Jack Thorne has been tapped by Warner Bros. to script The Sandman, following a treatment by Davis S. Goyer based on the bestselling and sacrosanct Vertigo comic book series written by Neil Gaiman.

Thorne's previous screen credits include numerous episodes of British television shows This Is England, The Fades and Skins, as well as the feature films How I Live Now, A Long Way Down and The Scouting Book Fore Boys.

I'm completely unfamiliar with Thorne's work, but he is English, so that's something.

Gaiman's comic is the story of Morpheus, the lord of Dreams, and focuses largely on events following his escape 70-year capture at the hands of human occultists. Illustrated by some of comics' most talented artists including P. Craig Russell, Chris BachaloMilo ManaraSam KiethDave McKeanMarc HempelMatt WagnerJill ThompsonBill Sienkiewicz and Yoshitaka Amano, the comic book story is an urban fantasy that takes place as much in the mundane world we live in as it does in incredible settings like the Sandman's realm of the Dreaming and Hell itself. The formal storyline concluded in the 1990s but several supplements have been released in the years hence, including the recent launch of The Sandman Overture by Gaiman and artist J.H. Williams III, which serves as a prelude to the events leading up to Morpheus' captivity in the first issue of the original series..

The Sandman is to be produced by actor and filmmaker Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who Deadline reports is hoped to also direct and star in the feature. Gaiman is an executive producer.

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