George R.R. Martin Producing Night of the Cooters, Vincent D'Onofrio Directing and Starring

Game of Thrones fans have been waiting years for author George R.R. Martin to deliver the next novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series of books, with the wait seemingly about to get a little bit longer, as he's working with director and star Vincent D'Onofrio to produce the short film Night of the Cooters, based on the Howard Waldrop 1987 sci-fi novel of the same name. Martin announced the project earlier this week on his blog, noting that he thinks the project will ultimately run 20-30 minutes and will feature a blend of both live-action and animation.

The script for the short film is written by Joe Lansdale. D'Onofrio will star as Sheriff Lindley, with the rest of the cast featuring Hopper Penn as Sweets, Harrison Page as Luther, Martin Sensmeier as Leo Smith, Cristin McCleary as Atkins, Elias Gallegos as DeSpain, Luce Rains as Skip, Jazzy Kim O'Brien as Lil' Chisum, and Darius Eteeyan as Billy Strother.

For those unaware of the storyline of the short, Martin pointed out on his blog, "Inspired by H.G. Wells and War of the Worlds, it is all about the time the Martians invaded Pachuco, Texas."

As far as where the project will end up, even Martin isn't currently aware of where it will arrive.

"And now, I am thrilled to announce, the Cooters are coming to the big screen," his blog notes. "Or maybe the small screen. Or the medium-sized screen. But some kind of screen, anyway. Right here in Santa Fe, we have just wrapped principal photography for a brand-new film version of the Waldrop classic. 'Night of the Cooters' is a short story, and our version is going to be a short film. I'd guess it will come in somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes, shot with a combination of live-action and state-of-the-art animation. If you loved the story, we think you will love our movie."

Another project Martin is working on is producing the AMC series Dark Winds, inspired by the Leaphorn & Chee book series from author Tony Hillerman. There are currently multiple Game of Thrones spin-off series being developed for HBO.

Stay tuned for details on the future for Night of the Cooters.

Are you looking forward to the new project from Martin and D'Onofrio? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!