Tom Hanks producing Gaiman’s "American Gods" for HBO

[Ben Lahnger]

Tom Hanks producing 6 seasons of
Neil Gaiman’s "American Gods" for HBO

Jun 11, 2011 9:30 AM
by Cyriaque Lamar of io9

SOURCE

Originally Posted by Despanan

If HBO were doing Sandman, or American Gods, I would be PSYCHED.

Me too! Prepare to be PSYCHED!

Here's some good news for those readers upset that the television adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Sandman stalled out. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions will produce a whopping six seasons of Neil Gaiman's earthbound-deities novel American Gods.

We had heard previously that Hanks had been looking into adapting Gaiman's acclaimed book for HBO, and now it looks like American Gods is getting that chichi cable treatment. Notes THR:

The series-in-development, revolving around the question "are you a god if no one believes in you?" is executive produced by [Gary] Goetzman and Hanks, with Bob Richardson, and Gaiman on board as executive producer and writer.

Each of the six seasons will be of 10-12, hour-long episodes with a budget of around $35-40 million per season, targeted to debut on the cable powerhouse in 2013 at the earliest [...] American Gods will be effects-heavy to do justice to the awe-inspiring power of the divine beings. "There are some crazy things in there. We'll probably be doing more effects in there than it's been done on a television series," said Goetzman.

Before we get too jazzed up, it's worth adding the caveat that Playtone has other obligations before American Gods, namely a $100 million live-action treatment of the Mattel action figure Major Matt Mason. Hanks co-wrote this 3D family space adventure and is set to star and produce. Furthermore, Robert Zemeckis is in talks to direct — are we looking at Mars Needs Bosom Buddies? Anyway, here's hoping American Gods won't crumble under the weight of its own ambition.

It sounds like a good initial plan. I hope it gets done, and that it turns out as awesome as it sounds right now.

[Murder.Of.Crows]

I would love a movie adaption of Good Omens as well, but that's asking for too much and hoping too much that nothing gets fucked up.

[Valhalla]

American Gods is my favorite Neil Gaiman novel, so I'm excited to see how this turns out. If it's bad I can just pretend it doesn't exist.

Really glad that they're making it a TV show and not a movie, as a tv show it's less likely everything will feel rushed. Plus the book had a lot of interesting characters I'd love to see an episode or two based around.

Would be really cool if we got the Delirium cameo from the book in the show.

[Ben Lahnger]

With six years of 10 to 12 episode seasons, we could get a Delirium cameos, maybe Gaiman could expand the novel a bit to include a Dream, Death, Destiny or Desire cameo ... it really is the optimal format for this book, I think.

[Saya]

I'm really excited and if its good I'm totally going to subscribe to HBO (I just moved into a house that has cable, previously I just watched everything online), but now all I can think of is "How is HBO going to fit in as many tits as possible into American Gods?"

[Valhalla]

Originally Posted by Saya

I'm really excited and if its good I'm totally going to subscribe to HBO (I just moved into a house that has cable, previously I just watched everything online), but now all I can think of is "How is HBO going to fit in as many tits as possible into American Gods?"

Maybe we'll see a lot of Bilquis and her special ability. Or there'll just be a lot of strip clubs.


Anyone have ideas for who they'd like to see cast in this?

[Saya]

I think Shadow will be hard to cast, its been a while since I read the book but wasn't he quiet with not much of a personality? Might be hard to act that way and get an audience to like him. I kinda pictured him like Mulder, too bad Duchovny is too old XD

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Originally Posted by Saya

I think Shadow will be hard to cast, its been a while since I read the book but wasn't he quiet with not much of a personality? Might be hard to act that way and get an audience to like him. I kinda pictured him like Mulder, too bad Duchovny is too old XD

Keanu Reeves pulls off the no personality thing quite well. I have to be honest though, I have yet to read this book. I want to, but the PDF file is either in crappy format or corrupted.

[Ben Lahnger]

Reading a PDF file is no way to enjoy this work of art.

---------------------------------

EVEN BETTER NEWS!!!!

Neil Gaiman tweeted this:

@neilhimself: 6 years of AMERICAN GODS on TV doesn't just mean the 1st book. I need to write the 2nd now, for a start.

YAY!!!!!!

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

Reading a PDF file is no way to enjoy this work of art.

---------------------------------

EVEN BETTER NEWS!!!!

Neil Gaiman tweeted this:

@neilhimself: 6 years of AMERICAN GODS on TV doesn't just mean the 1st book. I need to write the 2nd now, for a start.

YAY!!!!!!

That is pretty awesome to hear.

I have an ebook, and lil' money, so it's .99 cent pdfs for me. But, I will hit Barnes and Noble when I get my paycheck. Gaiman has yet to let me down, so, it is way worth the money.

[Renatus]

I have to say, I didn't like the book because personally I cant stand reading a book where a man's fiance gets stolen like that. I read it up to the page where his fiance gets stolen years ago, back before I got cheated on so I certainly cant read it or watch it now. I'm sure its a great book, I like Gaiman's other work, love that he lives here in Wisconsin, I'm proud that a fellow Wisconsinite has accomplished something like this, but I just cant stand this story, it strikes at my weak spot.

[Ben Lahnger]

Yeah, it's hard to have an objective view of a novel that replicates a tragedy that happened in your own life. Renatus, some day, when you have the love of your life and that old wound has healed, give it another chance.

M.O.C., you could see if you can find it in a used bookstore (if they have one around you) or check it out from the library. But any way you can get it, it is definitely worth your time.

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Will definitely look for it used, unfortunately we don't have a library here, or anything that should even be called a library. More of a bloody storage unit for bibles and self help crap.

[Ben Lahnger]

M.O.C., you might look at the ABE database of used bookstores to see if you can order one cheap. When I just pulled it up, there was a copy for $1 with $2.75 shipping!

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...ts=t&x=50&y=10

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

M.O.C., you might look at the ABE database of used bookstores to see if you can order one cheap. When I just pulled it up, there was a copy for $1 with $2.75 shipping!

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Sear...ts=t&x=50&y=10

Holy Crap, hell yes. Thanks Ben.

[Ben Lahnger]

You're welcome. I'm glad I could help.

ABE is a great resource for books, especially if you don't have a good used book store or two anywhere near you. And they're almost always cheaper than Half-Price Books, even after the shipping.

[Nayiry]

seems like a good book..i will put it in my list, not pretty much sure that i will be able to watch the series though >_<...

[Grausamkeit]

^Shut up.

Ben, I have to disagree about PDFs. I think they are a perfectly valid way to read a book. The knowledge retained is the same as picking up a hard copy. If there were an afterlife, I could imagine Asimov smiling as his fans still read his novels and essays in an electronic format.

[Saya]

I gotta say I thought I'd miss hardcover books, but I really like my ereader. And now I want to buy an Asimov ebook.

[Ben Lahnger]

I've had too many problems with novels ported into PDF's by people who had no sense of how to format them. They look like crap, are hard to read, and no amount of adjusting them makes it look better. With a hardcover or paperback, you know what the font and formatting are going to look like ... there's a standard.

If you're talking about buying the books in e-book format from the publishers, however, I will agree. I've seen those, and they are lovely ... eminently readable. I have the Kindle software and another e-reader app on my Droid Incredible, and when the e-book or PDF is professionally produced by the publisher, they work great.

Saya, which Asimov book(s) are you considering?

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Originally Posted by Ben Lahnger

I've had too many problems with novels ported into PDF's by people who had no sense of how to format them. They look like crap, are hard to read, and no amount of adjusting them makes it look better. With a hardcover or paperback, you know what the font and formatting are going to look like ... there's a standard.

If you're talking about buying the books in e-book format from the publishers, however, I will agree. I've seen those, and they are lovely ... eminently readable. I have the Kindle software and another e-reader app on my Droid Incredible, and when the e-book or PDF is professionally produced by the publisher, they work great.

Saya, which Asimov book(s) are you considering?

That is the exact issue I am currently having. I have about 20 gigs of ebooks, but most of them are so ugly and poorly formatted I can't even read them. I still prefer the old fashioned books to an ereader, but damn are they convenient.

[Despanan]

Yo. I am psyched.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Murder.Of.Crows

That is the exact issue I am currently having. I have about 20 gigs of ebooks, but most of them are so ugly and poorly formatted I can't even read them. I still prefer the old fashioned books to an ereader, but damn are they convenient.

Are you pirating them? Are they all pdfs? Do you have any epubs?

Ben, not sure yet, its going to be a few weeks before I'll have time for reading for pleasure (I'm swamped with school books right now), I've only read the first two Robot series books and that was at an age where I couldn't really appreciate them.

[Murder.Of.Crows]

Originally Posted by Saya

Are you pirating them? Are they all pdfs? Do you have any epubs?

No... okay yes. No they are not all pdf's, but none are e-pubs, I have a few html files and some other types.

[Despanan]

Man, don't pirate books, I'm all for pirating music but honestly, books are different. Author's don't make their money off of touring like most musicians do, they actually need those royalties from their books sales, and the majority of the cost of the book is not the binding.