It would appear that Amazon Prime Video is going all on the work of Neil Gaiman, as hot on the heels of commissioning a second season of Good Omens, the first of which was based on his co-written novel with the late Sir Terry Pratchett, Amazon have now ordered a her series based on Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Amazon have already delivered three seasons of American Gods from the author’s book, and with the trickster god appearing in both books it is easy to see why they would want to add this to their portfolio.
While Anansi Boys is not a direct American Gods sequel, it does feature Mr. Nancy, the modern incarnation of West African trickster god Anansi, who in this story dies, leaving behind twin sons who have been separated for years but go on to discover each other’s existence in the world. The book was published in 2005, debuting on top of the New York Times’ Best Seller list and going on to win the Locus Award and British Fantasy Society Award.
Gaiman will be on co-writing duty for the Amazon Prime series along with comedy legend Sir Lenny Henry, with Gaiman writing the first and last episodes of the six part limited series himself. Hanelle M Culpepper, who helmed the pilot episode of Picard, will be lead director on the series, with Granchester’s Jermain Julien and Doctor Who’s Azhur Saleem also directing episodes.
“Anansi Boys began around 1996, from a conversation I had with Lenny Henry about writing a story that was diverse and part of the culture that we both loved. I wrote a novel, an (I hope) joyous and funny book about a dead god and his two sons, about birds and ghosts and beasts and cops, based in Caribbean and African tales. It was my first number one NYT Bestseller, and went on to become a beloved and award winning book,” Neil Gaiman said.
“Anansi Boys as a TV series has been a long time coming – I first started working with Endor and Red on making it over a decade ago. We needed Amazon Prime to come on board and embrace our vision, we needed a lead director with the craft and vision of Hanelle Culpepper, we needed the creative and technical wizardry of Douglas Mackinnon, who worked out how we could push the bounds of the possible to shoot a story set all over the world in a huge studio outside Edinburgh, and we needed the rest of the amazing talents that nobody knows about yet,” he added.
Henry added, “I’ve been a huge fan, and couch sleeping friend, of Neil Gaiman’s for over 30 years and I have loved being a part of the Anansi Boys’ creative team. I love that we’re going to have a suitably diverse cast and crew to tell this joyous story. What’s great is that the whole production is listening and ensuring that inclusion is happening and is being seen to be done.”
For fans of Gaiman, Anansi Boys is just another series being made from his work after a long time of being one of those author’s whose work was so visually challenging that it had to wait for technology to catch up with it. A prime example of this is the Sandman series, which is currently in production at Netflix, and like Anansi Boys, and the new season of Good Omens will be eagerly awaited by Gaiman’s following. This news comes courtesy of Deadline.
You can view the original article HERE.
