{"id":6859,"date":"2021-02-24T09:02:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T16:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/?p=6859"},"modified":"2021-02-23T22:43:05","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T05:43:05","slug":"on-the-road-with-roger-z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/2021\/02\/24\/on-the-road-with-roger-z\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Road with Roger Z"},"content":{"rendered":"

The story broke a few days ago, and is now all over the internet: I am developing a new series for HBO, a science fiction show based on ROADMARKS, a novel by the late great Roger Zelazny.\u00a0\u00a0 And what do you know — the story is actually true<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Which is more than can be said about most of the stories about me that I stumble over these days, boys and girls.\u00a0 (I have said it before, and will say it again, but sometimes it seems no one listens.\u00a0\u00a0 Do not believe everything you read).<\/p>\n

Anyway… YES!\u00a0\u00a0 We had not intended to announce anything yet, to be sure.\u00a0\u00a0 Development is a long and uncertain process.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thousands of shows are pitched, hundreds of pilots are written, dozens of pilots are filmed, but only a very few of them ever get greenlit to series.\u00a0\u00a0 There is a reason that Hollywood insiders call it “development hell.”\u00a0 And what’s the point of announcing projects that might never make it to air?\u00a0\u00a0 That’s why HBO — like most other networks and streamers — prefers to keep these things quiet.<\/p>\n

Even so, even so… you cannot win the lottery unless you buy a ticket, so we all keep playing.<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to ROADMARKS.<\/p>\n

DEADLINE was the first to break the story, but the best and most complete account appeared on the WERTZONE, here:
\nhttps:\/\/thewertzone.blogspot.com\/2021\/02\/hbo-developing-roger-zelaznys-roadmarks.html<\/a><\/p>\n

My career in television started in 1985 when I adapted Roger Zelazny’s “The Last Defender of Camelot” for THE TWILIGHT ZONE.\u00a0 It was the first script of mine ever to be filmed (starring Richard Kiley and Jenny Agutter and a stuntman whose nose got cut off during the swordfight).\u00a0 Roger was a friend, a mentor, and one of the greatest science fiction writers who ever lived.\u00a0\u00a0 He died in 1995, but his work will live for so long as people read SF and fantasy. It was an honor to be able to bring one of his stories to television.\u00a0\u00a0 And now I am hoping we will be able to do it again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I pitched ROADMARKS to HBO last year — along with four other SF and fantasy works (by various other writers) that I thought had the makings of great shows.\u00a0\u00a0 They all had (and have) lots of potential, but ROADMARKS was the one they responded to.\u00a0 A great choice, I think.\u00a0\u00a0 ROADMARKS is not as well as known as some of Roger’s other work, like the Amber series or LORD OF LIGHT (one of the best SF novels ever written, imnsho), but at the core of it is a simply marvelous concept: the Road that extends through all of history and even into alternate timelines, ever growing, ever changing, a road that will take you anywhere if you know how to find it.\u00a0 Roger’s own title for the novel was LAST EXIT TO BABYLON, which gives you a hint of the flavor of the book.\u00a0\u00a0 In Red Dorakeen, he gave us a fascinating protagonist as well, and of course there’s also Leaves and Flowers, and the Black Decade, and some wild supporting characters and bad guys.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Honestly, the concept is as big as Amber and could easily have sustained a whole series of books, though Roger only penned the one.\u00a0 It’s our hope that it can also sustain a dozen great seasons on HBO.<\/p>\n

But that’s a way down the… ahem… road.\u00a0\u00a0 Right now we just have a pilot order.<\/p>\n

We found a great writer, though.\u00a0 Her name is Kalinda Vazquez.\u00a0\u00a0 I first met her five or six years back, when we worked together on a different project, trying to turn my werewolf novella “The Skin Trade” into a series for Cinemax.\u00a0\u00a0 That was going great for a time, till it blew up for various complex legal reasons that annoy me to this day.\u00a0\u00a0 (See what I mean about development hell?)\u00a0 Maybe one day we can return to it.\u00a0 Afterwards, Kalinda went on to write for all sorts of other shows, including STAR TREK and THE WALKING DEAD, while I… well, most of you know what I have been doing.\u00a0\u00a0 But I am looking forward to working with her again.\u00a0\u00a0 Although, to be honest, it is Kalinda who will be doing most of the work from this point on. \u00a0 I am only an executive producer.\u00a0\u00a0 Kalinda will be writing the pilot, and if indeed we get a series order, she will be the showrunner, presiding over the writer’s room and in charge of the whole shebang.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She had a great take on Willie and Randi back then, and I think she’ll do right by Red and the Road as well.<\/p>\n

Of course, it will be a year or two before a ROADMARKS show could possibly get on the air.<\/p>\n

While you are waiting, let me suggest you read ROADMARKS, the novel.\u00a0\u00a0 And then NINE PRINCES IN AMBER.\u00a0\u00a0 LORD OF LIGHT.\u00a0\u00a0 DOORWAYS IN THE SAND.\u00a0\u00a0 CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS.\u00a0\u00a0 THIS IMMORTAL.\u00a0\u00a0 THE DREAM MASTER.\u00a0\u00a0 Or any of the marvelous haunting evocative short stories.\u00a0\u00a0 There was only one Roger Zelazny.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The story broke a few days ago, and is now all over the internet: I am developing a new series for HBO, a science fiction show based on ROADMARKS, a novel by the late great Roger Zelazny.\u00a0\u00a0 And what do you know — the story is actually true.\u00a0\u00a0 Which is more than can be said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[15,11],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6859"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6869,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6859\/revisions\/6869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/georgerrmartin.com\/notablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}