Cinemax is a little bit like the off-brand version of HBO, with slightly less-prestigious programming and slightly less-delicious packaging, so it’s fitting that it has adopted a new strategy for its original programming that involves picking up the rights to less-famous works created by the people behind popular TV shows. It already has Outcast, an exorcism show created by The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman, and now—according to Deadline—it has ordered an adaptation of Skin Trade, a so-called “werewolf noir” novella written by Game Of Thrones’ George R. R. Martin back in 1988. (Not to be confused with the Dolph Lundgren movie of the same name.)
Skin Trade will tell the story of Willie Flambeaux, “a collections agent who happens to be a werewolf,” and a private investigator named Randi Wade. Together they will find “a dark secret behind a series of grisly murders,” though we have a feeling the “dark secret” is werewolf-related. The series will be written and executive produced by Once Upon A Time’s Kalinda Vazquez.
In honor of this news, Martin wrote a blog detailing the history of Skin Trade and its journey to Cinemax, explaining that he tried to sell a pilot for it in 1991 and even attended a few pitch meetings. The book has been reprinted in several different versions, and it has even been adapted into a comic and a graphic novel, so there’s a good chance you’ve already read it in some form if you’re a Martin superfan. As for whether or not he’ll be writing any Skin Trade scripts himself, Martin claims he has some “book to finish” before he does anything like that.