With the all-conquering Game Of Thrones dominating his recent career, it's easy to forget that George R.R. Martin also has a long history of television work running alongside his novels and short stories. He was heavily involved with Beauty And The Beast and the '80s iteration of The Twilight Zone, and he currently has Captain Cosmos developing at HBO. Now he's setting up another new series. Cinemax are developing Skin Trade, which Martin will executive produce, based on his own novella.
Nothing to do with the Duran Duran song or the Dolph Lundgren movie, Martin's Skin Trade is a World Fantasy Award-winning "werewolf noir", first published in 1988. It revolves around one Willie Flambeaux, a collections agent with a sideline in lycanthropy. The story sees him investigating a series of murders and a "dark secret" in cahoots with a private detective called Randi Wade.
“I have always thought there was a TV series (or maybe a feature film) in Willie Flambeaux and Randi Wade,” says Martin. “Those of you who know the story of Doorways, my ill-fated ABC pilot from the early 90s, may even recall that it was Skin Trade that I was actually trying to sell back in 1991, when I flew out to LA for a round of pitch meetings. So we’re a few decades late…”
Once Upon A Time's Kalinda Vasquez will co-write and exec-produce the project with Martin. It'll now percolate for a while, as Game Of Thrones fans no doubt rail at the easily-distracted author to bloody get on with bloody finishing The Winds Of Winter and A Dream Of Spring.