Great news for fans of Neil Gaiman’s critically acclaimed bestselling novel American Gods: The FremantleMedia North America adaptation of the fantasy novel has been acquired in a “script to series development” deal by Starz. FremantleMedia North America’s Thom Beers, Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk along with author Neil Gaiman, Bryan Fuller and Michael Green are executive producing. Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) and Michael Green (Kings, The River) are working on the pilot script and are on board as showrunners.
“American Gods is a project that deserves to be made. With our partners at FremantleMedia and with Bryan, Michael and Neil, we believe we can create a series that honors the book and does right by the fans and viewers,” said Starz Managing Director Carmi Zlotnik.
“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,” stated Neil Gaiman. “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.”
Thom Beers, CEO, FremantleMedia North America said, “Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is pure genius and we couldn’t be more thrilled to bring this classic to life on screen. Craig Cegielski and Stefanie Berk have put together a dream team with Fuller and Green joining Gaiman on this amazing journey. Coupled with Starz’ shared passion for this project, we’re confident this combination will raise the bar for drama.”
And Bryan Fuller added, “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. 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.”
The Plot:
The plot posits a war brewing between old and new gods: the traditional gods of biblical and mythological roots from around the world steadily losing believers to an upstart pantheon of gods reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs. Its protagonist, Shadow Moon, is an ex-con who becomes bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman but in reality one of the older gods, on a cross-country mission to gather his forces in preparation to battle the new deities.
Source: Starz
-By Rebecca Murray
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