With the impending success of “Game of Thrones” looming this weekend, HBO is looking to develop another fantasy series: Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, a 2002 novel that won the Stoker and Hugo Awards.
The project was brought to HBO by Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and it was brought to them by Robert Richardson. The plan is for Richardson and Gaiman to write the pilot together.
Richardson is the renowned cinematographer who just completed Hugo Cabret and whose recent credits include Shutter Island, Inglourious Basterds and Kill Bill. He is a regular collaborator with directors that include Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone and has won Oscars for The Aviator and JFK. It is his first significant scripting effort. He’ll do it in collaboration with Gaiman. [Deadline]
I thoroughly enjoyed American Gods, and I think it would be well suited for a small-screen adaptation. Gaiman’s better at creating worlds than he is at actually writing, and many of the scenes in the book — such as gods switching forms, a war between old gods and new ones, and a memorable sex scene in which a man is consumed by a vagina — would make for compelling TV. Okay, FINE. I just want to see a guy get eaten by a goddess’s snatch. Is that so wrong?
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