Game of Thrones showrunners adapting Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory for Netflix

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss announce another new Netflix project: an adaptation of environmentalist novel The Overstory.

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss signed a lucrative Netflix deal back in 2019. So far, the only thing they’ve produced is a comedy special for Saturday Night Live veteran Leslie Jordan, a big Game of Thrones fan, but they have lots of stuff in the hopper. There’s The Chair, a university drama starring Sandra Oh; an adaptation of the hugely successful sci-fi series The Three-Body Problem, which looks like it’ll be their main focus assuming they can work out the political issues; and now, something new.

Collider reports that the duo will be adapting Richard Powers’ novel The Overstory, which won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2019, the year after it came out. The Overstory tells the story of nine people whose lives are all in some way affected by trees, ultimately delivering a message about conservation and deforestation.

Talking to The New York Times, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said The Overstory was the last great book he’d read. “It’s a wonderful example of how great storytelling can help build understanding and empathy. Original and profound.” That said, He wondered if it was possibly to adapt The Overstory visually — as you can tell from the description, it’s exactly a straightforward story. But George R.R. Martin wrote A Song of Ice and Fire to be unadaptable and Benioff and Weiss managed to turn it into the most successful TV series of the past decade, so they have experience there.

It’s not yet known if Benioff and Weiss intend to adapt The Overstory as a movie or a series. We don’t have a release date, either, but don’t worry: Netflix has plenty to entertain you with in the meantime.

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