Day: April 24, 2017

Television adaptation: ‘American Gods’ by Richard Gaiman

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The television adaptation of ‘American Gods’ by Richard Gaiman will premiere on Starz on Sunday April 30, 2017. Photo: Barnes & Noble

There is another book based series coming to television this month. This one is by Neil Richard Gaiman, British author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. He is best known for his comic book series The Sandman as well as the novels “Stardust,” “Coraline,” “The Graveyard Book” and “American Gods.” The first season consists of eight episodes and will premiere on Starz on Sunday April 30, 2017 and stars Ricky Whittle as Shadow Moon and Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday.

According to Amazon, “American Gods” is a mixture of Americana, fantasy with elements of ancient and modern mythology centering around a mysterious character named Shadow Moon. The central theme is that gods and mythological creatures exist if people believe in them and their power diminishes as people’s beliefs decline. Due to America’s new obsessions with media, celebrity, technology and drugs, new gods have arisen. Shadow Moon is a man serving three years in prison who is unexpectedly released with only days remaining on his sentence after his beloved wife Laura is killed. He meets an enigmatic man named Mr. Wednesday who offers him a job as a bodyguard, driver and overall errand boy. The truth is that Mr. Wednesday is the god Odin who is making his way across America reuniting the old gods to confront the new gods, including Media and Technology, who are growing stronger.

Television adaptation: ‘Einstein: His Life and Universe’ by Walter Isaacson

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The television adaptation of Walter Isaacson’s ‘Einstein: His Life and Universe’ premieres on Tuesday April 25, 2017. Photo: Barnes & Noble

 

Walter Isaacson is a writer, journalist, the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, the chairman and CEO of CNN and Managing Editor of Time. As an author, he has written biographies of Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein and Henry Kissinger. His best-selling biography of Albert Einstein, “Einstein: His Life and Universe” has been adapted into a ten-episode series for National Geographic making it the network’s first scripted series. It premieres on Tuesday April 25 and is executive produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and stars Johnny Flynn as a young Einstein, Emily Watson as his second wife and Geoffrey Rush as the older Einstein. This series takes viewers beyond the academic life of Einstein and focuses on his struggles to be a good husband and father and a man of principle during an era of global unrest.

According to Amazon, in “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” the author writes about how Einstein’s scientific imagination was born out of his rebellious personality. It is the story of how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk and struggling father became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos. His success was the product of his constant questioning of conventional wisdom and an appreciation of the mundane. His work led him to embrace a lifestyle based on respect for free minds, free spirits and free individuals.