Walking Dead creator adapting Chronicles of Amber, an inspiration for Game of Thrones, for TV
(Photo by Barry King/Getty Images)
The last time we discussed The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, we reported on the remarks he made regarding George R.R. Martin’s writing pace. He later apologized for those comments, a classy move, and faded from the Game of Thrones spotlight. Now, The Hollywood Reporter has it that Kirkman will be adapting for television a book series that helped inspire George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series: author Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber. Kirkman will executive produce the show though his Skybound Entertainment company, together with Skybound CEO Dave Alpert and Vincent Newman of Vincent Newman Entertainment. Said Newman:
"The greatness of the Amber universe is attested to by its millions of fans across the globe as well as its influence on so many other literary works. I can’t think of better partners in David and Robert with which to bring the Amber novels to television and other platforms."
Roger Zelazny died in 1995. George R.R. Martin called him a “storyteller without peer” in an In Memoriam post he wrote after his friend passed. “He created worlds as colorful and exotic and memorable as any our genre has ever seen.”
The Amber Chronicles stretch across 10 novels broken into two story arcs: The Corwin Cycle and The Merlin Cycle, each five books in length. The stories take place in two worlds: Amber and the Courts of Chaos. Earth and other worlds exist in the shadows, as Zelazny focuses on the tension between Amber and Chaos.
With millions of fans across the globe, Kirkman and his team might just have a hit on their hands if they can find the right network. In fact, Newman’s quote above reminds me of the description for Game of Thrones, a series networks are probably eager to ape right about now. With The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead on AMC and Outcast on Cinemax, Kirkman definitely knows how to successfully adapt a book series into a hit television show.
As for the connections that The Chronicles of Amber may have to Game of Thrones, in that same In Memorium piece he wrote about Zelazny, Martin pulled a quote from a 1967 novel written by his friend: Lord of Light (sound familiar?)”
"“But look around you…” he wrote in Lord of Light. “Death and Light are everywhere, always, and they begin, end, strive, attend, into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world, burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty.”"
Between the phenomenon that is Game of Thrones on HBO, the popularity of The Shannara Chronicles on MTV, and the success of Outlander on Starz, it would seem that now for quality adaptations of fantasy novels. The real question remains: Can Robert Kirkman turn The Chronicles of Amber into the next Game of Thrones? Stay tuned.