Stardust featured a romantic storyline between a love-struck shop boy and a fallen star. Romance, whether as a subplot or the main focus of a story, is so popular we see it insert itself into all types of genres. But money can't prevent you from being miserable.Adaptations do not often get away with changing the genre of the story it is retelling, so it is especially interesting that the movie based on Neil Gaiman's classic Stardust did. It didn't work to say, 'Go make a film that has nothing to do with me.' Not when every review says, ' 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' is a really bad film made from a really good comic.' Why would you want that to happen? I don't want to live in a world where every review of 'Stardust' says, 'This is a really bad film made from a really wonderful illustrated novel.' Because honestly, otherwise you become one of the Raymond Chandlers of the world, who say the only way to survive Hollywood is to shove your money in the trunk and drive off and don't look back. But I saw how miserable Alan was (see 'Alan Moore: The Last Angry Man'). And the problem is, by the time they did, the third film of his work that he wasn't happy with, he distanced himself completely. Alan has been my friend for 25 years and his philosophy has always been, they give you a check and it's nothing to do with you and now they can make a film.

Gaiman: To be honest, watching what happened with Alan was why I decided to get so involved. So Matthew became the director almost by accident. At first, he meant just as a producer, and we met with Terry Gilliam to see if he would direct it, but he had just come off 'Brothers Grimm' and he wasn't going to make another fairy tale for love or money. I love fairy tales, and I love this, and I want to do this' (see 'Neil Gaiman's 'Stardust' Finally Comes To Big Screen, Thanks To 'Layer Cake' Director'). And she read 'Stardust.' And she said, 'This is just like fairy-tale stories I read as a kid, except for adults,' and she had Matthew read it, and he said, 'I want to make it. So I was very lucky that Claudia Schiffer was both pregnant and had a broken foot - though she wouldn't say she was lucky - so she couldn't do much and was doing a lot of reading. But I wasn't comfortable with 'Stardust' being a vehicle for anyone. We had a lot of beautiful young lady actresses who asked to buy the rights for it to be a vehicle for them.

Miramax had it for a while, and they hadn't gotten it together. Gaiman: I said no to people who wanted to make 'Stardust' for four years.

Neil author of stardust