Game of Thrones’ George R. R. Martin Novella Gets a Syfy Show Order!

With Game of Thrones just a few month away, author George R.R. Martin has another project underway. Gone, are the dragons and swords, in comes spaceships and laser-beams.

Technically, the project involves his past work more than himself.  Syfy has picked up Martin’s old novella titled Nightflyers, which he created back in 1980, and it’s set to debut as a series.

Nightflyers is a speculative futuristic tale that looks at explorers who are set to go on a journey to the galaxy on the eve of the Earth’s destruction. The spaceship is called the Nightflyer, and it’s tasked to go after a mysterious alien spacecraft in search of the key to their survival.

Set in the future on the eve of Earth’s destruction, a crew of explorers journey on the most advanced ship in the galaxy, The Nightflyer, to intercept a mysterious alien spacecraft that might hold the key to their survival. As the crew nears their destination, they discover that the ship’s artificial intelligence and never-seen captain may be steering them into deadly and unspeakable horrors deep in the dark reaches of space.

The story pretty much tells a foreboding story of what could be a fruitless chase, because the crew may be following a dangerous spacecraft that’s leading them towards a bigger disaster than they ever imagined.

The production crew onboard Nightflyers is pretty impressive. Jeff Buhler is the scriptwriter and executive producer together with Gene Klein and Doug Liman of Suits and David Bartis (Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Alison Rosenzweigh, Michaela Gaeta, Lloyd Ivan Miller, Alice P. Neuhauser, and Robert Jaffe are all involved.

Nightflyers was went on to win Japan’s Seiun Award in 1983 for best foreign-language short story of the year. It was published again in 1985 as part of a short-story collection before being adapted for the big screen, where it grossed $1.2 million domestically.

Nightflyers comes as Martin’s literary works continue to garner attention following the critical, awards-season and ratings success of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Martin’s best-selling anthology Wild Cards is also in development at Universal Cable Productions, though a network is not yet attached

Martin himself isn’t involved since he has his own dealings with HBO, given that there are four spin-offs set to follow in the footsteps of Game of Thrones.

Culturedemandsgeeks are very much interested to see what kind of sci-fi Martin can write. Nightflyers is set to be one of three new series coming to Syfy, with Krypton and Happy being the other two. Game of Thrones will be back on HBO this July.