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A New Show From The George R.R. Martin Universe Is In The Works
George R.R. Martin attends Comic-Con (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
A new show is in the works based off a sci-fi series that Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin helped, in part, to build. It's called Wild Cards and is based on materials that Martin and his assistant editor, writer Melinda M. Snodgrass, edited, the L.A. Times reports.
The premise is that in 1946 an alien virus wiped out 90 percent of the population. Of the survivors, 90 percent of them were deformed, but 1 percent received super powers. The deformed humans are called the Jokers, while those with super powers are known as Aces. The show will be produced by Universal Cable Productions, and may launch in "the next year or two," Martin wrote on his blog. The series itself launched in the late '80s and is still going strong.
Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games... but most of all it is a universe, 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. There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the Wild Cards, and Gregory and Melinda and UPC hope to be able to tell many of them.
While Martin himself won't be directly involved with the shows as he's locked into a deal with HBO and is writing The Winds of Winter, his assistant editor, Snodgrass, is an executive producer.
Fun fact: A young Neil Gaiman once pitched a story to be a part of the Wild Cards mythology in 1987, which Martin rejected because Gaiman hadn't quite racked up the credits at that time. That story would go on to become The Sandman.
About 30 writers have contributed to the Wild Cards universe, including Snodgrass and Martin.
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