Writer Neil Gaiman and illustrator Charles Vess combined their wizardry into an acclaimed Fantasy/Romance mini-series for Vertigo Comics (1997), before Gaiman alchemized it into a bestselling prose book. Numereous attempts at bringing it to the screen came to naught, until director Matthew Vaughn streamlined the material by transmuting it into the tradition of fanciful films like The Princess Bride. The result is an alternate universe take standing or falling on its own merits.
