Frankly, we’re surprised it’s taken this long for George RR Martin projects that aren’t Game Of Thrones to get going, but Syfy has sensibly given the greenlight to its series based on the author’s SF novella Nightflyers.
Variety reports that the network has given the go-ahead to Jeff Buhler (Midnight Meat Train, the upcoming Pet Sematary remake) and Daniel Cerone’s (Constantine, The Blacklist) adaptation, and that a full cast has been confirmed for the story which “follows eight maverick scientists and a powerful telepath who embark on an expedition to the edge of our solar system in the hopes of contacting alien life. They travel aboard The Nightflyer – a ship with a small tightknit crew and a reclusive captain. But when terrifying and violent events begin to take place they start to question each other, and surviving the journey proves harder than anyone thought.”
The cast is led by Gretchen Mol (Boardwalk Empire, Manchester By The Sea), who’ll play Dr. Agatha Matheson. Merlin‘s Eoin Macken is Karl D’Branin, David Ajala (Falling Water) is Roy Eris, Leatherface‘s Sam Strike stars as Thale, Teen Wolf‘s Maya Eshet is Lommie, The Last Ship‘s Jodie Turner-Smith is Melantha Jhirl, Brian F O’Byrne (Manhunt, Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead) is Auggie, and Angus Sampson (Insidious, Mad Max: Fury Road) is Rowan.
Nightflyers will be shown on Syfy in the US but Netflix has come on board as co-producers and they’ll have first-run rights in the rest of the world, so presumably we should be looking for it to hit the streaming service here in the UK.
The report also notes that Martin will be an executive producer but his involvement will be limited owing to the fact that he is “working on finishing The Winds Of Winter, the sixth installment in his Song Of Ice And Fire book series, which serve as the basis for HBO’s Game Of Thrones.” Yes, and we are waiting patiently for that.
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