It’s official. The long-gestating television adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s acclaimed novel American Gods, which won Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker awards back in its heyday, is about to become reality. HBO tried and failed to make it happen, mainly because they couldn’t crack the script. Then Starz hired Hannibal showrunner Bryan Fuller to take a shot at the property last year. Guess what? It worked.
Fuller initially took on the project with a script-to-series deal, and a year on, he has succeeded where HBO’s writers failed. According to TheWrap, Starz just greenlit the project based on Fuller’s submission, and he and fellow showrunner Michael Green are now set to bring American Gods back down (or up) to earth.
“Starz is committed to bring ‘American Gods’ to its legions of fans,” said CEO Chris Albrecht in a statement. “With our partners at FremantleMedia and with Bryan, Michael and Neil guiding the project, we hope to create a series that honors the book and does right by the fans, who have been casting it in their minds for years. The search for Shadow begins today!”
For those of you whose lives are depleted because you’ve never read Gaiman’s book, American Gods tells the story of Shadow Moon, a mysterious figure who is released from prison at the same time his wife and best friend are killed in a car crash. Left with nothing, he reluctantly becomes the bodyguard for an individual named Mr. Wednesday, who turns out to be one of the world’s older deities. And that’s when the hilarity ensues!
In all seriousness, with Fuller in charge — the man not only responsible for Hannibal, but shows like Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies — there’s every indication this show will be unequivocally awesome.
And Gaiman couldn’t be happier:
“I am thrilled, scared, delighted, nervous and a ball of glorious anticipation,” said Gaiman, who will also act as an executive producer on the series. “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…”
It’s early in the show’s developmental process still, but who knows? Maybe we’ll hear a thing or two about it at the San Diego Comic-Con in July.
(Via TheWrap)
