George R.R. Martin is the author of the Song of Ice and Fire series, which HBO adapted as Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones was a monster hit that has produced two spinoff series: House of the Dragon is gearing up for its third season and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres this year, and there are more shows in development. That makes Martin one of the more influential writers working today; even short stories of his that have nothing to do with Westeros, like In The Lost Lands, are getting turned into movies.
And if Martin has his way, there will be more. While promoting In The Lost Lands, Collider asked him what scenes he's written he's most looking forward to seeing onscreen. Of course he named some scenes from the books he's written about Westeros, but he also brought up his 1982 novel Fevre Dream, which is set on a steamboat on the Mississippi River in the 1850s. The twist? The boat is lousy with vampires. Martin describes the book as "Bram Stoker meets Mark Twain."
"I think maybe my favorite child is my vampire book, Fevre Dream, which, until I started withGame of Thrones, was definitely the best of my preceding novels," Martin said. He even had a deal with Disney years ago to turn Fevre Dream into a movie — Martin even wrote a screenplay — but it fell apart. Now, he's talking with three directors to try it again, but he has conditions: for one, he wants whoever makes it, if they make it, to use his screenplay. And he wants it set on a steamboat in the 1850s, not modernized in some way.
"This would be the dream project more than any others," Martin said. "If it is made, I don't want to hire some other writer to have his version. I want my version. I want to get a director on it who loves the material and would be a great director. We've had interest from at least three fairly major directors, two of whom I love. They’re great, great directors, and it would be amazing to work with them. The third is a good, solid director, but I wouldn’t say in the same category as the other two. But still, that would be a good movie from them."
George R.R. Martin does not like it when Hollywood changes his books
First of all, my sympathies to that third director, whoever it is. Second, if Martin seems prickly about this hypothetical adaptation staying true to the source material, that's because he is; he admits he's "fussy" on this topic, and there's plenty of evidence to back that up. Ever since he spoke out publicly against how much House of the Dragon has broken with his book Fire & Blood, he seems to have been talking about the importance of textual fidelity a lot.
It's worth noting that the In The Lost Lands movie is extremely different from his short story, and yet he's out promoting that, so it's not that Martin is against changing things on principle. But Fevre Dream may be particularly important to him. And again, it feels like he's been extra touchy on this topic since House of the Dragon went its own way; I don't have a direct line to anyone involved, but my impression as a fan is that Martin feels burned by that.
And of course, Martin is also still working on the long-awaited sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. Or as he puts it, "I’m also trying to write the novels and do all of that." What will get done first?
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