George R.R. Martin wants Guillermo del Toro to adapt his vampire novel Fevre Dream (Exclusive)

George R.R. Martin may be best known for writing A Song of Ice and Fire, his sprawling epic fantasy series which was adapted into the mega-hit show Game of Thrones by HBO, but he's written a lot of other works too. Martin's career as a writer goes all the way back to the early 1970s, where he first made a name for himself writing short fiction and novels that spanned the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In those days, he hadn't yet created Westeros; that means he has quite a catalog of stories which are set elsewhere, from the cold depths of space to strange alien worlds and even historical periods on our own Earth. And if Martin has his way, we'll see more of those non-Westeros stories get adapted to film in the future.

Last month we had the absolute honor of interviewing Martin in Glasgow, Scotland, where he was attending this year's World Science Fiction Convention. Soon, we'll be publishing our entire conversation, but throughout the coming week we'll be sharing previews to give you a glimpse of what's in store.

One of the many things we asked Martin was which of his non-Westeros works he'd be most excited to see adapted for film with a budget comparable to Game of Thrones or its spinoff House of the Dragon. As it turns out, that question is something Martin had clearly spent a lot of time thinking about.

"Fevre Dream," he answered without hesitation. "I love Fevre Dream, and I've had numerous meetings. I've written a screenplay for Fevre Dream, we did develop it at one point. They didn't make the screenplay of course, but the rights reverted to me, so I own it."

Fevre Dream is a novel that Martin published in 1982, and in his vast catalog of works outside of Westeros, it still stands as one of the best (at least in this writer's opinion). It's a vampire novel set along the Mississippi River in the mid-1800s, which dials deep into Martin's strengths as a horror writer. The story follows a grizzled, down-on-his-luck steamboat captain named Abner Marsh, who's contracted by a mysterious man named Joshua York to ferry him up and down the river so that he can fulfill a secretive agenda. Marsh unwittingly becomes wrapped up in a wider world of vampiric politics, filled with twists and turns that would make any Song of Ice and Fire reader feel right at home.

GRRM has met with Guillermo del Toro about adapting Fevre Dream

Martin even knows who he'd want to direct a Fevre Dream movie. "I've had meetings with Guillermo del Toro about Fevre Dream," the author revealed. "He loves it, he says he wants to do it...but he doesn't want to do it now. He always has this project first and that project first, and then this other project. But eventually he'll do Fevre Dream, if he lives that long and I live that long and movies live that long, I don't know...I think Fevre Dream would be great."

Guillermo del Toro would probably make a hell of a Fevre Dream movie. He's a veteran film maker whose imaginative works like Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water have gained him widespread acclaim and numerous awards, but beyond all that, his particular style seems very well-suited for a dark, dramatic horror story like Fevre Dream. And del Toro isn't the only talent Martin has in mind.

"We wanna star Ron Perlman, we've even cast it!" he said. "My friend Ron Perlman as Abner Marsh. Ron wants to do it. Everybody wants to do it, all we need is $100 million."

George R.R. Martin wants Ron Perlman to play Abner Marsh in a Fevre Dream movie

Perlman and Martin have worked together before, back when Perlman starred in the late-1980s CBS television series Beauty and the Beast, opposite Terminator's Linda Hamilton. Martin served as a writer on the series, and eventually as a co-supervising producer through the end of its run in 1990. "Working with Ron Perlman was one of the great pleasures of my life. He was just a joy to write for," Martin told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2017 interview looking back on the series. 

As it turns out, del Toro has also worked with Perlman, who starred as the title character in both of his Hellboy movies. So this all sounds like a match made in heaven for Fevre Dream.

With his towering physicality and gruff demeanor, it's very easy for me to picture Ron Perlman making a great Abner Marsh. Here's hoping that one day we get to see it. In the meantime, George R.R. Martin's novel Fevre Dream is widely available and very much worth a read, so if you're curious you can check it out.

Winter Is Coming's full interview with George R.R. Martin is coming soon. We'll be sharing a few more previews leading up to it, so be sure to check back often throughout this week!

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