HBO has achieved unprecedented success adapting George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels into the hit show Game of Thrones, &, and now the SyFy network has a Martin property of their own: Nightflyers.
Based on a 1980 novella set within the author's "Thousand Worlds" universe, Nightflyers was previously brought to the screen in a feature film in back 1987. The story saw a group of scientists on a space voyage to find a mysterious alien creature, who are subsequently terrorised by the ship's malevolent computer.
The new show from SyFy is also set to be a more faithful adaptation than that movie, as it will draw on George R R Martin's expanded version of the original novella. Described as a haunted house story set on the starship, the first footage from the upcoming sci-fi/horror show has been released.
Nightflyers comes from writer and producer Daniel Cerone, who was the co-creator of NBC's short-lived Constantine and who also served as co-showrunner on the TV show Dexter. George R R Martin will not be involved in the production or writing for the series, as his contract with HBO contains an exclusivity clause. He does, however, have an Executive Producer credit and expressed his praise on the casting of the show.
Nightflyers will debut in the US this coming fall and is set to be distributed internationally via Netflix.