“American Gods”: STARZ Orders Neil Gaiman Series

Do you like Neil Gaiman?  Do you like book-to-TV adaptations?  Do you subscribe to STARZ?  If you answered yes to these things, GREAT news for you!

Starz has given a straight-to-series order to a drama adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning contemporary fantasy novel “American Gods.”  The series has been developed and written by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies), and Michael Green who will executive produce and show run. Gaiman will executive produce the series, which is launching a casting search for the lead role of Shadow Moon.

“I am thrilled, ‎scared, delighted, nervous and a ball of glorious anticipation,” Gaiman said. “The team that is going to bring the world of American Gods to the screen has been assembled like the master criminals in a caper movie: I’m relieved and confident that my baby is in good hands. Now we finally move to the exciting business that fans have been doing for the last dozen years: casting our Shadow, our Wednesday, our Laura…”

The story centers around 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.

“With our partners at FremantleMedia and with Bryan, Michael and Neil guiding the project, we hope to create a series that honors the book and does right by the fans, who have been casting it in their minds for years,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said. “The search for Shadow begins today!”