GAME’S (NOT) OVER
Everything we know about the new show from Game Of Thrones’ George R.R. Martin
It’s a treat for Game Of Thrones fans The eighth season of Game Of Thrones will be broadcast in 2019, HBO has confirmed. George R.R. Martin’s final book in the A Song Of Fire And Ice series, The Winds Of Winter, has been delayed for so long that it feels as mythical as the lost city of Valyria. Never fear: Syfy has also announced a ten-episode adaptation of Nightflyers, Martin’s 1980 novella, co-produced by Netflix for international rights.
It’s dark psycho-horror — in deep space The original 23,000-word story (later expanded to 30,000 words) crams in a lot: it’s the story of nine scientists aboard the spaceship Nightflyer, embarking on an interstellar journey in search of the ‘volcryn’, a mythical alien species. Among the crew, there is a genetically engineered super-being, a hologram, a mysterious never-seen captain — and a psychic murderer. Combine the claustrophobic horrors of Alien with the philosophical science-fiction of 2001: A Space Odyssey and you’re somewhere close.
It’s part of a larger universe With his unique knack for world-building, Martin hasn’t been constrained by a shorter-story format. Nightflyers exists in a futuristic fictional universe known as The Thousand Worlds or The Manrealm, which also takes in Martin stories such as A Song For Lya and Dying Of The Light — opening up the possibility for spin-offs.
It’s already been adapted once Nightflyers first made it to screens in a 1987 film — though the cheap special effects and cheesy dialogue now make it look like a low-rent Event Horizon. Martin hated it, especially the whitewashing of dark-skinned character Melantha Jhirl. (The new show has cast Jodie Turnersmith in the role, about which Martin wrote on his blog, “At long last I can say: now, that’s Melantha Jhirl.”)
It won’t be adapted by Martin George R.R. Martin won’t be guest-writing scripts for Nightflyers as he has done with Game Of Thrones: he has an exclusivity clause in his HBO contract. Screenplay duties instead fall to Jeff Buhler (also behind the forthcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary).
It comes with a wait Nightflyers will likely not air until 2019. Still, that makes it the perfect companion piece to Thrones’ final bow.