Martin also acknowledges that "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."
HBO’s sister channel Cinemax has made some great headway in the last few years in becoming more than just "Skin-a-max," and actually being home to some truly great television (like Banshee and The Knick). And now, it seems to be taking another note from its HBO mothership and optioning the work of George R. R. Martin, in the hopes surely that it might take off as much as (or even one hundredth as much as) Game of Thrones has.
In his (Not a) Blog, Martin broke the news over the weekend that his “offbeat werewolf noir” series Skin Trade has gotten a pilot script order. As he notes, things could take off or stall out, who knows, but the story Martin wrote in the 80s seems like it could revive the flagging werewolf craze (they never quite took off like vampires and zombies).
Martin went on to explain that,
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).
Also, Martin mentioned that he has always see Skin Trade as a TV series, and originally shopped it to the networks back in the early 90s, to no avail. Perhaps now is the time …
Have any of you read Skin Trade, or are you interested in seeing more TV from Martin? As you’ll note above, it seems that he’ll be acting as a creative consultant of sorts, but not actually penning the script or acting as a showrunner.
