George RR Martin is founding a new realm of content on HBO.
O The Game of Thrones author has just signed a massive general agreement to develop more programming for the network and its streaming service, HBO Max.
Sources say Martin’s contract spans five years and is worth about eight digits.
The news comes in the wake of a wave of The Game of Thrones prequels being put into development. In all, the chain has five projects based on Martin’s A song of ice and fire developing world of fantasy and one (Dragon House) that received the green light for the series.
The four-time Emmy winner is also developing for HBO the series Who Fears Death (an adaptation of the award-winning 2011 post-apocalyptic novel by Nnedi Okorafor) and Roadmarks (an adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s 1979 fantasy novel), both of which he will serve as executive producer.
Martin struck a deal to license his novels The Chronicles of Ice and Fire for HBO in 2007, a journey that would lead to the largest and most awarded HBO series of all time. Martin is represented by WME, Christine Cuddy and Vince Gerardis.
Martin also has some projects in addition to HBO. There is Wild Cards, based on a series of anthological novels written by Martin and others, which is ongoing at Peacock. There is In the Lost Lands, a feature film in development based on Martin’s fantasy and adventure tales, with Paul WS Anderson hired to direct and Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista to star. And then there’s Meow Wolf, Martin’s engaging and experiential entertainment company, which now has two mind-blowing attractions: the acclaimed House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the newly opened Omega Mart in Las Vegas. A third, Miau Wolf’s Kaleidoscope, is a dark ride announced for Elitch Gardens Theme Park in Denver, Colorado.
In addition, of course, Martin has his novels ASOIAF, with his long-awaited sixth book in the saga, The Winter Winds, currently being written.
Below are all Game of Thrones TV projects in progress. Martin is working closely with the writers and is the executive producer for each.
Dragon House: Located 300 years before the events in Took, Dragon House tells the story of Casa Targaryen when Daenerys’ ancestors ruled Westeros. The events of the show will eventually lead to the famous Dance of the Dragons (the Targaryen civil war). The series stars Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Paddy Considine and Matt Smith (here’s which character each actor plays) and is co-produced by Ryan Condal (Cologne) and Miguel Sapochnik (who directed some of the best episodes of Took, including “Battle of the Bastards”). Like all Took prequels in progress, the project is executive produced by Martin. Dragon House going to shoot in England (unlike Took, which was based in Northern Ireland) and is due to start production in April. The first season has 10 episodes and is scheduled to air in 2022.
Development:
Nymeria Project: This revolves around warrior queen Nymeria, a revered ancestor of Casa Martell who founded the kingdom of Dorne (she became so legendary in the kingdom that two characters took her name in the original series – Sand Snake Nymeria Sand and Arya’s direwolf). Its history takes place about 1,000 years before the events in The Game of Thrones, making it much older in the Westeros timeline than any of the other previously announced projects in progress (HBO recorded a previous pilot in 2019 even further back during Age of Heroes, but never made it to the series). The provisional title of the project is 10,000 ships, a reference to Nymeria ordering that all her ships be burned after bringing her army from Essos to Dorne so that there is no turning back (Martin, a history buff, was probably inspired here by the legend that Hernán Cortés burned his 600 ships after arriving in the New World in 1519).
The sea snake: With a provisional title of 9 trips, this is from Pomegranate creator Bruno Heller and follows Lord Corlys Velaryon, also known as The Sea Snake, Lord of the Tides and head of Casa Velaryon. The maritime character also appears at the next green light Took prequela Dragon House, where he is played by British actor Steve Toussaint. In Martin’s tradition, Velaryon is the husband of Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (played by Eve Best in Dragon House) So this effort represents a potential spinoff for a character in a series that has not yet been filmed. In addition, given the cast of Toussaint, The Sea Snake may represent the first Took project with a black person as the main character.
Flea Bottom: This project takes place in the famous King’s Landing slum of Flea Bottom – the maze of narrow streets in the capital where characters like Davos Seaworth and Gendry Baratheon were born. You can imagine this having a little bit of Peaky Blindersvibe -in-Westeros; something exploring the lives of ordinary citizens and the criminal underworld, instead of focusing on powerful lords and ladies.
Dunk and Egg Project: This is based on Martin’s popular soap operas (The Hedge Knight, The sworn sword, The mysterious knight) who follow the adventures of the walking knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his squire (Egg), who would later become King Aegon V Targaryen. The story takes place 90 years before the events of the series The Chronicles of Ice and Fire by Martin. Curiosity: Egg’s brother was Maester Aemon (Peter Vaughan) in Took and there is a touching reference to the character when Aemon is on his deathbed in Season 5 and says, seemingly delirious, “Egg, I dreamed I was old.”
Dramatic animation series: There is still no details on the subject or style of this animated project, but an animated enterprise offers some advantages in the narrative: it can portray an abundant amount of spectacle in addition to the same Took patterns, and / or can tell a story that spans a considerable period of time – many of Martin’s previously published supplemental materials are in an encyclopedic form that outlines thousands of years of Westeros’ history, a joyful style of narrative that is very easier to portray screen using animation, where producers could quickly introduce new characters and sets and then move on quickly without having to cast actors or build sets.