Monday, June 13, 2011

60+ Hours for American Gods?!

According to This Link Tom Hanks will be producing 6 seasons each consisting of 10-12 hour long episodes for HBO. Now, I read American Gods. I didn't think that much of it. I certainly don't think that it needs 5-6 times the amount of time to tell that The Lord of the Rings did. 4 times the length of all 8 of the Harry Potter films combined. Even the Dark Tower wasn't going to get anything like that.

I can see having 60-70 hours for Game of Thrones. The shows that I've seen have moved at such a breakneck speed that I feel they must be condensing it down to even get in as much as they are. But that series is already, by page count, 5 times the length of Lord of the Rings, 8 times the length of American Gods. I could even see them adapting The Wheel of Time into 70+ episodes.

But not American Gods.

Beyond the absurd length, it is also going to have a possible budget of nearly 3.5 million per episode. Meaning it will some how cost the same to produce as Game of Thrones?!. It's set in dumpy towns in the US, the characters all wear normal clothes. Theres no massive sets to build, and apart from a few effects heavy sequences I just can't see where that money will be going to.. unless they plan to cast big name actors in the parts..


I don't get it. Why not invest all that time and money and effort and adapt something really good, that would actually benifit from a huge sprawling series.. like Sandman.

2 comments:

Trey said...

I would suspect the 6 seasons aren't an adaption of the book, but a series that uses the book and its setting/situation as inspiration.

Lagomorph Rex said...

Your probably right, I just don't think it has enough originality to mine to make it into something like that.

Granted I seem to be some what alone in that opinion.