‘Hannibal’ Creator Bryan Fuller to Serve as Showrunner for Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’
Bryan Fuller is a busy man. After NBC renewed “Hannibal” for third season, the “Heroes” and “Pushing Daisies” helmer is taking on another project as the writer and showrunner for Neil Gaiman‘s “American Gods.” Fuller will be writing the pilot with his partner on “Heroes” Michael Green, who will also serve as co-showrunner on the Starz series.
“American Gods” is Gaiman’s 2001 urban fantasy novel which focused on “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,” according to the press release.
“Neil Gaiman has created the holiest of holy toy boxes with ‘American Gods’ and filled it with all manner of magical thing, born of new gods and old,” Fuller said in the release. “Michael Green and I are thrilled to crack this toy box wide open and unleash the fantastical titans of heaven and earth and Neil’s vividly prolific imagination.”
Gaiman will serve as executive producer along with Fuller and Green. The project is being produced by FreeMantle Media North America.
“When you create something like ‘American Gods,'” Gaiman said in the release, “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.”
Starz will first test the waters of fantasy TV when “Outlander” arrives August 9. Executive produced by Ronald D. Moore, that series is also based on a popular novel, though with a more romantic storyline. No timeline was given for the “American Gods” expected release.
