American Gods, Neil Gaiman’s beloved novel about deities fighting each other, has been knocking around Hollywood for quite a while. But it’s a notably difficult book for screenwriters to crack, which has meant a decade of development hell. So Starz decided to stop messing around and hire one of the best showrunners on television.
Yes, Bryan Fuller, famous for beloved whimsical comedies such as Dead Like Me and Pushing Daisies, not to mention one of the best shows on TV right now, is taking on Neil Gaiman. This collision of the fanbases will be happening on Starz, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and Starz seems surprisingly eager to get it on the air:
Starz has handed out a script-to-series commitment to the project, with Fuller and Michael Green [of Heroes fame] attached to serve as showrunners and exec produce alongside Gaiman. FMNA will produce the series.
It’s not clear who’ll be in charge of what, but it’s fairly clear Fuller isn’t leaving Hannibal any time soon, and Green would probably be the guy in charge of getting the series shot while Fuller would handle the scripts. Essentially, all Fuller has to do is hand in a script Starz likes, and they’ll start making the show.
As we noted, it’s a tough book to crack. Gaiman, among other things, riffs on a lot of themes and works with both classical mythology and modern urban legends, making for his usual literary text. But if anybody can deliver what fans love about American Gods, it’s Fuller. Really, after making the Grim Reaper adorable, this should be a piece of cake.
