Neil Gaiman Signs Overall Deal With Amazon Studios
Legendary visionary and award-winning writer Neil Gaiman has signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios the streaming service has announced today.
This would seem to come as a natural extension of the authors existing relationship with the company, who are currently producing a number of his projects. They include the screen adaptation of his novel ‘American Gods’, and the much anticipated upcoming adaptation of ‘Good Omens’, which Gaiman wrote with Terry Pratchett.
“Neil Gaiman is a phenomenally talented writer, who creates worlds that are compelling, multi-dimensional and narratively unique,” comments Jennifer Salke, Head of Amazon Studios. “His fans are ardent, vocal and passionate and we are fortunate to bring his gifted vision to the Prime Video audience.”
“What decided me was how much I enjoyed working with the Amazon team on Good Omens,” adds Gaiman. “They are smart, gloriously enthusiastic people, who weren’t afraid of Good Omens being different but who were as determined as I was to make something as unique and exciting as it is. I’m thrilled to know that I’ll have a home at Amazon in the future where I can make television that nobody’s seen before, that’s quite unlike Good Omens, but just as unusual and just as much fun.”
Regardless of whether it is brand new IP or adaptations of Gaiman’s original work, they are not short of things to work with. Some of his novels have already been adapted, such as ‘Neverwhere’, which the BBC made in 1996, and ‘Stardust’, which was turned into a movie in 2007, plus ‘American Gods’ and ‘Good Omens’. That still leaves stories such as ‘Anansi Boys’, ‘The Ocean at the End of the Lane’ (Winner of the UK National Book Awards Book of the Year 2013) and his most recent book, ‘Norse Mythology’, which has become an international bestseller and a publishing phenomenon. On top of that, there are all the short story collections – Smoke and Mirrors, Fragile Things and Trigger Warning. And, of course, there is also Gaiman’s hugely popular comic book property ‘Sandman’, which would seem ripe for series adaptation.
Amazon has steadily been expanding the number of interesting projects over the last 18 months, locking down deals with some huge writers and licenses. These include: An overall deal with ‘The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman; A commitment to at least 2 seasons of a ‘Lord Of The Rings’ series by JD Payne and Patrick McKay; An adaptation of ‘The Boys’ comic books from ‘Preacher’s Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Eric Kripke starring Karl Urban; Adaptations of sci-fi novels ‘Ringworld’, ‘Lazarus’ & ‘Snow Crash’; Development of a series based on the Iain M. Banks ‘Culture’ novels; A ‘Conan the Barbarian’ series; A remake of Channel 4’s ‘Utopia’ from ‘Gone Girl’ Writer Gillian Flynn; A William Gibson’s ‘The Peripheral’ series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy; A series about Spanish Conquistador, Hernan Cortes from Spielberg starring Javier Bardem; Not forgetting, they also saved ‘The Expanse’ for a 4th season.
Whilst they haven’t announced any new projects yet, we eagerly await to see what new properties come out of this new Amazon/Gaiman deal.
