Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire may have rocketed George RR Martin to celeb status, but the fantasy writer has penned more original stories than almost anyone else in the business. His books are constantly being placed at the center of conversation for possible TV versions, with everything from Game of Thrones prequels to the Wild Cards books in the production house crosshairs.
Well, he can now officially say that one of those projects has come to fruition, as Martin has announced that his phenomenal Skin Trade (one of my personal favorites) has had a script purchase by Cinemax.
What that means is that the cable network has purchased the rights to have a script written, which — if received well — could go on to having a one-off pilot filmed. If the pilot passes internal review and preview audiences enjoy it, it could head to full time production. The process is long, and is the same one that Game of Thrones itself went through, and could mean that a show based on the novella could arrive in 2018 at the absolute earliest.
For the uninitiated, Skin Trade was written by Martin in the late 80s as a novella, and part of the Night Visions 5 anthology. It’s a sort of werewolf dark mystery story, going on to win several horror and fantasy awards. Think of True Blood, but with a plot that centers around a more personal family focus. When Martin completed work on the Beauty and the Beast TV show, he pitched the work to TV but it never made traction. It was eventually reprinted several times, and in an excellent graphic novel/trade paperback curated by Daniel Abraham.
The script will be written by Kalinda Vasquez, who’ll also be the show’s producer.
Source: George RR Martin
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