Neil Gaiman is one of those authors in the select club whose stories are snapped up by studios as soon as they’re available. In fact, we suspect if executives could find a way to tunnel into Neil’s head and extract them as they’re hatched, everyone would be fighting for the chance to do it. But Focus Features has had to wait, and has now locked up the rights to The Ocean At The End Of The Lane, with Anna Karenina’s Joe Wright aboard to direct. Focus is working with Tom Hanks’ Playtone Company to develop the film. Ocean doesn’t hit bookshelves until June, but it promises to be another enchanting tale from the man behind Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods and more. 
The book’s story is told by a narrator recalling an incident that happened when he was seven and the family’s lodger stole their car and committed suicide in it. The death stirred up ancient powers and a true horror within his family, and he’ll need everything he has left to survive. His only defence is three women who live on a ramshackle farm near his house. The oldest can remember the big bang and the youngest claims her duck pond is an ocean… We can’t wait to read this one, and hopefully Wright will get the chance to make something great from it. When filmmakers really connect with Gaiman’s material, movies such as Coraline are born… | 
