After making a big splash on the small screen with Game of Thrones on HBO, it’s a wonder that competing networks haven’t shopped around George R.R. Martin’s other fantasy. That’s all about to change, though, after the esteemed author himself announced that Cinemax – a channel that also acts as a home to Banshee and The Knick – has snapped up the rights to create a live-action series based on Martin’s horror novella Skin Trade.
Billed as an “offbeat werewolf noir,” it’s understood that the project has entered the very early stages of planning, with Martin quick to note that Cinemax optioning the property doesn’t necessarily guarantee that it’ll see the light of day.
In the exhaustive blog post, the celebrated scribe reveals that he originally pitched Skin Trade to various outlets back in the early 90s to no avail, but stuck by his guns in order to usher the project onto television – he even makes a courteous nod to his long-gestating Winds of Winter.
More recently, the novella was purchased by Mike the Pike Productions, who played a big part in taking the project to Cinemax. To handle the adaptation, script the pilot, and produce the show (should we get a greenlight), we’ve tapped a terrific talented young scriptwriter named KALINDA VAZQUEZ, whose previous credits include work on PRISON BREAK and ONCE UPON A TIME. That was not an easy choice. Cinemax and my agents set me up for meetings with close to a dozen different Tv writers, many of them very impressive, but Kalinda’s take on the story and the characters blew me away. She loves the story and the world, and really seems to get Willie and Randi, and her pitch to Cinemax was one of the most polished and professional I’ve ever heard. I love her enthusiasm, and look forward to working with her.
(And no, while I would have loved to write the script and run the show myself myself, that was never really in the cards. I have this book to finish. You know the one).
Tell us, what are your early impressions on the author’s Skin Trade novella? Are you excited to see Cinemax bring it to television?