RR Martin’s The Skin Trade getting TV adaptation

HBO sibling Cinemax is getting into business with Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin.

Though Cinemax, which is owned by HBO, has so far only ordered a pilot script for The Skin Trade, according to Entertainment Weekly, he is impressed with Kalinda Vazquez, who will be the producer of The Skin Trade if it becomes a TV series.

“I have always thought there was a TV series (or maybe a feature film) in [characters] Willie Flambeaux and Randi Wade”, Martin wrote on his blog. So we’re a few decades late…

If Cinemax likes the script, gives the nod to a pilot, and picks it up for a series, Martin will executive produce. He teams up with his friend and private investigator, Randi Wade, when a series of local murders turns out to be something much more.

Martin confirmed the news on his blog Saturday, October 10.

“Martin says that he chose her from a number of possible writers because “…Kalinda’s take on the story and characters blew me away”.

Martin said while he “would have loved” to write and run the show, “that was never really in the cards”.

The Skin Trade, which was originally written for Night Vision 5, an annual horror anthology, was lauded as one of the best works of werewolf fiction, winning the World Fantasy Award, when it was originally released. “I have this book to finish”, he wrote of The Winds of Winter, the forthcoming sixth Thrones entry.

As for why Martin himself won’t handle the adaptation, there’s the little matter of Game of Thrones.

Along with several reprints over the years, The Skin Trade was most recently turned into a comic book by Avatar Press (with Martin on co-writing duties) in 2013. The Skin Trade was also included in another collection in 2010.