A Dribble of Ink

Via The Hollywood Reporter:

Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions is set to produce an open-ended series, American Gods, for HBO, based on Neil Gaiman’s award-winning novel, while the company’s next project, Major Matt Mason, is in talks with Robert Zemeckis to direct in 3D, Playtone partner Gary Goetzman told The Hollywood Reporter.
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The series-in-development, revolving around the question “are you a god if no one believes in you?” is executive produced by Goetzman and Hanks, with Bob Richardson, and Gaiman on board as executive producer and writer.

Now slated for six seasons, each season 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.
Rich in religious folklore that spanned millennia and featuring deities from Greek and Nordic mythology, and even the Judeo-Christian monotheistic God making an appearance, in the contemporary U.S., 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.

With the screaming success of Game of Thrones, it was inevitable that HBO would dip their pen back into the endless inkwell of classic speculative fiction. This time around, it looks like that will be tackling another of my favourite narratives, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods

The obvious hitch, here, of course, is that American Gods, though complex and layered, is not long enough to support six seasons of television. This makes me wonder whether the first season or two might not cover the novel and then move beyond to cover content included in Anansi Boys, some of Gaiman’s short fiction and, of course, storylines exclusive to the television series. I’m worried, too about how well the story and the characters will translate to the screen. Much of Shadow’s appeal in the novel was his enigmatic personality and some of the novel’s greatest twists might be more difficult to pull off under the more direct narration of television. Ideally, I’d love to see the show follow a format similar to The Wire, exploring a new facet of the world, a new story arc and a new cast of characters with each season.

Of course, as with anything Hollywood/TV, it’s best to take this news with some tempered expectations and enthusiasm. These things have a habit of falling through before they ever materialize.