The "obsessively" adored American Gods – Neil Gaiman's epic, mythic novel of the war between New versus Old Gods – has been resurrected from the HBO trash heap and is poised to soar LIKE A PHOENIXif it can ever escape development hell.
Starz has picked up the show and placed its development in the immenseley capable creative hands of Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) and Michael Green (Heroes), along with Mr. Gaiman himself.
Starz does not have a reliable track record when it comes to innovative television - DaVinci's Demons, anyone? We can only hope they lean more down the AMC and Netflix route and not the ABC Family route. And also, just get out of Bryan Fuller's way. His aesthetic and storytelling chops are bona fide. If anyone could handle the precious cargo that is American Gods, it's Fuller. Gaiman seems utterly pumped about the potential of this move, as well:
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.
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.
As a member of the quote-tattooed legion, I can, with full bias, say that this is the most exciting entertainment news I've heard this month. But wait, there's more! The lovefest continues from Fuller himself:
Neil Gaiman has created the holiest of holy toy boxes with American Gods and filled it with all manner of magical thing, born of new gods and old,” Fuller said in a statement. “Michael Green and I are thrilled to crack this toy box wide open and unleash the fantastical titans of heaven and earth and Neil's vividly prolific imagination.
No word on any kind of timeline, but let's not rush beauty and genius, shall we?
Casting wishlists for American Gods have been circulating practically as soon as it hit the shelves, due in no small part to the story's sweeping, cinematic scope. I've heard Vin Diesel tossed around for Shadow, given that Diesel's ethnicity can be read in a number of different ways, but the role requires a certain athleticism that Diesel may or may not be up for. Shoshana Kessock of Tor beat me to my next thoughts for the role, which were Joe Manganiello and Jason Momoa. Shadow's brand of quiet, menacing brooding requires some real acting chops, though, and as pretty as those two both are, I haven't yet seen evidence of the depth of their craft. Check out the rest of Kessock's predictions, they're pretty spot on. It's probably not a big enough role for him, but scoring Benedict Cumberbatch for Low-Key Lyesmith would definitely cause fandom, in its entirety, to explode and implode, simultaneously. Cumberbatch has already been once around the Gaimanverse, having lent his voice talents to a BBC radio version of Neverwhere as The Angel Islington, so there's precedent there. What are your thoughts for casting? Firing up those tattoo guns to get the American Gods quote you've always wanted?
