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George R R Martin's Wild Cards TV series in development
A new TV series based on George R R Martin's sci-fi superhero book series Wild Cards is in development.
In a blog post on his personal website, Martin revealed that Universal Cable Productions has acquired the rights to adapt Martin’s long-running Wild Cards series for television, with development to begin “immediately” on the first of several interlocking series.
The first volume of the Wild Card series was published in 1986 - a decade before the release of Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, upon which the popular "Game of Thrones" TV series is based.
The Wild Cards series is set in a world that diverged from ours following the Second World War, when an alien virus struck the earth and spawned a new breed of superhuman men and women. Those lucky enough to be "blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers" became known as Aces, and those who developed deformities known as Jokers.
Martin describes the Wild Card universe as being “as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor”.
The stories in the Wild Cards series are written by multiple authors and edited by Martin and Melina M. Snodgrass.
Snodgrass is attached as excutive producer of the project alongside Gregory Noveck of SyFy Films.
Twenty-two volumes of the series have been published to date, with a 23rd, titled High Stakes, scheduled for hardcover release later this month. According to Martin, there are three more books "in the works". The books are published by Gollancz in the UK.
Martin will not be working on the Wild Cards TV series himself due to his exclusive development deal with HBO for “Game of Thrones”, and his task of finishing the sixth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire Series, The Winds of Winter (HarperVoyager).
An illustrated edition of A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, will be published in October to mark the 20th anniversary of the book.
