You can count the number of really great fantasy films on one 7 fingered ogre hand, and since positive early reviews are cropping up online I feel more confident to throw my two pennies out about this new, big budget adaptation by Matthew (Layer Cake) Vaughn. Some people might say he’s a moody upper class bugger but he is a bright chap and seems to have a rare British quality control for projects. He was talking about Stardust ages ago and has ignored a million other options (including starting work on X-Men 3) to make this Neil Gaiman graphic novel adaptation (which he co-wrote with Jonathan Ross’ wife). The film's pretty much in the can now with a huge budget and a starry cast (Sienna Miller, Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer).

I read the script a while back and it’s really good, entertaining piece of committed fantasy escapism. I won’t go into it all but it’s a light hearted tale of the pass-into-fairy-realm-and-then-come-back type. From what I saw of the novel, the film will be a similar story set in the same world but a lot more fun. The nearest comparison given for the script is always 'The Princess Bride'. Personally I think it’s closer to 'Labyrinth' (yes!) in many ways – just exchange lead girl for boy, add more CGI and less Bowie. It’s got a fun little romance that means chix will dig it, plenty of decent humour, constant cool effects and it moves at a fast pace. Like Labyrinth, lots of weird stuff happens and they don’t worry about explaining it all.

Personally I can’t wait to see it. I think it should make Gaiman and Vaughn a shit load of money and if it’s marketed right it should easily be one of the biggest films of the year next year. I couldn’t care less about that anyway, kids films always make money. I just want to get wasted and pass into the faerie realm.

Nice one.