TeleChimp | TV Journalism

Tom Hanks’ Playtone production company is producing a six-season adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s award winning novel “American Gods” for HBO.

The series, currently in development, is one of a handful of projects Hanks’ production company is working on.

Each season of the series, expected to debut in 2013; will consist of 10-12 episodes with a budget of $35-40 million per season.

“American Gods,” published in 2001, surmises the existence of gods and mythological entities is dependent on whether we believe in them. The book presents a landscape where the power of these gods wanes resulting from a lack of belief in the old gods in favor of the gods of the contemporary era – media, celebrity, technology and drugs.

The novel itself is a blend of Americana, fantasy, ancient lore and modern mythology, all centering on a mysterious character named Shadow.

“There are some crazy things in there. We’ll probably be doing more effects in there than it’s been done on a television series,” Gary Goetzman, Hanks’ Playtone partner, told the Hollywood Reporter

The report said the series will delve into the rich, religious folklore from the novelization and will feature deities from Greek and Nordic mythology, in addition to the Judeo-Christian monotheistic God.

The Playtone Company, founded by Hanks and Goetzman in 1996, is an American production company heavily involved in film and television, having produced Castaway, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Mamma Mia, My Big Fat Greek Life and Band of Brothers, in addition to various television and film soundtracks in the past.

The company’s future projects include Major Matt Mason, a live-action family film about space adventure, as well as a film version of the Broadway musical American Idiot, based off the 2003 Green Day album of the same name.

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Gaylord Entertainment Co. has received a good addition to HBO as a prelude to the Saturday night’s title fight between Manny Paquiao and Antonio Margarito.

It took place during the last episode of HBO “24 / 7 Paquiao-Margarito,”series with two boxers preparing to fight at Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. Both fighters remained at the Gaylord Texan in the last week before the fight, which was often mentioned in the show. Margarito is a stage of work in a gym Gaylord Texan around 1 am, shortly after his arrival at the airport. There were also some outside shots of buses with the company logo.

Pacquiao won the fight in a unanimous decision to punish Margarito after round, to win his eighth title in different weight class eighth. Margarito battered with a swollen face and cuts around his eyes must have been quite a sight when checking the Gaylord Texan.

If Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather will never accept a fight, maybe Nashville could jump into the game trying to hold the event.

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Critics have been decrying the inventive decline of Hollywood pretty much since D.W. Griffith left the scene. “It’s just that the most sophisticated stuff is showing up on TV screens”, Edward Jay Epstein says.

Epstein tells NPR’s Guy Raz,”We’ve had a role reversal”. “Now, people go to television, especially pay television and premiere cable television, to watch their favorite programs like Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire and Damages. And they go to movies to see comic books: Spiderman, Batman, Superman and Avatar.”

Epstein wrote the book The Hollywood Economist: the Hidden Financial Reality behind the Movies. He says the dichotomy in Hollywood these days is a product of fundamentally different business realities between the big and small screens.

“The movie business is basically driven by marketing departments that have only one audience that they can guarantee to turn out on Friday and Saturday nights,” he says. “And that audience is teenagers and youth.

“Television, on the other hand, especially pay television, runs on a completely different business model. They have to stop people from canceling their subscriptions. So they have to reach the head of the household, who pays the bills. … So they have basically put more and more money into original programming to keep the adult audience paying the bill.”

The fundamental mission of a network like HBO — which pioneered original dramas on cable with The Sopranos, The Wire and now Boardwalk Empire — isn’t to make “art” or even to build viewer numbers.

“According to the top HBO executive ” Epstein says, “that they would rather have a program that had very low viewership but highest critical acclaim, especially in The New York Times and elite media, because when people read those kind of stories about The Sopranos or The Wire, their reaction is, ‘We cannot give this up!’ “

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HBO is mounting a new comedy series set at a country club, with actor Kevin Bacon producing and considering a starring role.

This HBO untitled series will be based on a 1995 novel “The Member-Guest,” by Clint McCown about a burned-out golf pro dealing with a small-town country club’s members while eying a pro golf comeback.

The series is being written by “Hot Tub Time Machine” director Steve Pink, who also wrote the John Cusack films “Grosse Point Blank” and “High Fidelity.”

Bacon has never play a lead role in a television series before, but he previously starred in the HBO original movie “Taking Chance,” an Iraq war drama. Kevin Bacon makes a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of the cable network’s comedy series “Bored to Death”.

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When “Hard Knocks” comes on HBO, Danny Woodhead had an important role, as he quickly became one of the much loving players of Jets coach Rex Ryan’s. , Danny Woodhead survived the final cuts when New York’s original 53-man roster was set but he was released later that week, and viewers who grew to like the diminutive back out of Chadron State wondered where he might end up.

Well, they can wonder no more — Danny Woodhead has found a home in New England with the Patriots. The 5-foot-9, 195-pound all-purpose player became the Patriots’ featured back in the second half of Monday night’s 41-14 New England win at Sun Life Stadium. He finished with eight carries for 36 yards, just one week after scoring on a key TD run against the Bills.

Danny Woodhead also caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Tom Brady on Monday, which allowed New England to regain a 27-14 lead after Miami had cut it to 20-14. Perhaps Ryan is going to regret letting the little guy go.

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Hollywood — GLAAD’s annual surveys of the portrayal of LGBT on television observe that near about four percent of characters are gay, lesbian, or bisexual.

HBO’s “True Blood” leads the pack with six regular gay characters.

ABC has the most LGBT characters across the broadcast networks, with 7.2 percent of all characters fitting this category. CBS was once again dead last, with just one series with a LGBT character (“Kalinda Sharma” on “The Good Wife.”)

ABC was also the only broadcast network to have gay lead characters, with the character of “Kevin Walker” on “Brothers & Sisters,” “Callie Torres” on “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Max” on “Happy Endings,” and “Mitchell” and “Cameron” on “Modern Family.”

There are 35 LGBT characters in shows on the mainstream cable networks (HBO, Showtime, etc.).

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation said in a press release that there is still a lot of room for improvement.

“It is troubling that the broadcast networks will not feature even one transgender character or one black LGBT character in the upcoming primetime lineup,” said GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios. ”Because what people see in the media has a huge impact on how they understand others and perceive themselves, the media has a responsibility to tell stories that include the diversity of our community.”

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An interesting comment was posted on Hibberd’s story about Thrones. The commenter states that he was talking to the Paint Hall studio manager today and apparently HBO is thinking of booking 2 hangers within the studio for the next 5 years.

I just wanted to let you know I was down at the set where Game of Thrones is filmed in Belfast today and I was talking to the Studio manager who told me that HBO have been inquiring about provisionally booking 2 hangers in the studio for 5 years. I wonder if this means they intend on having a set end date, obviously if it bombs they won’t need 5 years.

More positive signs. Although the 5 year thing is probably just HBO trying to get as good a deal as possible and doesn’t mean they are going to order a whole 5 seasons up front. I suspect that if the show really bombs, they will just cancel their booking with the Paint Hall and pay whatever fee that may result.

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