Aside from ‘American Gods,’ Neil Gaiman has also been busy with what some may call his “passion project,” being executive producer and showrunner on another series, this time for Amazon called ‘Good Omens.’ The series is based on a book he wrote with the late Terry Pratchett in 1990 which is about the coming of the end of times and the attempt of an angel and a demon, who have befriended each other after 6,000 years of living on earth, to stop the apocalypse. Oh, and the whole thing is done with a light, humorous tone contrasting the dire situation which is part of what makes it great.
At New York Comic Con this week Gaiman and company unveiled the first trailer for ‘Good Omens,’ which stars David Tenant and Michael Sheen (as well as many others, including Jon Hamm), and the trailer looks to perfectly hit the tone of the novel, even including a song from Queen whose work is heavily featured in the original story. When asked at the NYCC panel about what working on the series was like decades after having read the book and become a fan, star Sheen answered:
“It is like a dream come true for me. I just have to put up with these terrible actors.”
Jon Hamm, who plays the angel Gabriel in the series (a character not in the books), quipped to the audience that:
“I did this for money, Amazon paid me so much money I said sure.”
When asked about adapting ‘Good Omens’ for television Gaiman sounded particularly excited about the subject matter, telling Radio Times:
“Normally when people say, ‘What’s it like?’, what they really want is you to say something like, ‘It’s Casablanca in Space’ or whatever. They would like you to compare it to other things. Good Omens from the start has been this thing where there’s no thing to compare it to. There’s never been anything like this thing, and we’re making it, so it’s itself. That is simultaneously incredibly liberating and terrifying.”
While speaking to the Radio Times, David Tennant spoke about the complexity of visual effects since his time on ‘Doctor Who’ stating:
“That’s what’s interesting about doing a show like this. It’s ten years since I did Doctor Who, which has a similar mixture of practical effects and visual effects – and the world has moved on really fast. When we did Doctor Who there would be about five CGI shots per episode. Now we’re almost up to five per scene.”
The whole things sounds very intriguing, and I cannot wait to see what Gaiman and company have in store for us when Amazon premieres ‘Good Omens.’ Until then, at least we have the new trailer to examine (you can check it out below), as well as the new images that were released (which you can also check out below).
What are your thoughts on ‘Good Omens?’ Had you heard of the book before Amazon started adapting it to be a series? Is it something you are interested in? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!
