Yet another one of George R.R. Martin's works has been greenlit for television, and this time it has nothing to do with dragons or swords. Syfy has given the go ahead for Nightflyers, which was a novella of Martin's, to get a pilot order. But this news is a little more tricky than most show deals, due to Martin's involvement with Game Of Thrones. Here's what we know about the pilot so far, and the nuances that keep Martin from being involved in the deal.
TVLine is telling us that Nightflyers may be coming to Syfy, but that author George R.R. Martin is not a part of the deal. The author is still locked into an exclusivity agreement with HBO, which bars him from even being a part of the show as a consultant, let alone as a producer. Robert Jaffe, who wrote the script for the 1987 film of the same name, is signed on as a producer. Gene Klein and David Bartis will executive produce the pilot, and Jeff Buhler, whose credits include the sequel to The ABC's Of Death as well as Jacob's Ladder, wrote the TV adaptation's first script.
As for the story, Nightflyers tells the tale of crew of brilliant minds aboard a ship with the name the same as the title. These eight scientists and one telepath have been tasked with traveling the outer reaches of space in search of alien life, but this ain't Star Trek. Things go south and get spooky really quick, and the crew begins to doubt each other as they fight to survive their journey in space. Knowing the works of George R.R. Martin, someone probably dies.
The 1987 film adaptation of the novel, which featured Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, is not remembered too fondly by reviewers on the internet, so perhaps a television pilot can bring some love to this overlooked feature of George R.R. Martin's from back in the day. Martin's lack of involvement in the new pilot, while a bit of a letdown, ultimately is a good thing for Game Of Thrones fans, as he still has some spinoffs to help develop and a book to finish. If Martin wasn't already under contract with HBO, it would be interesting to see how he would juggle this pilot into his increasingly busy schedule.
Nightflyers doesn't have a release date as of yet, but should anything more interesting come to light about the project we'll be sure to let you know. In the meantime fans of Game Of Thrones would do well to check out some of our predictions for who will win the great war, or just kill more time until the Season 7 premiere by checking out new shows on our summer premiere guide.
