George R. R. Martin's 'Sandkings' Receives Netflix Film Adaptation
Teaming up with the creator of ‘Utopia’ and director of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’.
George R. R. Martin, best known for his hit Game of Thrones series, is turning his 1979 short story Sandkings into a Netflix film. Gore Verbinski, director of Pirates of the Caribbean, and Utopia creator Dennis Kelly have signed on to partner on this project.
In a statement to Collider, Verbinski said, “One of the screenplays [I’m working on] is based on a George R.R. Martin short story called Sandkings, which is this brilliant little twisted short story that I love. And I’m working with a great writer, Dennis Kelly, who wrote the original [Utopia]… The British original series is brilliant. And Dennis is doing the adaptation, so I’m kind of excited about that.”
Sandkings follows a wealthy playboy, Simon Kress, who has an extensive collection of dangerous, exotic animals. The story sees Kress stumble across a mysterious establishment, Wo & Shade. There, he purchases a terrarium filled with creatures called sandkings. The sandkings eventually escape Kress’ terrarium taking over his home. The short story was originally adapted to a TV movie and a graphic novel in 1987 by DC Comics.
Recently, Martin revealed that had written “hundreds of pages” of the sixth installment of his A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy saga. A Game of Thrones series spinoff titled, House of the Dragon is expected to head to HBO soon.
There is currently no further information regarding the release of Sandkings.
In case you missed it, Netflix announced a new short-form feature, Fast Laughs.
