HBO to produce Gaiman's American Gods

[Bob The Skutter]

^Personally I would prefer a Codex Alera series, for no reason other than there's a chance it would actually get finished. I can't see them doing adaptations of 20+ books.
I can't wait for Ghost Story, UK hard back is £7.49 at the minute, but I've had it preordered since before there was a title.

 

[Thestral]

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."

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.

Two things.

That 10% you don't know about Shadow is the critical part.

Josh Holloway is a white guy.

 

[Deckerd]

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.

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

I'd never even heard of Neverwhere until this thread. It's £4.47 on Amazon, is it worth a look?

 

[Technobuilder]

^Personally I would prefer a Codex Alera series, for no reason other than there's a chance it would actually get finished. I can't see them doing adaptations of 20+ books.
I can't wait for Ghost Story, UK hard back is £7.49 at the minute, but I've had it preordered since before there was a title.

I'm so ready for Ghost Story July 26th can't come soon enough!

Also, I agree that Codex would have the best chance of a live action adaptation. Of course, I've heard Jim mention talk (and only just that) of an anime series and/or mmorpg based on Codex Alera.

I have to say, I'm at least interested in all of that, if less so the mmo. I just don't game enough to justify that anymore for me personally.

I wouldn't be opposed to an Animated Dresden Files Universe either, and it would certainly make the issue of some 30+ stories (including the short stories) more palatable to produce in a world of aging actors and high vfx costs.

Of course I'd want adult-oriented anime styling "true to the world" with nothing toned down in the hopes that more kids might watch.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

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.

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

I'd never even heard of Neverwhere until this thread. It's £4.47 on Amazon, is it worth a look?

Yes, absolutely. Granted I'm biased as its my favorite Gaiman novel, but I think it's a wonderful read. It's like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy meets Alien from L.A.

 

[Deckerd]

I was meaning the TV show, sorry I should have been more clear. I don't read fantasy apart from Pratchett. I read American Gods and and Good Omens and enjoyed both of them but not enough to buy any more.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I was meaning the TV show, sorry I should have been more clear. I don't read fantasy apart from Pratchett. I read American Gods and and Good Omens and enjoyed both of them but not enough to buy any more.

The TV series isn't as good as the book, but it's worth checking out at that price. Remember though, it's a 90s BBC Fantasy series, so very limited budget. Here's a clip for you to check out

 

[Deckerd]

Was it a children's show?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Was it a children's show?

No, it wasn't a children's show. Think it was a primetime BBC One show, but I don't remember it being on either.

 

[Deckerd]

Well it definitely looks like a children's show. Not my sort of thing at all.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Well it definitely looks like a children's show. Not my sort of thing at all.

Well the DVD rating is a 15. I'd recommend checking the book out if you like Neil Gaiman's other work.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I haven't seen the show but from what I've read, Gaiman isn't fond of the show and that's what motivated him to write the novel (he wrote the series first but the direction of the show wasn't to his liking).

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I haven't seen the show but from what I've read, Gaiman isn't fond of the show and that's what motivated him to write the novel (he wrote the series first but the direction of the show wasn't to his liking).

Yeah, I've heard that. Also I think the thing was it wasn't really planned, he was writing it as they made it because Lenny Henry was looking for shows to produce and asked him if he wanted to do one, so things just happened rather than it being an idea he had been working on.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

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."

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.

Two things.

That 10% you don't know about Shadow is the critical part.

Josh Holloway is a white guy.

That shows how much I remember of the story at all. If Shadow is supposed to be "mixed race," does that mean white/black? If so, the best mixed race actor I can think of is Wentworth Miller, who is white/black/Native American. He might look too white for the part but he can play a character who is both intelligent and bad-ass very convincingly. Like Holloway, he's on my perennial "get this man a series!" list.

Also, with a name like Shadow, I assume the character isn't supposed to be too dark-skinned because if he is, the racist implications will scare HBO into either changing the character's name or casting a lighter-skinned actor. Fair or not, that's the kind of thing that blows up in your face in the hysteria-prone social media.

PS, I just stumbled across another discussion of the HBO casting where some guy is touting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for the role.

 

[timothy]

never read the novel and I was wondering which one to the original or the new tenth anniversary?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

The 10th anniversary one is Neil Gaiman's preferred text.

 

[timothy]

very cool thanks It's on the nook. so I will probably be picking it up soon. I just wish they would make good omen's into a movie or series.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

You may be in luck...

On March 19, 2011 Neil Gaiman announced on his website that a television series adaptation of his novel Good Omens "is in the works from Terry Jones." with a link to Terry Pratchett's webpage confirming the news.[12] According to imdb.com the series is set to be released in 2013.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

You may be in luck...

On March 19, 2011 Neil Gaiman announced on his website that a television series adaptation of his novel Good Omens "is in the works from Terry Jones." with a link to Terry Pratchett's webpage confirming the news.[12] According to imdb.com the series is set to be released in 2013.

I've read this news already but I'm going to wait until I hear more before I get excited. The project has had a lot of false starts over the years. Remember when Terry Gilliam was going to direct and Johnny Depp's and Robin Williams' names were being floated around to play Crowley and Aziraphale, respectfully?

 

[JD]

Sorry about reviving such an old thread, but I've started a bunch of new ones lately and didn't want to start another.
The 100's Ricky Whittle has been cast as Shadow Moon.
I have to wonder what this will mean for his character on The 100.