dreamscape city worthy of Sandman himself. Opening today is “MirrorMask,” a film penned for McKean, who co-wrote the original story and also directs. nabbed the film rights to “Death: The High Cost of Living” his children’s book “Coraline” has gone into production his novella “The Wolves in the Walls” will soon be staged by the Scottish National Theatre Company and his twisted screenplay for “Beowulf,” starring Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie, has started shooting. And I rapidly stopped having nightmares after that.”Ĭurrently, Gaiman is juggling several other projects, too. “…Part of me would be like, ‘Oh, that’s great! I can use that!’ And I would be so excited. “Once I started doing ‘Sandman,’ suddenly it all changed,” he says.

By the time he was scripting his first breakthrough title for DC’s Vertigo imprint - the stunning 50-book series “Sandman,” whose surreal covers were all illustrated by his longtime friend Dave McKean - Gaiman had the technique down pat. Somewhere along the way, however, Gaiman began to embrace that fear, even revel in it.Īs the British-bred, now Minnesota-based author gradually left the safe world of journalism for a creative free-fall into comics, he started keeping a notebook on his bedside table.

And I still remember every bit, just how terrifying it was,” he says. And there was one witch who was willing to protect me, while all of the others wanted to kill and eat me. “I had this recurring dream that I was in this enormous house filled with evil witches. Kid, recalls Neil Gaiman, he was haunted by one particular nightmare, a vision so horrid he’d wake up trembling, drenched in sweat.

Mirrormask by neil gaiman