Death: The High Cost of Living coverAmidst a flurry of rumors surrounding recent activity on the long-gestating Death: The High Cost of Living movie, Neil Gaiman has confirmed on his own blog that it "certainly appears to be on the way to happening." Which is great news for fans of the Sandman's sister since, as has long been understood, the movie will only happen with Gaiman himself writing and directing ... so you know it will be done right.

Guillermo del Toro, the Academy award-winning writer/director of Pan's Labyrinth is officially on board to executive produce the movie, "which is a wonderful thing... and I'm actually planning on going out to Prague very, very soon to do some stuff with Guillermo on Death," Gaiman has told superherohype.com.

Filmick.com has reported that "Shia LaBeouf is almost certainly going to play the male lead" and that a Famous Actress is very interested in the title role. Regarding casting, Gaiman himself will only go so far as to say, "the actress who would be playing [Death] has not been cast although I've met some of the possibles."

From the sound of things, if all goes smoothly, Neil Gaiman may be sitting in a director's chair before the year is out, which would mean we could be seeing comics-based movies written and directed by not one but two certified comics superstars in 2008 (the other, of course, being Frank Miller's movie of Will Eisner's The Spirit ... in which Samuel L. Jackson has just been announced as starring in as the villain, the Octopus).

All of which news is certified cool and terribly exciting ... but please, gents, keep the comics coming too!

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