George R.R. Martin Describes ‘Nightflyers’ as ‘Psycho in Space’
The first trailer for Syfy’s full series adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s 1980 horror novella Nightflyers has dropped, ahead of its autumn release. The original short-story tells of a starship crew who begin mysteriously dying one by one and features alien cultures, recreational warfare and electronic zombies. In the trailer, Martin teases that the series is basically “Psycho in space” – a pretty daring claim, we think you’ll agree.
Nightflyers has already had a big-screen adaptation; a fairly forgettable movie was released in 1987. Following this, Martin started working a series of novels to do with swords, dragons and kings (that you may have come across) and the world of Nightflyers was put to one side. This all changed in 2016 when Syfy announced they would be developing a series, with Netflix joining as a coproducer (with first-run rights outside the U.S) in 2017.
In a previous interview, Martin has claimed he was puzzled when he first realised Syfy wanted to turn his short-story into a whole series:
“Honestly, at first I was baffled as to how they hoped to get a series out of my story… But UCP got me a copy of Jeff Buhler’s script, and I saw how he’d dealt with that. It was a good read, and yes, I came away with a better idea of where they’d find a few seasons.”
Like Game of Thrones, the series has been filmed in Ireland at Limerick’s Troy Studios. Mike Cahill (I Origin, 2014) will direct the pilot, and Andrew McCarthy (Orange is the New Black, 2013) will serve as a producer-director. The show also stars Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire, 2010), Eoin Macken (The Night Shift, 2014) and David Ajala (Fast & Furious 6, 2016).