“GAME of Thrones” will eventually have to go off air, but the author of the series has already lined up his next project. George R. R. Martin has reportedly signed a deal with Cinemax, sister-channel to HBO, to bring one of his earlier stories to the small screen, according to the writer’s official blog.

    “I am very excited to announce that Cinemax has optioned the television rights to ‘The Skin Trade,’ the offbeat werewolf noir novella I penned back in the late ’80s,” the author wrote.

    Martin added that the deal is closed and the premium cable channel has ordered the script for the possible pilot, but noted that just because Cinemax has expressed an interest in developing the show doesn’t mean it’ll come to fruition.

    “This being Hollywood, of course, you never know where things will end,” Martin wrote. “But if they like the script, we’ll shoot a pilot, and if they like that, hey, who knows, maybe we’ll get a series on the air.”

    Kalinda Vazquez has been hired to pen the pilot’s script, but Martin admitted it wasn’t an easy choice to make, and it eventually came down to Vazquez being the most enthusiastic and the most in tune with the characters to properly carry out Martin’s vision.

    “Cinemax and my agents set me up for meetings with close to a dozen different TV writers, many of them very impressive, but Kalinda’s take on the story and the characters blew me away.”

    “The Skin Trade” has been noted as one of the best werewolf stories ever told and has been adapted before as both a film and comic-book series. It was written by Martin in 1989.(SD-Agencies)