George R.R. Martin’s popular Wild Cards book series is getting closer to the small screen. The project, from Universal Cable Prods., has been set up at Hulu, and a writers room is about to open for two new series that would create a Wild Cards universe for the streamer.
The two series will be written and executive produced by The Secret Circle creator Andrew Miller, who is under an overall deal with UCP. Melinda Snodgrass, Vince Gerardis and Martin will executive produce.
Set in the present, the series explores the aftermath of an alien virus, released over Manhattan in 1946 that killed 90% of those it infected. In the survivors, DNA was altered, creating grotesque physical deformities, except for a tiny percentage who develop super human powers instead. Called the Wild Card virus, it has passed down through generations, and can go undetected until suddenly activated by a traumatic event — at which point the carrier is either killed, mutated or granted god-like powers. Effects that are largely a manifestation of the victim’s emotional state, making them vulnerable to reverence or ridicule on a deeply personal level. Now, after decades of sociological turmoil, having been worshipped, oppressed, exploited and ignored… Victims of the virus want to define their own future.
Martin announced on his livejournal site in 2016 that UCP had acquired the rights to adapt his Wild Cards book series, with Snodgrass and Gerardis executive producing. Martin is not involved in writing the adaptation because he is under an exclusive deal with HBO where he is shepherding several Game of Thrones spinoff projects in addition to co-executive producing the mothership GOT series.
At UCP, Martin also executive produces Nightflyers, based on his novella, which was picked up to series by Syfy with Netflix as international distributor.
Wild Cards is a 27-volume (to date) book series. The first volume was published in 1986.
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