George R.R. Martin is best known as the guy who is supposed to be writing more of those A Song Of Ice And Fire books, but people who only know him from the credits of Game Of Thrones may be surprised to know that he has a whole bunch of other books that are ripe for adapting. One such series is Wild Cards, which is part of a shared universe of books edited by Martin and Melinda M. Snodgrass about a world where an alien virus hit the Earth after World War II and turned people into awful mutants (called “Jokers”) or superheroes (called “Aces”).
Martin announced the news himself on his Livejournal page, saying that Universal Cable Productions has picked up the rights to adapt the long-running series. Snodgrass is expected to be an executive producer, but Martin says he won’t be working on the project due to his exclusive development deal with HBO (and also that other book series he’s supposed to be working on). Martin doesn’t have any details about the specifics of the adaptation but he says “you will be seeing Croyd Crenson, no matter what shape the eventual show or shows ends up taking,” adding that “it wouldn’t be Wild Cards without the Sleeper.”
He also suggests that Wild Cards fans be very vocal about the things they want to see, because they people who are involved with the project “will be listening.”