Neil Gaiman's American Gods - [Starz]

brevity

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/16/8790439/neil-gaimans-american-gods-starz-series-order

Hannibal and Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller is on board to write the series, with Gotham executive producer Michael Green as showrunner and Gaiman himself as executive producer.

American Gods follows the cross-country exploits of ex-con Shadow Moon and the mysterious Mr. Wednesday after the death of Shadow's wife, Laura. During their journey, the pair come into contact with a series of gods and magical beings from all over the world, so it'll be interesting to see what the cast will look like as the series approaches its debut.

Agent Coulson

American Gods will premiere on Starz in January 2017.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/news/a667117/neil-gaimans-american-gods-will-premiere-on-starz-in-january-2017.html#~pobuslFllV1dQM

Brief_Lives

http://www.thewrap.com/american-gods-casts-the-100-star-ricky-whittle-as-lead-character-shadow-moon/

“The 100” star Ricky Whittle has been cast as lead character Shadow Moon on Starz’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman‘s “American Gods,” the premium cable network announced Thursday.

Filming begins in April.

“American Gods” portrays a war between the old gods of biblical and mythological roots and a new group of gods “reflecting society’s modern love of money, technology, media, celebrity and drugs.”

Brief_Lives

No love for American Gods, the book? I think it will make great tv....

AnonoBoy

Quite liked the book alright - although it's been years since I read it. I'll probably give this a watch when it comes out.

Adventagious

Adored the book, but i'm highly sceptical of how well it could be translated to TV!

I don't know Starz, have they don't anything like this before? I'll be honest, a Z in the name has me biased against them from the start...

That being said, Gaiman is a smart guy. Hopefully he wouldn't hand over one of his classics without being reasonably confident it would be treated with respect.

Zaph

Never had the love for the book that so many others do. Tbh I found it a confused, and confusing mess and I really can't see how it would work on TV.

MayoForSam

Adventagious wrote: »

I don't know Starz, have they don't anything like this before? I'll be honest, a Z in the name has me biased against them from the start...

Outlander, Spartacus, Black Sails?? I reckon Starz could do a good job with the source material, they have a very decent track record.

Adventagious

Only saw a small bit of Spartacus and thought it was a hot mess, no idea what the other two are so shall have to trust your judgement!

stesaurus

Zaph wrote: »

Never had the love for the book that so many others do. Tbh I found it a confused, and confusing mess and I really can't see how it would work on TV.

Yup, thought the same and never quite understood the hype. I'm actually struggling now to recall the ending. "Confusing mess" is actually spot on. I'm not a big Gaiman fan anyway so maybe it just wasn't meant for me

stesaurus

I've actually just re-read the synopsis online and I still don't get it. Only way I see it working is to drop the

zombie wife

crap and actually avoid the main book plot altogether. Then just focus on smaller arcs for the different gods. God of the week type thing

ixoy

s.welstead wrote: »

Yup, thought the same and never quite understood the hype. I'm actually struggling now to recall the ending. "Confusing mess" is actually spot on. I'm not a big Gaiman fan anyway so maybe it just wasn't meant for me

Count me as another one who thought this was very over-hyped. Felt that it thought it was cleverer than it was too, as if Gaiman wanted to be seen as showing as many different cultures as possible. The plot seemed to revolve around the lead wandering from situation to situation without any real direction.

I'm additionally miffed that Fuller went from Hannibal to this. Sure, Hannibal had been cancelled but a niggling part of me suspects that if he hadn't been distracted by American Gods then he might have had pushed harder to save Hannibal.

pixelburp

I liked the writing, just not the story itself. It had Gaimen's unmistakable voice, but as mentioned already it was a mess; totally unfocused and more than a little rambling. Maybe that was deliberate, given the narrative effectively followed a road-trip, but to me it made the book a bit tedious to read. Still, a TV version might enforce a little more structure on things, give shape to what was previously a bit shapeless.

Can't help wonder though how, or if, the adaptation will include the slightly unforgettable scene near the start where

a woman eats someone with her vagina

. I know little of Starz, nor have ever watched Spartacus (I did watch Torchwood: Miracle Day years ago), but a scene like that would make even HBO blush a little

TerrorFirmer

Starz make some fantastic shows. Spartacus, Black Sails, Power, Outlander, Pillars of the Earth, Ash VS Evil Dead...

I'd be happy with them at the helm.

JP Liz V1

http://tvline.com/2016/03/02/american-gods-ian-mcshane-starz-series-cast-mr-wednesday/

Ian McShane joins as Mr. Wednesday

Defo a good cast addition

sheep?

Excellent casting!

I hope they do a good job, I love the book, one of my favourite fantasies.

Agent Coulson

Gillian Anderson joins the cast.

sheep?

Cool, she's playing

Media

.

Have to admit, any cast additions have flown over my head, just saw Peter Stormare and Crispin Glover are also aboard. Nice.

Hopefully it'll be a role Anderson actually puts some effort into. Her most recent outings have been kind of.. lacking.

Agent Coulson

Teaser

Glebee

I must say that looks interesting. I recall reading the book but dont remember much of it to be honest...

OK.

I've read the book twice, listened to the audiobook as well, and I have to say this looks fantastic. Will be interesting to see how they handle a lot of the God transformation scenes.

sheep?

Never in doubt, (and early days) but Ian McShane is already looking very comfortable as Wednesday.

Can't wait for this.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Only read the book recently myself and loved it - that trailer looks great. Can't wait.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id5CIAXQ9Ug

FunLover18

Just finished the book last night, good ut definitely overhyped. Really looking forward to the TV show although looking at the cat list on imdb

they seem to have cast two separate actors as Low-Key and Mr World

which has me intrigued.

Agent Coulson

Amazon have the rights to show it in the UK hopefully we will get it when Amazon video launches here.

death1234567

Managed to get two thirds of the way through the book before I gave up on it. Can't imagine how the TV series would be anything other than terrible.

hidinginthebush

Nice! Love all gaimans books looking forward to this

alchemist33

death1234567 wrote: »

Managed to get two thirds of the way through the book before I gave up on it. Can't imagine how the TV series would be anything other than terrible.

I know some love it (see above) but I agree on the book -- it was a struggle. A TV series could be better though, if it was tighter

MOH

death1234567 wrote: »

Managed to get two thirds of the way through the book before I gave up on it. Can't imagine how the TV series would be anything other than terrible.

You kind of missed the best part of it.

Agent Coulson

Launch pushed back till April now.

Mr E

April 30th.

http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/american-gods-premiere-date-april-starz-1201994797/

RobbingBandit

Damn can't wait for this Orlando Jones probably my favorite casting choice although Crispin Glover would be a close second, I really had high hope Sheamus would get the role of Mad Sweeney.

Agent Coulson

pixelburp

New trailer out, slightly NSFW as there's a fair amount of blood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxNiqmRWTUI

Agent Coulson

https://twitter.com/AmericanGodsSTZ/status/847101099970609154

Brief_Lives

Good first episode review here....

for readers familiar with the book, read away, for people coming into American Gods with no previous knowledge, avoid clicking...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/on-demand/0/american-gods-episode-1-review-cinematic-surreal-prestige-tv/

Brief_Lives

Neil Gaiman himself, just put up the link to this video review... it's quite good...
I'm definitely having to quell my enthusiasm for this one..

http://deadline.com/2017/04/american-gods-review-neil-gaiman-bryan-fuller-ian-mcshane-video-1202069917/

Mr E

Threads Merged.

First episode on this Sunday. Between this, Leftovers, Silicon Valley, and Masterchef Australia (it's my guilty pleasure, don't judge!), my Monday evening has become very busy!

Pelvis

Deleted User wrote: »

First episode on this Sunday. Between this, Leftovers, Silicon Valley, and Masterchef Australia (it's my guilty pleasure, don't judge!), my Monday evening has become very busy!

Distinct lack of Billions and Last Week With John Oliver from that lineup.

Pelvis

Pelvis wrote: »

Distinct lack of Billions and Last Week With John Oliver from that lineup.

There's only so many hours on a Monday, maaaan! I've already got a busy enough schedule of TV watching as is :pac:

conorhal

MOH wrote: »

You kind of missed the best part of it.

I enjoyed the book, but I found the ending a tad hollow.I wonder how the series will work, the main protagonist is something of a passive character who kind of drifts through the story in an unengaging manner.
I know the novel is structured like a road trip, but if the series meanders as much as the book I don't know if it will be a cohesive enough story to hold viewers. Some novels are best remaining as novels.

Edit: The internets tell me that this is an eight episode season ONE of American Gods that adapts the first third of the novel....

Ok... I really don't know what to make of that, I assumed the 8 episodes were a miniseries adaption of the novel, which seemed about the right length. American Gods is not a huge tome like Lord of the Rings or anything so either they are going to have to add a lot to this adaption or this will be glacially paced story telling about a character that doesn't have an awful lot to do.

Slydice

Well, that was something! :eek:

I wonder if it can keep an audience if it's gonna keep the mystery element. Certainly plenty

of sex and violence that might keep the crowd

.

RobbingBandit

They're expanding the filler characters like Bilquis( ) to give more depth to the show.

Not sure how they're expanding on her - if anything, so far they've probably given her less screen time than in the book.

OK - what we should probably say that all book chat should be spoilered.

Anyway - I was worried that they wouldn't go the full length that the books went, especially with the worship sex scene. But, christ, did they. And then some. Have to say... it was something special. Really hope they will keep the quality up, which I imagine they should because Gaiman is attached as an Executive Producer.

Dude is heavily involved in adaptations of his work (I believe that he personally picks the narrators of any of his audio books), so I have high hopes for the rest of the series.

FunLover18

I know this is on Amazon Prime in UK but can we get that in Ireland?

Occono

FunLover18 wrote: »

I know this is on Amazon Prime in UK but can we get that in Ireland?

Yes, primevideo.com has it in Ireland, they launched it here in December. Doesn't have all the UK content though.

gmisk

Watched episode 1...can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like that before....

I could have done without the dodgy accented leprechaun tbh... But guessing that is from source?...loved the face grabbing video section!

gmisk

gmisk wrote: »

Watched episode 1...can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like that before....

I could have done without the dodgy accented leprechaun tbh... But guessing that is from source?...loved the face grabbing video section!

From what I remember, it does come from the source.