I am so exited about this I just spit my tea everywhere! The rights to Neil Gaiman’s fantasy epic have been floating around for years, teetering on the precipice of bad adaption. Finally a TV series version (that Gaiman actually approves of!) is going to be created for Freemantle Media partnered with Starz.
Gaiman has commented on the news saying, “I am thrilled, scared, delighted, nervous and a ball of glorious anticipation,” he says. “The team that is going to bring the world of American Gods to the screen has been assembled like the master criminals in a caper movie: I’m relieved and confident that my baby is in good hands. Now we finally move to the exciting business that fans have been doing for the last dozen years: casting our Shadow, our Wednesday, our Laura“.
American Gods is a novel about the old Pagan gods of the world that were brought to America via the belief of their worshipers that emigrated centuries ago, pioneering the New World. Once there, the gods transformed, changing with the era, and as society evolved, becoming quirky artifacts of Americana. As believers lessen and the insurgence of media creates the phenomena of new, modern gods, the old gods must band together to battle for their power and existence. An ex con, ‘Shadow’ teams up with the enigmatic ‘Mr Wednesday’ to journey across America to recruit other strange and wonderful Gods for the war against the new.
The series will be created by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) who has written the script and Michael Green (Heroes) will also be involved. Gaiman himself will serve as one of the producers. This adaption was crying out for creators of this caliber with the right experience and skill to hone the masterpiece novel into a worthy show.
HBO almost created American Gods, considering it for some time before relinquishing it. Starz is known for having similar freedom with content so should be a great home for a faithful conversion. The next exciting step is casting. Fans even have the opportunity to suggest their dream cast, if you want in on that, get your Twitter on @AmericanGodsSTZ and @STARZ_Channel using the hashtag #CastingShadow.
#Peace.Love.AmericanGods
