Starz announced that it is developing a TV series based on Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods. The pilot episode is being co-written by Bryan Fuller of Hannibal and Pushing Daisies fame, and Michael Green, one of the executive producers behind Heroes. Neil Gaiman is also on board as a producer of the show.
American Gods is about a war between the old gods, taken from the pantheon of all world religions and mythologies, and the new gods that people worship like the media, celebrity, and wealth. The main character is an ex-con named Shadow Moon who has been hired as a bodyguard for one of the old gods in disguise as a conman, Mr. Wednesday.
Gaiman was quoted in the press release saying, “When you create something like American Gods, which attracts fans and obsessives and people who tattoo quotes from it on themselves or each other, and who all, tattooed or not, just care about it deeply, it’s really important to pick your team carefully: you don’t want to let the fans down, or the people who care and have been casting it online since the dawn of recorded history. What I love most about the team who I trust to take it out to the world, is that they are the same kind of fanatics that ’American Gods’ has attracted since the start. I haven’t actually checked Bryan Fuller or Michael Green for quote tattoos, but I would not be surprised if they have them. The people at Fremantle are the kinds of people who have copies of ‘American Gods in the bottom of their backpacks after going around the world, and who press them on their friends. And the team at Starz have been quite certain that they wanted to give Shadow, Wednesday and Laura a home since they first heard that the book was out there. I can’t wait to see what they do to bring the story to the widest possible audience able to cope with it.”
Hopefully, this means Fuller and Green will be treating the story with the respect it deserves, and the show will be a success.
