After a long drought of news regarding the television adaptation of American Gods, Neil Gaiman has given a substantial update on the status of the project. He took part in a podcast with Empire Magazine to talk about his latest novel, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, and took the time to answer questions about the American Gods series.
American Gods details the story of a man called Shadow, an ex-con who is released from prison a few days early, after the death of his wife. He then meets and is hired by a mysterious con man named Mr. Wednesday. Wednesday is an incarnation of an Old God who is gathering an army of other gods to start a war with the newer generation of gods that the people of America worship. These new gods are the masters of the modern world, including computers, media, television, drugs, etc.
Neil Gaiman
Gaiman has been writing the script for the pilot himself, and he admitted that he’s been having some trouble getting it exactly right.
“ I did the third draft script recently and I think the biggest problem [with the first draft] was completely my fault.”
In an interesting twist, Gaiman said that he’s been adding in more narrative into the story than everyone expected. He said that this is what caused a bit of the delay with the show’s production. The executives at HBO were actually hoping for a script that followed the book a bit more closely than the script he’d given them.
“I wrote this first draft script that I loved. One of the reasons I loved it was because I go to do all this new stuff that wasn’t in the book. I got to open it up. Look, the book begins with Shadow in prison, about to get out of prison, so I opened the [pilot episode so] you got to see the bank robbery that went wrong, you got to see all the things that wound up with him in prison, you got to see his entire three-year stretch in prison… you’re half an hour into this thing before he’s getting out of prison – stuff like that – and it was definitely the sort of awkward, embarrassed notes from HBO where they’re going ‘Um, can you make it more like the book?”
Gaiman claimed that he added so much more detail into the script because he “I just love the idea of giving fans of the book stuff where they don’t know what’s going to happen.” Nevertheless, the new draft of the script is much closer to the original story.
“Draft 3 was me basically going ‘So here is the draft that’s an awful lot like the book’ and we’re throwing in a little more stuff just to put people up… I got a phone call the other day, it was ridiculously positive and [the show] seems to be happening… [I’ve been told] there are flashbacks, nothing is wasted, nothing is lost.”
With this news from the man himself in mind, it might not be too long before we start hearing a lot more about the project.
What do you think about what Gaiman had to say about the project? Are you excited for the American Gods television show? What other material do you think that he could have been adding for the show? Why don’t you just tell us what you think in the comments below?
Source: Screen Rant