Earlier this year, FremantleMedia picked up the rights to Neil Gaiman’s American Gods after it languished in development for years at HBO. Now the project has a new home.
STARZ has announced that it has placed “American Gods” in development as a series with Bryan Fuller and Michael Green attached to co-write the pilot and executive produce the potential show alongside Gaiman. Fuller and Green previously collaborated on “Heroes.” Separately, Green wrote for “The River” and “Kings” while Fuller created “Pushing Daisies” and NBC’s critically acclaimed adaptation of “Hannibal.”
Related: Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’ Gets Another Chance At TV
Gaiman’s American Gods novel was first published in 2001 and it followed an ex-con named Shadow Moon, who serves as a bodyguard and traveling partner to Mr. Wednesday, a conman who is secretly one of the older gods who is attempting to marshal his forces against a new generation of gods who are formed from humanity’s worship of money, technology, drugs and other modern vices.
“What I love most about the team who I trust to take it out to the world, is that they are the same kind of fanatics that ’American Gods’ has attracted since the start,” said Gaiman in a statement. “I haven’t actually checked Bryan Fuller or Michael Green for quote tattoos, but I would not be surprised if they have them. The people at Fremantle are the kinds of people who have copies of ‘American Gods in the bottom of their backpacks after going around the world, and who press them on their friends… I can’t wait to see what they do to bring the story to the widest possible audience able to cope with it.”
STARZ has the North American rights to the potential “American Gods” TV series, while FremantleMedia will distribute the show to the rest of the world.
