In the 'Arts and Leisure' section of this Sunday's New York Times Charles McGrath profiled Matthew Vaughn's film of Neil Gaiman's illustrated fantasy novel Stardust.   The film opens nationwide next Friday and according to McGrath has a chance to appeal to more than just fans of fantasy movies. Gaiman told McGrath that he wrote Stardust 'in the manner of early 20th-century writers like Lord Dunsany and Hope Mirriees,' and McGrath's contention is that just as Gaiman attempted to write a 'pre-Tolkien fantasy novel that didn't read like one,' director Matthew Vaughn is attempting to make a film 'that can be watched not just by the Lord of the Rings crowd, or even by Mr. Gaiman's worshipful following, but also by people who wouldn't be caught dead at a fantasy film.'

Vaughn also talked to McGrath, explaining the basic concept that led him to make a film of Stardust: 'The whole movie is really Midnight Run,' said Vaughn, whose previous work as the director of the high body count film Layer Cake and as the producer of British crime films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels demonstrates more affinity to the highly underrated1988 crime-themed action comedy Midnight Run (that starred Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter and Charles Grodin as an embezzler who has stolen $15 million from the mob and is wanted as a witness by the Feds) than it does to Lord of the Rings or the Chronicles of Narnia. Vaughn explained: 'Yvaine and Tristan, referring to the fallen star and her half-mortal companion, are Charles Grodin and De Niro (from Midnight Run). The F.B.I. is the princes.  And the witches are the mob. That was my inspiration. I thought, I'm going to make a movie that has the fun and pacing of Midnight Run with the veneer of Princess Bride.'

Neil Gaiman's Stardust novel, which features superb illustrations by Charles Vess, is available in both hardcover and trade paperback editions including a new version published by DC/Vertigo in July.