George R.R. Martin cannot be stopped. The beloved author of the A Song of Fire and Ice fantasy series just signed another massive deal to develop more programming for HBO and its streaming service HBO Max. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is worth somewhere in the mid-to-high, eight-figure range, which is slightly less than Kylie Jenner’s recently recalculated net worth.
Martin’s first deal with HBO in 2007 was a licensing agreement for his A Song of Fire and Ice novels. That fateful interaction led to the creation of Game of Thrones—HBO's biggest and most awarded series of all time.
Though that series wrapped up in 2019, HBO has since announced five Game of Thrones prequels in various stages of development. They include the loosely-titled projects 9 Voyages, Flea Bottom, 10,000 Ships and another based off of Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg — a trio of fantasy novellas set in the same world as the A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
Another project, House of the Dragon, has already been greenlit to series. The show is based on Martin’s 2019 book Fire and Blood and focuses on the happenings of House Targaryen 300 years before the events depicted in the original series. The cast includes Olivia Cooke, Emma D'Arcy, Paddy Considine, and Matt Smith. The first of 10 episodes is scheduled to premiere in 2022.
Of course anyone who knows George R.R. Martin knows the generous multi-tasker’s oeuvre extends well beyond the Game of Thrones multiverse. The writer has also produced works of horror and science fiction, and now one of his earliest adventure stories is coming to the silver screen. According to the author’s own blog (which he updates regularly), Paul W.S. Anderson will direct a film adaptation of In The Lost Lands that stars Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista. The short story is about an “enigmatic sorceress” who travels to the Lost Lands wilderness in search of magical powers.
Abigail Covington is a journalist and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York but originally from North Carolina, whose work has appeared in Slate, The Nation, Oxford American, and Pitchfork
