“Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin has revealed that NBCUniversal’s Universal Cable Productions (UCP) has acquired the rights to the long-running Wild Cards series of anthologies and mosaic novels for television. Development will begin immediately on what they hope will be the first of several interlocking series. Melinda M. Snodgrass, Martin’s assistant editor and “right-hand man” on Wild Cards since its inception, the creator of Dr. Tachyon, Double Helix, and Franny Black, and a seasoned television writer/ producer whose credits include “Star Trek: The Next Generation (“Measure of a Man”), “Reasonable Doubts,” “The Profiler,” and “Star Command,” is attached as an executive producer on the project, together with Gregory Noveck of RED, Slow Learner, and Syfy Films. Martin will not be involved due to his overall deal with HBO and he is writing “The Winds of Winter.”
UCP programming can be seen across numerous networks and channels across the world, and includes: “Mr. Robot,” “Colony,” “Playing House,” “Royal Pains” and “Suits” on USA Network; “The Magicians,” “12 Monkeys” and “Killjoys” on Syfy; “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” on Bravo; “The Royals” on E!; and “Difficult People” on Hulu. Their credits also include “Monk,” “Psych” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
The shared world of the Wild Cards diverged from our own on September 15, 1946 when an alien virus was released in the skies over Manhattan, and spread across an unsuspecting Earth. Of those infected, 90% died horribly, drawing the black queen, 9% were twisted and deformed into jokers, while a lucky 1% became blessed with extraordinary and unpredictable powers and became aces. The world was never the same.
The first volume of the Wild Cards series was published in 1986, and was a finalist for that year’s Hugo Award, ultimately losing to Alan Moore’s “Watchmen.” Twenty-two volumes have been published to date, with a twenty-third (“High Stakes”) scheduled for hardcover release later this month, and three more in the works. Translations and reprints of many of the Wild Cards books and stories have been published around the globe, in France, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Russia, Japan, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Comic books, graphic novels, and role-playing games have also chronicled the adventures of the aces and jokers of the WC universe.
Martin describes the series as follows: Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games… but most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor. There are thousands of stories to be told in the world of the Wild Cards, and Gregory and Melinda and UPC hope to be able to tell many of them… Only one thing I can say for (almost) sure. You will be seeing Croyd Crenson, no matter shape the eventual show or shows ends up taking. It wouldn’t be Wild Cards without the Sleeper.
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