With Game of Thrones gearing up for its final two seasons, there’s a ticking clock to develop another science fiction and/or fantasy television epic to take its place. The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber could be next, as The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is adapting it for the small screen with Skybound Entertainment (who brought The Walking Dead to AMC as well as its prequel series Fear the Walking Dead).
Zelazny’s ten-book series, published between 1970 and 1991, also concerns royal family politics over a throne. But in this case, our hero Corwin awakens on Earth with amnesia. He comes to discover that Earth is just one of many “shadows,” or parallel worlds, that exist between the two true worlds of Amber and the Court of Chaos. As a prince of the royal family, it is Corwin’s birthright to rule Amber and fend off the forces of chaos.
Skybound CEO David Alpert said:
Chronicles of Amber is one of my favorite book series of all time, and one of my main inspirations for working in film and television. Getting to produce this project is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I can’t wait to share this amazing story with a new generation of fans.
In Zelazny (who passed away in 1995), A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin found both an inspiration and a friend. As he wrote in an in memoriam post in 1995,
Lord of Light was the first Zelazny book I ever read. I was in college at the time, a long time reader who dreamed of writing himself one day. I’d been weaned on Andre Norton, cut my teeth on Heinlein juveniles, survived high school with the help of H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, “Doc” Smith, Theodore Sturgeon, and J.R.R. Tolkien. I read Ace doubles and belonged to the Science Fiction Book Ciub, but I had not yet found the magazines. I’d never heard of this Zelazny guy. But when I read those words for the first time, a chill went through me, and I sensed that SF would never be the same. Nor was it. Like only a few before him, Roger left his mark on the genre.
Kirkman and Skybound are still searching for a writer and haven’t shared a sense of the actual timeframe of putting together this series. While we wait for more news, refresh your memory with our The Chronicles of Amber Reread.
