Warner Bros. TV is in the early stages of developing a television series based on the popular Neil Gaiman comic book series Sandman.

WB is currently in the process of acquiring the television rights to Sandman from sister company DC Entertainment, which owns Vertigo, the imprint that published the comic book series from 1989 until 1996.

The company is also in talks with several writer-producers to adapt the award-winning series for television, apparently with Eric Kripke, creator of the CW television series Supernatural, at the top of their list of choices.

Sandman adaptations have been stuck in development hell over the past two decades with a movie version of the series planned in the early 1990s by frequent Gaiman collaborate Roger Avary, but that fell through. There had even been talks earlier this year of bringing the series to HBO, but that didn’t work out either. Back in March, Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn, who adapted Gaiman’s Stardust for the big screen, expressed interest in doing a Sandman cable TV series and even spoke with Gaiman about his ideas, but nothing ever came of it. [Read “˜Kick-Ass’ Director Wants To Do A “˜Sandman’ Cable TV Series]

That’s right you heard correctly, even though Green Lantern hasn’t even had a proper teaser trailer yet DC Entertainment has already hired Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, and Marc Guggenheim to write a treatment for the sequel.

Not only will the three writers be writing the sequel to Green Lantern, which isn’t set to release until next year, but that they will also be writing a treatment for a Flash movie.

Is this all just an answer to Disney/Marvel’s plans to release multiple lower tier characters along with their already planned larger releases or is it a result of Geoff John‘s new position in DC Entertainment? Whatever the reason, I definitely think it is a good thing to see that DC is finally taking their live-action movies seriously and are releasing more than one Batman movie every year or two.

Warner Brothers is already in the business of adapting Japanese manga into live-action feature films having acquired the rights to Katsuhiro Otomo’s cherished Akira, and possibly even hiring the Hughes Brothers to direct (Read: The Hughes Brothers To Direct Two-Part Live-Action “˜Akira’ Movie). But the studio isn’t stopping there; it’s being reported that WB is currently working to obtain the rights to Bleach.

The manga, which is written and illustrated by Tite Kubo, revolves around a teenage boy named Ichigo Kurosaki who can see ghosts and one day accidentally obtains the abilities of a Soul Reaper (the Japanese personification of death, much like the Grim Reaper). With these new found abilities — similar to our own superhero stories — he must learn how to use them, protect the innocent from evil spirits known as Hollows, and guide spirits safely to the other side.

There have been several times when I have commented on the battle between Marvel and DC at the theatre, and the former’s dominance compared to the latter’s lackluster attempts to compete. I’ve said it time and time again: Marvel’s model is working; build up your individual heroes and then do a blockbuster team movie.

And just maybe DC and their parent company Warner Bros., are beginning to get the message.

I’ve held off writing this story for a few days now, despite a pair of stories cropping up in the trades over the weekend. But Anne Thompson, deputy editor at Variety, forced me in to action with a small note on her personal blog regarding the future of the Superman franchise.

Aquaman is getting his own TV series on the WB, according to Variety. The makers of “Smallville” are behind the as-yet-untitled action drama about a twentysomething Arthur Curry — that’s Aquaman, for those in the know. The trade paper says the show won’t be titled Aquaman and that producers promise the A-word won’t even be uttered in the series. Executive producer Miles Millar told Variety that they are hoping to create “a grounded version of the Aquaman mythology,” with an Arthur Curry who “knows what he wants to do with his life, which is protect the oceans.”