George R.R. Martin has announced via his Not a Blog LiveJournal page that Nightflyers, a Syfy TV adaptation of his 1980 science-fiction/horror novella, will have ten episodes. This is the first update Martin has posted about the series since early spring.
Martin wrote on his blog: “NIGHTFLYERS will be shot in the Republic of Ireland, I’m told, on sound stages in Limerick… which will give them access to the same great pool of Irish and British actors that GAME OF THRONES has tapped in Belfast (and considering how many characters we’ve killed, a lot of them should be available). ((If by some miracles I actually complete enough of my other projects to create some free time, I’ve love to go over there and kill two birds with one flight by visiting both the GOT and NIGHTFLYERS sets… but that remains a long shot, given my current word load)). If all goes according to schedule, the series should debut this summer, in late July. It will be broadcast on SyFy in the USA, and on Netflix around the world.”
Little is known about the series at the moment, other than what Martin himself announced in May. However, it is confirmed that Daniel Cerone will serve as showrunner for the series, while Jeff Buhler has written the pilot.
Martin spoke of his meeting with Cerone and Buhler, where they allowed him to read the script and look at the concept art for the series. Martin claims to have been encouraged by this news, writing that: “Honestly, at first I was baffled as to how they hoped to get a series out of my story, since at the end of the novella (and the film) pretty much everyone is dead (it was a horror story, after all). But in May, UCP got me a copy of Jeff Buhler’s script, and I saw how he’d dealt with that. It was a good read, and yes, I came away with a better idea of where they’d find a few seasons.”
Martin himself will not be associated with the project. Which is probably a good thing, because the fewer projects Martin has on the table, the more likely it is that he will be able to finally finish the long awaited Winds of Winter.
