George R.R. Martin talks rush of movie and TV projects, The Winds of Winter

A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has been in the news a lot lately, and not for anything related to A Song of Ice and Fire. All of a sudden, the guy’s name is getting plastered on all kinds of movies and TV shows, whether he’s developing them himself (Roadmarks for HBO) or someone else is adapting his work (Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson making a movie based on his story In The Lost Lands).

And then there’s Sandkings, an upcoming Netflix movies based on a 1979 story that Martin calls “the story I was best known for, before A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE came along.” That one, a twisted sci-fi tale about a rich playboy who makes the wrong choice of exotic pet, will be helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski.

Sandkings was actually adapted before, as the pilot for the 1995 revival of Outer Limits. Writing on his Not a Blog, Martin promises that the new movie will be much closer to the original story. “[T]he OUTER LIMITS simply did not have the money to do all the things that they wanted to do.”

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Like I said, Martin is everywhere at the moment. The author seems almost bemused by it. “I am not quite sure why all these stories seem to be breaking now,” he wrote. “The SANDKINGS project has been underway for more than a year (Covid obviously shut things down) and IN THE LOST LANDS for something like six years. We also have an animated feature of THE ICE DRAGON in development at Warner’s.

"And that’s just in the feature sphere. In television, as seen here, I am working with Kalinda Vazquez on a pilot for Roger Zelazny’s ROADMARKS, and I am part of the terrific team that is trying to bring Nnedi Okorafor’s WHO FEARS DEATH to series on HBO. I think we’re finally getting close on that one; we’ve been interviewing possible directors lately, and the last one was VERY impressive."

If he doesn’t know why all this is happening now, I’m happy to give my two cents: Martin is the guy who wrote the books on which Game of Thrones is based, Game of Thrones was a huge hit, and now every studio and their mother is trying to snap up any story with his name attached in the hope of catching some of that success. It’s not rocket science.

George R.R. Martin teases even more Game of Thrones projects?

Speaking of Game of Thrones, let’s not forget about the spin-off HBO is cooking up. “Of course there’s HOUSE OF THE DRAGON at HBO, the GAME OF THRONES prequel series that Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] are helming, and maybe possibly some other stuff for HBO that I cannot tell you about (but it is very exciting), and also a new series for AMC that I also cannot tell you about… yet… (hint, hint).”

We’ve heard that HBO is working on other Game of Thrones spin-off shows, including one about Robert’s Rebellion, an adaptation of Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg, and an animated drama. He could be referring to one or all of those here, or he could be referring to something else entirely. I imagine whatever is on AMC has nothing to do with Game of Thrones, since HBO has the rights to that series sewn up.

In short, Martin suddenly a lot on his plate when it comes to TV and movies, although he’s also mindful of that other thing he has to finish. “I need to finish WINDS, and then maybe write another Dunk & Egg novella, and then get right into A DREAM OF SPRING, and in between edit some more Wild Cards books,” he wrote. “Once more into the breach, dear friends… Westeros beckons.”

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