Netflix is adapting George R. R. Martin‘s short story Sandkings into a movie, adding yet another movie to its repertoire.

Sandkings will be produced by a veteran crew, including many experienced faces from the industry. Developed and announced by experienced director Gore Verbinski, Sandkings will be written by Dennis Kelly, who created Utopia, wrote The Third Day, and is currently writing Netflix‘s Matilda musical. The producer of Sandkings movie is John Baldecchi, having also produced The Mexican (2001), directed by Gore Verbinski.

Verbinski earlier stated his thoughts about the project to Collider, interview:

“One of the screenplays 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.”

The writer of the original Sandkings’ story, George R. R. Martin, though, is not affiliated with the project as his contract with HBO requires him not to.

The movie is still being produced with no release date on the horizon. We currently do not even know the cast and the filming date, so it will probably be a long time until we get an exact release date. The movie is not at all likely to be release in 2021. 2022 is possible but hard given that Sandkings is still taking its baby steps. 2023 seems like a good bet, but we will have to wait for an official announcement.

The movie is based on George R. R. Martin‘s short story of the same name. The plot is about Simon Kress, who returns to his planet to find that his tank of Earth piranhas ate each other till there were none left. In order to find some new pets to amuse himself with this crazy hobby, he goes to a new shop where he finds a lifeform Simon has never encountered before. They are a collection of multi-colored rankings, which the curator says are not insects even though they look so. The curator says those Sandkings have highly-evolved hive intelligence and they are capable of engaging in wars between the different colors. He warns Simon to feed them regularly, which was not taken seriously by him.

We do not have information on the cast of the movie as of now (March 2021).