The Four Color Media Monitor

Uproxx discussed one of the disgraced Neil Gaiman's TV projects that currently remains unreleased, Anansi Boys, which was produced for Amazon Prime, but so far remains unreleased, for rather obvious reasons:

Out of the mountain of Neil Gaiman TV and film projects recently in process, Anansi Boys seemed like the most troubled earlier pick this year. Yet as many of the prolific comic book writer’s (former and ongoing) readers now know, Anansi Boys is almost the only project with a question mark beside it after others have been postponed, cut short, or cancelled.

[...] To briefly recap the show’s history, the six-episode series began filming in late 2021 and was in post production two years ago (as reported by Deadline), at which point co-showrunner Douglas Mackinnon abruptly exited. At around the same time, Mackinnon also departed Good Omens, leaving Gaiman as that series’ sole showrunner, a position that he no longer occupies.

[...] Most recently, Prime Video/Amazon scaled back Good Omens‘ third and final season to a 90-minute episode to bring the Aziraphale and Crowley story to an end. This followed Gaiman voluntary stepping away from the show.

As for who (if anybody) is now showrunning Anansi Boys, nobody is talking. And we definitely do not know if the project will ever surface on TV screens or streaming devices. Earlier this year, however, Dark Horse Comics announced that the story would be tackled as an individual comic series, although there’s no word on how that’s going in light of recent developments.

Well if Dark Horse's adaptation is also cancelled, it's no huge loss. Certainly, it's most unfortunate a whole production is now compromised as a result of the sexual abuse accusations Gaiman's now facing. And no doubt, it could be a very expensive production. But let's remember he's the foremost one to blame, and if it hadn't been for the atrocities he's accused of, the show would probably have been on the air by now. This wouldn't be the only project of its sort that found itself under a whole cloud following scandalous cases. 3 decades ago, after the now deceased O.J. Simpson was first arrested for the murder of his wife Nicole Brown and a new boyfriend of hers, a TV movie titled Frogmen had to be shelved by NBC, and if it hasn't been released to date, it likely never will be, since who in the right frame of mind can stand the sight of a man who murdered a defenseless woman, and all but got away with it? Similar problems exist even with writers who aren't in front of the camera, and even if consumers can divide between art and artist, not everyone wants to pay money for a subscription to see something adapted from the work of a bad man, if the residuals could end up in his pockets.

In the case of Good Omens, I do realize the late Sir Terry Pratchett may have been the main author of the book the Netflix show is adapted from, and Gaiman probably got second billing. Even so, the latter's tainted the work of the former, and while the TV show may be getting an ending, the stench of Gaiman's antics will still haunt the production for years to come. After this whole debacle, would it be too difficult for the entertainment industry to do a better job vetting people who come to work for it?

Labels: indie publishers, licensed products, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, violence