Writer Neil Gaiman said director Matthew "Layer Cake" Vaughn is currently casting Paramount's big screen film version of Gaiman's "Stardust", based on the comic book series.
"The film starts shooting on location in Iceland for a couple of days in March, then starts shooting properly on the 21st of April at Pinewood Studios and on location in Scotland," Gaiman said.
"Some big star names, some people you've never heard of...I think my favourite thing about this, right now, is the sort of happy feeling that comes from knowing that it's unabashedly a fantasy film with a real budget, and it will be shot in the UK ..."
"Stardust" is the second solo prose novel by Gaiman, published with illustrations by Charles Vess, written in the tradition of pre-Tolkien English fantasy, similar in tone to the works of Lord Dusany.
Premise revolves around the adventures and romantic destiny of a young man living in the village of 'Wall', on the border of the land of 'Faeri'.
Conceived as a 'story book with pictures', "Stardust" was published in 1997 as a 'prestige' format four-issue mini-series, then released as a single book in 1998, followed by a hardback/trade paperback edition. Gaiman retained copyright to the text and in 1999 published "Stardust" as a conventional novel in hardback without illustrations, followed by a UK hardcover edition from Headline.
One of the characters in "Stardust" is a large talking tree with red leaves, based on singer/songwriter Tori Amos.
Initially the big screen adaptation of "Stardust" was set up at Miramax with Nicole Kidman in talks to play the female lead.
Vaughn is married to uber-model Claudia Schiffer and noted for directing "Layer Cake"starring Daniel Craig.
