George R.R Martin, who has been hard at work on Winds of Winter, the next installment of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, is suing an L.A based production company over the film rights to his werewolf novella The Skin Trade.
The Skin Trade is part of the 1988 horror anthology Dark Visions, a collection of novellas that include works by Stephen King and Dan Simmons. In it, a private investigator by the name of Randi Wadeis looks into a series of brutal murders in her small town, which leads to the discovery of werewolves and other horrifying supernatural creatures. In 2013, Avatar Press published a four-part comic book series based on The Skin Trade, by Martin, written in collaboration with fellow author Daniel Abraham.
A complaint lodged against the Los Angelos Superior Court last Wednesday indicated that Mike the Pike Productions optioned the film rights to The Skin Trade in 2009, subsequently assigning the option to Blackstone Manor, LLC., the named defendants in the lawsuit. The complaint alleges that Blackstone “hastily assembled a barebones cast and crew” a day before the 2019 deadline “to shoot a handful of scenes” for no other reason than to maintain the appearance that it was making the progress necessary to retain the rights. In response, Martin insinuated that the “token” production was “insufficient,” comparing the move to a contractor hurriedly building a gazebo in lieu of the agreed-upon skyscraper when faced with a deadline.
Whether or not that is true, Martin will have to prove. He is seeking declarative relief around the film rights as well as damages for breach of contract. Regardless of who holds the film rights to George Martin’s werewolf horror fantasy in the end, I would love to see it in theaters!