American Gods comes to American TV
Neil
Gaiman is about as ubiquitous as a modern fantasy writer can be. He's
written comic books, and an impressive stack of novels for kids, teens
and grown-ups alike. Then there are his screenplays: he wrote the
scripts for the film adaptations of Stardust and Coraline, adapted Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke into English and penned a recent episode of Doctor Who. A few months ago, Gaiman announced that Good Omens, his collaboration with Terry Pratchett, was to be turned into a 4-part miniseries in the UK.
But
now it looks like Gaiman is expanding into television stateside. Last
week, HBO picked up the pitch for a TV series based on his novel, American Gods.
Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions is set to produce it, with Gaiman
himself as a head writer. And apparently HBO was ecstatic about the
source material, because the premium cable channel went ahead and
ordered six seasons.
They'll be short seasons, with a dozen episodes per year, at most. But six is the number of seasons Lost had. And The L Word. Why so optimistic, HBO?
Perhaps
they are encouraged by the built-in fanbase that comes with adapting a
beloved book series to the screen. Or maybe it's the sell-able premise.
The show depicts a power struggle between the Old Gods (of Norse,
Celtic, African and other traditions) and new, technology-based gods.
As the latter gain influence, the former's powers wane. American Gods is just the kind of sexy, character-driven fantasy drama HBO -- and its fans -- seem to love right now (see True Blood, Game of Thrones).
Writing
at Gaiman's side as co-writer is Robert Richardson, who's won two
Academy Awards for his cinematography and is currently hard at work on an adaptation of World War Z. Other than that, there have been few announcements about who else will be on board.
How they plan to stretch the series out into more than sixty episodes is yet to be revealed. American Gods is 624 pages, and has yet to spawn a sequel. But it may soon. In a June 21 talk at the 92nd Street Y, Gaiman announced
that season one would likely encompass the events of the novel, which
promises new story in the future. Meanwhile, he plans on writing a few
more short stories about Gods main character Shadow, at which point he will work on a sequel.
But
Gaiman himself is writing, so the long-time fans can expect
faithfulness to the source material. Or well-executed infidelity, as
might be the case, since there will clearly need to be new plots and
subplots added to beef the story up.
But
that's far down the road, as the series is not planned to air until
2013 at the earliest. In the mean time, maybe he'll release a sequel or
two.