HBO to produce Gaiman's American Gods

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/tom-hanks-playtone-productions-announces-197012

6 seasons? jumping the gun a little?

 

I'm guessing that's just the game plan for adapting the Gaiman work; just like Game of Thrones probably has a general idea of what to do with a third season (adapt all or part of A Storm of Swords, most likely) although only a second season has been greenlit.

So... Small Gods, the series, I assume.

Now there's a bold claim. At least he's smart enough to throw in the hedge 'probably'.

Has potential, I guess, and this might be an excuse to actually read this book(s). They any good?

 

I'll be honest, I read American Gods all the way through and for some reason, it was like in one ear, out the other. I generally remember characters and plotlines that grab me, but not this time. I enjoyed it while reading it, otherwise I would have dropped it, but I have only vague impressions now what it was even about. I wouldn't even be able to tell you who should play the roles, or what the roles even were.

 

Gaiman is one of my favorite writers. This is VERY cool news. American Gods was a really good novel. 6 seasons though? Sounds like they'd be expanding the material quite a bit. Hopefully, they will get Gaiman on as a consultant and let him write some episodes (his recent Doctor Who episode was awesome).

I'll check this show out for sure. Though I'll have to go through Netflix. lol.

 

Brilliant news. I loved the novel (although not quite as much as Neverwhere or Good Omens but I have ridiculous amounts of love for both of them) and I look forward to this series.

In case no one has already heard, the novel itself is getting republished with new material and essays.

 

Nice, now if only HBO would do the smart thing and pick up THE DRESDEN FILES as an ongoing series, I'd be ecstatic.

 

I would've loved if good omens was done first that is such a fantastic frakin book. and I all so loved neverwhere both book and pbs tv series. one of my favorite british writters next to tolkien. the only bad thing is I';ll be a year behind in the series since I don't have HBO argh .

 

Neil Gaiman spoke to MTV about the series. He's planning to write a sequel novel and says he'd better get cracking on that to provide more material for the TV adaptation. The first season of the TV show will adapt the first book, with some new material mixed in.

Anansi Boys will be adapted in its own right at some point, most likely as a TV miniseries, and it won't be mixed into American Gods.

 

Might be difficult to overcome the "Wait, didn't that already fail on Scifi?" stigma, but it would be nice.

 

I'm not really sure how you would do American Gods as an ongoing series lasting more than 1 season but it could be interesting to see them try.

I love the book. It's the only fiction novel I've ever read twice. One of the things I love about it is that, for such a long book, there's a real economy of prose in many of its sequences. With the main character, Shadow, within the 1st few sentences of the book you've already learned 90% of what you'll need to know about him for the rest of the book: "Shadow spent three years in prison. He looked big enough and don't-fuck-with-me enough that his biggest problem was wasting time."

I've had a few casting ideas in my head here & there. I'm not sure who would make a good Shadow. You need an actor that can portray lots of inner turmoil without doing a lot to outwardly show that. Plus, size is of paramount importance for the character. His size is one of the 1st things you learn about him. Ideally, you'd probably be looking for someone like Chris Hemsworth or Sam Worthington.

One bit of casting I cannot stress enough: The absolutely, positively MUST cast Brian Cox as Mr. Wednesday! No one else can mix charm & menace so effectively, setting off every mental alarm in your head yet still hypnotizing you into not running. It's like the scene in the book where he flirts with some jailbait waitress at a restaurant; Shadow compares it to watching an innocent faun being chased down by a viscious predator.

 

BTW, one bit I'd really like to see in the TV version is the scenes where the TV gods try to convert Shadow to their side by talking to him through old TV characters from Cheers & I Love Lucy.

 

The fact that the character never moves off square one might be the reason I found the story so unmemorable. But if we just need someone muscled and bad-ass, hey, Josh Holloway needs to get his fine ass back on TV.

 

It's been years since I've read American Gods, so I don't have much memory of the story beyond the simply judgment that I loved the book. For Christmas one year, I purchased both AG and Good Omens for a couple friends, but couldn't decide which book should go to which friend so I put the gift bags down in front of them and just had one of them pick a bag without knowing what was inside.

Digression aside, I'm very much looking forward to reading the book again when the anniversary re-release comes out, and this HBO adaptation definitely has me interested.

BBC series.

 

^^^
It aired on PBS in the US.

 

Audio interview with Neil Gaiman on the Nerdist podcast!

http://www.nerdist.com/2011/07/nerdist-podcast-106-neil-gaiman/

 

Difficult? Nah.

The Sci-fi Channel series was mishandled as a victim of network behind-the-scenes infighting as well as having no unified creative direction or storyline.

I thought Paul Blackthorn, Valerie Cruz, & Terrance Mann did well with what they were given, but to be fair, they weren't given all that very much.

Harry's a Wizard for fuck's sake. There shouldn't be a lack of magic in the opening episodes of a series just because the vfx cost too much or are taking longer than expected.

Hopefully True Blood, Game of Thrones, & American Gods, will pave the way for an eventual Dresden Files TV series on HBO... and it's okay if it doesn't happen even within the next 5-10 years.

At this point Jim Butcher is about to release Book #13 of a planned 25+ book series. We've still got some time. LOL.

 

I'm still trying to find Small Favor in MMPB. I can only ever find it in that bizarre taller format......I want to keep reading, but I'm taking a stand on this one.

 

The way the internet puts it, the success (and indeed existence of) Game of Thrones and to a lesser extent the other titles mentioned here will result inevitably in a Mad Lib of 'HBO will make ______ a TV series', with the blank space to be a sci-fi/fantasy property of the geek's choosing (most plausibly a book series, but I've seen Star Trek hopefully tossed around here).

The channel only has so many shows, and Game of Thrones is a fantasy title that fits the channel's pechant for reworking well known genres into dark, sordid, intelligently scripted sex and violence fuelled adult fare - the police procedural becomes The Wire, the Western becomes Deadwood, swords and sandals have become Rome, and now high fantasy is Game of Thrones.

How much sex is in The Dresden Files, exactly? Because if the answer is 'not a lot' or worse still 'none', I don't see it as a very viable HBO property.

 

Sorry to say, you're not going to find it.

They shifted formats as of Small Favor and my MMPB collection stopped around then as a result.

Of course, I'm such a fan of the series that I'm just buying the Hardcover releases as I don't want to wait any longer than that to read the next installment. (Amzaon has great deals on the HC edition usually, I've gotten them anywhere between $9-16 dollars with free shipping)

 

A fair point, and one I understand. It's more, that an HBO-type series with 5-6 hours per book, has been accepted as generally the best way to put said books to film (if it's ever attempted) again. (Chances of it are next to nothing unless someone with a passion comes along... but one can always hope) If hate to spoil plot points, but it's a #1 New York Times Bestselling Series and it just keeps growing.

As far as the sex goes... it's got a fare share of material which could be interpreted with a bent towards nakedness for nakedness sake, but it's not the primary focus of the series. It's not vampire porn, but while the main character of Harry Dresden is a gentleman, he's no monk. (And rightly so, I have no problem with Nudity as long as it's not there just to be there.)

Do yourself a favor and check the books out, it's a heck of a ride.