On March 1st, Neil Gaiman spoke at the opening ceremony for this year’s Cambridge International Student Film Festival about his upcoming film and television work. The Book Smugglers were there, tweeting out the highlights, and Neil took control of the Festival’s own Twitter account before that, giving out revelations on how HBO will break up American Gods and the work that goes into his Doctor Who scripts.
On American Gods, forthcoming as an HBO TV series:
- The premiere episode of American Gods will be a lot like the opening chapters of the book, but will also contain new elements and details.
- The first two seasons of the show will consist of the book. By then Gaiman hopes to have the American Gods sequel novel written and headed for release.
- American Gods will debut this year if Gaiman can get the pilot script done in time to HBO’s satisfaction.
On writing Doctor Who:
- “The Doctor’s Wife” took 18 months to write and the process for “The Last Cyberman” was similar.
- Steven Moffat goes back and forth with Gaiman on edits for his scripts and “writes the best apologetic emails” when he’s got a big edit or rewrite for Gaiman.
On a movie for The Graveyard Book:
- Disney has purchased the movie rights and is planning on making it a headlining production.
On the upcoming Sandman prequel:
- The issues are already with the artist J.H. Williams, so production is full steam ahead on them.
A big thank you to The Book Smugglers for tweeting the opening talk and to CISFF for hosting Neil!