According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO and Tom Hanks’ Playtone Productions, are planning to run at least six seasons of American Gods, their TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s award-winning 2001 fantasy novel. It’s being reported that each season will have 10 to 12 hour-long episodes, with a budget between 30 to 40 million per season. This puts American Gods just a bit behind the epic fantasy Game of Thrones, which has an estimated budget of 50 to 60 million.
“There are some crazy things in there,” Playtone partner Gary Goetzman told the trade paper. “We’ll probably be doing more effects in there than it’s been done on a television series.”
American Gods offers the premise that deities and figures of myth and folklore exist only because people believe in them. In the book, an ex-convict named Shadow, has been released from prison after his wife is killed in a car crash, and is hired to be the bodyguard of a mysterious con man named Wednesday. However, it’s revealed that Wednesday is an incarnation of All-Father Odin, who’s traveling America to recruit other forgotten deities to wage an epic battle against the new American gods, which are manifestations of modern life and technology, like the Internet, media and credit cards.
Gaiman, who will serve as an executive producer and writer on the show, said on his Twitter feed, “And for those asking, No, 6 years of American Gods on TV doesn’t mean just the 1st book. It means I need to write the 2nd now, for a start.”
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