{"id":475,"date":"2014-06-18T21:27:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-18T21:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/wtf-wednesdays-hbo-couldnt-adapt-american-gods\/"},"modified":"2015-02-21T10:53:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T18:53:45","slug":"wtf-wednesdays-hbo-couldnt-adapt-american-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jeremyvarner.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/wtf-wednesdays-hbo-couldnt-adapt-american-gods\/","title":{"rendered":"WTF Wednesdays – HBO Couldn’t Adapt American Gods?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Neil Gaiman is a member of the nerd god pantheon. Though few of the mainstream know him by name, he\u2019s definitely the Nerd Pantheon\u2019s Hermes to Joss Whedon\u2019s Poseidon (who can make a ship sink or sail with very little warning) and George R.R. Martin\u2019s Hades (for he presides over grim shit and dead people). Gaiman is the nerdy trickster, whimsical, on the move, still providing wisdom from on high but mostly just creating things with a flair for batshit and little care for what could be considered normal. Gaiman is to books what Tim Burton is to movies (except he hasn\u2019t overstayed his welcome and doesn\u2019t have a fetish for Depp in white makeup).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Burton’s been doing this to Depp for decades.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So it makes sense that one of Gaiman\u2019s most popular works is a novel talking about the modern interpretation and existence of gods. American Gods is a whimsical little take on modern society and the evolution of culture, with old gods adjusting to the modern society while new gods are born out of concepts such as the internet and television. It was a great premise and obviously ripe for the picking for a television adaptation. And, considering how well they\u2019ve been doing with book adaptations on TV, everyone was kind of hyped when HBO picked it up.<\/p>\n

Then HBO lost the option and said they couldn\u2019t make the concept work… WTF?<\/p>\n

You Fumble This And Not True Blood?<\/h2>\n

Back in November 2013 we all found out together that the American Gods HBO adaptation was DOA and that the rights had passed from HBO\u2019s clutches to greener pastures. Considering HBO had been riding high on book adaptations recently (especially the one written by the guy everyone should probably cut some slack<\/a>), it seemed like this should have been a slam dunk. After all, HBO was already producing something that was tricky to adapt and the fans of that show were likely to be fans of this new thing as well (after all, two of the nerd pantheon existing side by side).<\/p>\n

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So how exactly do you manage to drop the ball on that one? It wasn\u2019t until almost 8 months later that we find out from an interview with an HBO executive just what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re all huge fans of the book, and I think the script just didn\u2019t \u2014 we couldn\u2019t craft the script as good as we needed it to be. I think we knew going in that it would be a challenge; every good book is a challenge to adapt it and find the level you need for it. The bar is high now for great dramas. And to find that bar \u2014 we tried. So it was a huge disappointment [\u2026] We tried three different writers, we put a lot of effort into it. Some things just don\u2019t happen. We have to trust at the end of the day, if you don\u2019t have a star with a great script, you\u2019re just not going to go through with it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, let me get this straight\u2026 you managed to find writers to pick up the reigns of a critically acclaimed ongoing and incomplete book series that may not be finished until 2023. You managed to take that and get writers competent enough to turn giant books into seasons into hour long chunks that can be viewed without breaking the flow or seeming pointless. You managed to get writers competent enough to actually have people say \u201cI trust these guys to make adjustments when necessary\u201d. Hell, you found writers that managed to turn a lesser known vampire franchise into a series lasting\u2026 7 seasons?!<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Oh god, Charlaine Harris is dominating me by proximity alone.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

If Game of Thrones is written by the writing equivalent of wizards who bend time and space to somehow NOT overtake George Really Rundown Martin then True Blood is written by god damn alchemists for their ability to turn something basic into gold. And I\u2019m not throwing stones from another glass house, I live in that house<\/b><\/i>. True Blood is in my genre, it\u2019s standing on my neck, I look up upon the true face of the beast. It calls itself a mystery but it\u2019s really just lots of fucking!<\/p>\n

I mean, let\u2019s be honest here, True Blood wouldn\u2019t have existed without Twilight. I don\u2019t mean the book series – that existed years before Twilight. But all of a sudden after people discovered the fact teenage girls want to fuck Vampires everyone\u2019s gotten a little of that action. And, once again, I\u2019m living in that same glass house, listening to the happy sounds from the next room over and muttering to myself \u201cthey\u2019d love me if I were sexy too.\u201d It\u2019s not petty throwing of stones from a distance, I\u2019m just fully aware that the likes of my work and True Blood are operating a little outside that domain HBO has defined.<\/p>\n

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And I\u2019m also not saying they\u2019re bad books, our genre just isn’t what HBO is talking about when they’re talking about the bar they’ve set. They’re not super heavy, they don’t take 7 books to find resolutions to minor plot threads. You don\u2019t need to read over a million words or watch 4 seasons to keep up to date on our worlds, you just need to pick up the book or turn on the TV and get a little recap. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that and I’m happy to be standing next to (or under) Charlaine Harris in this genre. But it says something about what HBO was really saying and I\u2019ve got a response to you guys.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re never going to have another series exactly like Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m sorry, but it had to be said. A lot of the reason why Game of Thrones happens to work is because it IS \u201cdifferent\u201d. A Song of Ice and Fire is written to be as counter to as many tropes as possible and continually manages to burst bubbles. This is novel the first time tried because everyone stops to marvel at how novel it is. But when someone else tries it (and they will), it\u2019s going to look like a cheap attempt to catch lightning in a bottle twice. You are not going to pull that off and you shouldn\u2019t try.<\/p>\n

And the stupidest part of this is, if that\u2019s not what you were thinking and trying to do with American Gods then there\u2019s actually a screenwriter out there who could have pulled off a pilot for you with very little problem. He\u2019s adapted plenty of Gaiman\u2019s work, has a great understanding of his style and works well with him. Hell, his screenplays have been well received by the fans of his work and he could probably help you nail down what style you need and what kind of writers you should be looking for. That man\u2019s name is\u2026 Neil Gaiman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Seen here communing with another member of the pantheon<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

So when you say you can\u2019t find a star with a great script, what you\u2019re really saying is that either your standards have gotten too narrow or your past successes were mostly just dumb luck. Because when you really look hard at what you\u2019ve got already\u2026<\/p>\n