Joseph Gordon-Levitt: Sandman will avoid ordinary cliches

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has promised 'Sandman' will avoid "ordinary cliches".

The 34-year-old actor-and-director has revealed that the latest comic book adaptation will avoid a formulaic approach and is, consequently, taking longer to write.

He said: "It's going to be like a grand spectacular action film, but that relies on none of those same old ordinary cliches.

"So, that's why it's taking a lot time to write, but it's going to be really good."

Joseph explained that the 'Sandman' comic books are particularly difficult to adapt for the silver screen and so progress has been slower than usual.

He told MTV: "It's slow but steady. It's a really complicated adaptation because those comics, they're brilliant. But they're not written as a whole.

"It's not like 'Watchmen', which is a graphic novel that has a beginning, middle, and end. 'Sandman' was written over the course of whatever - I forget exactly, six or seven years.

"One at a time. One little 20-page issue at a time. And to try to take that and make it into something that's a feature film - a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end - is complicated."