George R. R. Martin criticises other writers working with his material: “Often they do not improve it”

George R. R. Martin has discussed how he dislikes his work being adapted by other writers, arguing that he feels they often make the material worse.

• READ MORE: What’s next for ‘House Of The Dragon’ after that tantalising finale?

The writer has had many of his works adapted for the big and smalls screens, but none more popular than A Song Of Ice And Fire, the book series that would be adapted by HBO into the show Game Of Thrones. The TV adaptation ran for eight seasons, covering the first five books, and then creating its own conclusion as the final two books in Martin’s series are yet to be published.

Two further spin-offs have come from the show, House Of The Dragon and the forthcoming A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms. Despite this success, he revealed during an on-stage interview with fellow author Joe Abercrombie that the hardest part of working in television is “dealing with the other writers.”

Martin explained: “You’re adapting your book or your story and they hire someone to do it and… they empower this writer: ‘Okay, take The Great Gatsby but make it your own.’ And I don’t want anyone to make The Great Gatsby their own”.

He continued: “In most of the cases where a Hollywood screenwriter makes something their own, they don’t improve it. I think the majority of cases it’s the opposite”. The author has been critical of Game Of Thrones in the past, saying in 2020 that the TV show made a pivotal Daenerys scene “worse”.

Recently, George R. R. Martin has been at odds with fans who criticise him for not finishing A Song Of Ice And Fire’s final books. He has called the task “the curse of my life”, and recently wrote in a blog post that fans who think he doesn’t care about finishing the books are wrong.

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