Good Omens TV series

YoSaffBrig is War and Scotty is Aziraphale!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OWYrEue9l8

edited 31st Mar '11 2:39:20 AM by Sakan4k

Right, if someone is going to step on somebody's hopes, might as well crush them all out.

It's not real. Of course, it's not real. The project has been declared fairly recently, no filming has been done, casting hasn't been confirmed, no way is anyone going to make an end credits sequence for it. The credits clash with what we already know, it's produced by the wrong people, marked as a film, when this is a TV series, contains far too expensive actors, has been released on You Tube of all things and explicitly says that it is fictional.

That is not really so much hope crushing, as it is being level headed.

edited 20th Apr '11 4:00:59 PM by eX

SQUEE! So excited for this! Does anybody have a release date, or is it too early to tell?

As much as I love Sandman — which is very much indeed — I can't think of a way to make it work as TV without sacrificing a lot of what made it interesting. You don't read its plot so much as you assemble it, out of dozens of more or less independent stories with widely differing tones, casts, and even genres, and that doesn't work nearly as well outside of the comic-anthology format. It'd be expensive, difficult to produce and to watch, and most importantly it'd be an incredibly hard sell.

This, though? This could work. So could American Gods, if there's a market for pure Gaiman.

HBO's already banking on an American Gods series

Fucking finally...

In general I think that novel adaptions would be better as TV series than films. Good Omens however, is a major exception. If it was anounced that any other devolpment hell movie I was interested in would be made into a series instead I'd be very excited, so this is a bit of a shame.

American Gods, on the other hand, should be great.

It depends on how many episodes are going to be in the show, and how long those episodes will be. Miniseries are usually one hour, but it could be cut into half-hour chunks, too. Too many episodes and it would stretch the plot too thin and become boring, but too few and it would miss all the small, funny details that made the book good, and miss the whole point of making it into a miniseries instead of a movie. How many would you guys prefer?

Could work either as a movie or as a miniseries. If the mini was successful and the right people (namely Gaiman as at least a consultant and part time writer) were involved I could even see Shadow's adventures after the book being turned into a full time series

I think if the novel was adapted in the right way then it could potentialy last for a whole season. The main problem would be getting people to accept such a relitavley passive protagonist onscreen. I'd guess that a mini series would proportionately increase Wednesday's role and so avoid the issue. (Edit) Sorry this 1st para is about American Gods)

For Good Omens I would like there to be as few gaps as possible. The pace probably wouldn't be affected too much by it being made as a two parter. I there's one natural cliffhanger in the book. Although I think the, Admitadely disjaring, practise of having random episode ends would work better than artificialy creating cliffhangers. I agree.

edited 21st Apr '11 2:04:27 PM by C0mraid

I can't really picture how to break it up into chunks, though. I mean, it's been a while since I read it, but I believe it doesn't even have chapters. And I don't think the protagonist will be a problem; it's an ensemble cast anyway. Out of Aziraphale and Crowley, the Horsemen, Adam, and Newton and Anathema, all the various groups get pretty much equal screentime.

True. Making sure that Crowley and Aziraphael didn't start to hog the spotlight (though I love them dearly) would be a very pressing issue.

It'll be very challenging not letting Crowley dominate. I imagine he'll be the Mr. Fanservice for sure. But then again, it's not like the other characters aren't interesting, especially the Horsemen. My worry in terms of screentime is actually Adam. In the book, his character was interesting because of what it represented: humanity. Most of what's memorable about him was in the narration, not in his actions or even his dialogue. I remember one line in particular: "There was never an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got for eating it." Symbolism like that might not transfer well onto the screen, and he could just become this annoying kid.

edited 21st Apr '11 10:28:39 PM by OnTheOtherHandle

Ooh, I love that unfortunately fake credit sequence. Really well done and their casting choices are spot on.

Yeah, Christina Hencricks as War would have been awesome.

Perhaps if the series had a narrator it could work?

Oh right, greetings, new to this whole "Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett are awesome" bandwagon having only finished the book two days ago. It wouldn't be any good as a movie, too little time. It would be hard but a series is probably the better route. Hour long episodes may be best.

Here's what I forsee:

Adam, rather than being the anti-christ with immense reality warping abilities, is a Dennis the Menace style kid with no powers whatsoever. Mr and Mrs Young are his real parents which is all neither here nor there because Adam will only make one or two token appearances because the show will be all about Crowley, who is not a demon, he's a lawyer. Aziraphale is far too much an unusual name, so they'll change his name to Steve and make him a flaming homosexual. Think Jack from Will And Grace times a thousand. And of course, he's not an angel or a bookshop owner, he's an interior designer.

The whole subplot with Anathema Device, Agnes Nutter, the Witchhunters and the Four Horsemen(and the other Four Horsemen) will be cut out entirely, and the main plot will be less about finding the antichrist and more about the every day adventures of Crowley and Steve. There will also be no mention of God or Satan or anything else remotely religious.

Oh yes, and Crowley will be played by Andy Dick and Steve will be Adam Goldberg.

edited 26th Apr '11 7:56:08 AM by Anaheyla

And you base this on? I mean besides the fifth of Jack Daniels in your hand.

I don't drink. I base it on cynicism. An intentional exaggeration of the ways they will ruin Good Omens when they adapt it.

Doesn't seem a well-grounded speculation. Everything else of Neal Gaiman's that's been adapted so far has followed the original pretty closely and I get the impression he wouldn't approve an adaptation if it wasn't close. Ditto with Pratchett.

I will be glad to be wrong.

If this turns out well, I will be so happy. This is one of my favourite books!

IMDB says 2013 is when it'll be out, but I don't know how accurate that is.

Started reading the book today.

Honestly, as a Pterry/Gaiman collab, I thought I was ready for anything.

I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition. I wish I was joking, but it really came out of nowhere. Then again, hippies naming their child Pippin Galadriel Moonchild...

Well, I suppose nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, especially if it's led by HaruhiThe Antichrist.