Starz has announced a script to series development of FremantleMedia North America's (FMNA) adaptation of Neil Gaiman's acclaimed urban fantasy novel American Gods. The pilot script will be penned by Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies, Heroes) and Michael Green (The River, Kings), who will also showrun the series. They will executive produce along with Gaiman. FremantleMedia North America will produce the series.Starz Managing Director Carmi Zlotnik said, "American Gods is a project that deserves to be made. With our partners at FremantleMedia and with Bryan, Michael and Neil, we believe we can create a series that honors the book and does right by the fans and viewers."
Commented Neil Gaiman, "When you create something like American Gods, which attracts fans and obsessives and people who tattoo quotes from it on themselves or each other, and who all, tattooed or not, just care about it deeply, it's really important to pick your team carefully: you don't want to let the fans down, or the people who care and have been casting it online since the dawn of recorded history. 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. 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. And the team at Starz have been quite certain that they wanted to give Shadow, Wednesday and Laura a home since they first heard that the book was out there. I can't wait to see what they do to bring the story to the widest possible audience able to cope with it."
