Neil Gaiman is on a hot streak right now. The best-selling author has already had several of his properties adapted for other mediums, and now two more are in the works and heading to TV. On his personal blog, Gaiman confirmed that his 2001 novel American Gods is being developed as a series for American television by FremantleMedia, while his 2005 novel Anansi Boys is being developed in the U.K. as a miniseries.
American Gods has been circling various TV studios for a few years now, and was last seen at HBO. That obviously never came to pass, and FremantleMedia was able to obtain the rights. The U.K.-headquartered media giant may not be a household name, but the company is a worldwide conglomerate that is best known in the U.S. for a number of reality and competition shows, including American Idol, The X Factor, America’s Got Talent, and game shows like The Price is Right.
FremantleMedia has also produced several ongoing scripted television shows for the U.S. market, including The Tomorrow People on the CW, and upcoming shows Basket Case at Spike TV and The Returned for A&E, according to CBR.
American Gods is the story of an ex-con named Shadow who finds himself in the middle of a brewing war between old gods from mythology, and new gods created by our modern obsessions. Anansi Boys is a spin-off focusing on a secondary character and his family.
“Gaiman, the creator of the celebrated Sandman comic series, and the author of bestselling novels The Graveyard Book, Coraline, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, will executive produce the series along with FremantleMedia,” a statement released by the media group reads.
Gaiman claimed that it was far too early to have news on things like potential showrunners, air dates, cast, or even what network it will air on, but that should be coming soon. FremantleMedia has worked with several networks and platforms in the past, so American Gods could end up anywhere, from network TV to Netflix. It is, however, being eyed for U.S. audiences. Gaiman’s other novel-turned-TV project, Anansi Boys – which follows the sons of a spider god featured in American Gods – is being developed for the BBC by Red Production Company.
Gaiman has seen several of his previous works translated into different forms of media. Stardust became a live-action motion picture and Coraline went the CG animated route. Neverwhere, a mini-series Gaiman wrote for BBC2 in 1996 (and later published as a book), was recently remade as a radio drama starring James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch. And now Sandman – arguably the author’s best known work – is set to be adapted into a major motion picture with Joseph Gordon-Levitt producing, directing, and starring.
And there’s more. Disney currently holds the rights to Gaiman’s Hugo Award-winning children’s novel The Graveyard Book, and his British National Book of the Year-winning The Ocean at the End of the Lane is being developed by Focus Features, with Tom Hanks attached to produce and Joe Wright attached to direct.
Gaiman is also exploring other platforms for his own creative outlets. Not content to just write comics, films, novels, TV episodes, a blog, newspaper articles, radio dramas, miniseries’, and probably a very lovely email or two, Gaiman is also working on a video game titled Wayward Manor, along with the video game studio The Odd Gentlemen.
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