Ben Kingsley to Star in Graphic Novel Adaptation ‘Violent Cases’

Ben Kingsley as Mahatma Gandhi in 1982's 'Gandhi.'

Neil Gaiman is keeping it in the family. The Kingsley family, that is.

After seeing Ferdinand Kingsley show up in episode 6 of Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’ series, another Kingsley – Oscar winner Ben – is on board to star in an adaptation of Gaiman and Dave McKean’s 1987 graphic novel ‘Violent Cases’, the first collaboration between the writer and the artist.

Unlike ‘Sandman’, though Gaiman is not as directly involved. Instead, as Variety reports, Mike Carey – who adapted his own novel ‘The Girl with All the Gifts’ for the big screen – is on script duty, while Colm McCarthy directs and Camille Gatin is the producer. The latter two also worked on ‘Gifts’, which followed a girl in a dystopian society ravaged by an infection that turns people into mindless, flesh-craving creatures. She’s part of a program working with hybrid infected kids, who retain some ability to control their minds.

The story for this one is a journey into the mind of Gaiman, as a famous author recounts fragmented childhood memories and visits to an osteopath who once worked for Al Capone, weaving a dark and twisting tale about stories, our memory, violence and the ways we can’t escape our past. Prime Gaiman, then: a story about storytelling, offering unusual angles that deliver universal truths.

“I’m delighted to be working with this fantastic team on ‘Violent Cases,’ which for me is about the power and importance of storytelling, about how we negotiate the shadows cast by the father figures in our lives and above all about the right of our inner child to be heard,” says Kingsley.

Comic book creator Neil Gaiman from Netflix's 'The Sandman' at San Diego Comic-Con 2022.

“‘Violent Cases’ is a wild, hallucinatory, yet thought provoking and emotional comic, says Carey. “It’s so exciting to build a film from this incredible, genre-defining work.”

And he adds: “As an aspiring writer back in the late 80s reading ‘Violent Cases’ was a revelation and a joy for me. Its darkness and playfulness defined a new approach to storytelling. Thirty-five years on, it’s still unique, and bringing it across into a new medium feels like discovering it again for the first time. Neil Gaiman redefined serialized comics with ‘The Sandman,’ but ‘Violent Cases’ was his and Dave McKean’s early masterpiece. It’s thrilling to be introducing it to a new audience and taking its visual lyricism into a new medium.”

Another Kingsley, Edmund, will be among the producers via Lakesville Productions.

It’s certainly a boon time for Gaiman’s work hitting screens: ‘The Sandman’ was a big hit for Netflix, with fans demanding a second season. Elsewhere, a new season of angels and demons satire ‘Good Omens’ is headed our way via Prime Video, with ‘Anansi Boys’ following that, both with the author very much involved.

As for the much-maligned ‘American Gods’, that has been cancelled by Starz. Well, they can’t all be winners…

Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery in 2013's 'Iron Man 3.'