You can take George R.R. Martin out of Westeros — however briefly, since we’re still waiting on you-know-which book! — but you can’t take Westeros out of the author, at least thematically. Martin has just signed on to executive produce an adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s sci-fi tale Roadmarks for HBO.
Deadline got the scoop on the currently-in-development Roadmarks series, which has Martin’s Game of Thrones clout behind it and will be written and showrun by Kalinda Vazquez (whose credits include Star Trek: Discovery, Fear the Walking Dead, Runaways, and Once Upon a Time), who’ll also executive produce.
The official description of Roadmarks, which was published in 1979, gives you a good sense that this will be much more of a sci-fi story than a Westeros-style fantasy, even with the mention of dragons:
The Road runs from the unimaginable past to the far future, and those who travel it have access to the turnoffs leading to all times and places — even to the alternate time-streams of histories that never happened. Why the Dragons of Bel’kwinith made the Road — or who they are — no one knows. But the Road has always been there and for those who know how to find it, it always will be!
Zelazny, who passed away in 1995, was a three-time Nebula winner and a six-time Hugo winner; in 1966, his sci-fi tale …And Call Me Conrad, also known as This Immortal, tied for the Hugo Award for Best Novel with Frank Herbert’s Dune. His other works include The Chronicles of Amber fantasy series and A Night in the Lonesome October.
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Martin, who was personal friends with Zelazny, gave a statement to Deadline explaining why this project means so much to him. “My career in television started in 1985 when I adapted Roger Zelazny’s Last Defender of Camelot for The Twilight Zone,” Martin said. “Roger was a friend, a mentor, and one of the greatest science fiction writers who ever lived. It was an honour to be able to bring his work to television. That is why I am so thrilled to be a part of adapting Roger’s novel Roadmarks for HBO.”
No timeline was given for Roadmarks, which is still in its early stages, but we’ll update any details as and when we learn them.