In the Lost Lands combines the disparate talents of George R. R. Martin and Paul W. S. Anderson. Martin wrote countless short stories before he conquered the world with A Song of Ice and Fire. The next big-budget adaptation of his work comes from the visionary filmmaker behind Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil. As the recent trailer depicts, it’s a loose translation with a lot of interesting deviations.
You don’t need to know much about Paul W. S. Anderson to see what’s weird about his latest project. He does have a few things in common with George R. R. Martin. They’re both men of many creative hallmarks, ensuring a shared soul between works. Anderson’s include decent action scenes, shoddy visual effects, and his wife as the same character every time. His opus is probably Event Horizon, but his next film could turn out more like Pompeii.
R. R. Martin Meets W. S. Anderson in In the Lost Lands
For the uninitiated, “In the Lost Lands” was a short story George R. R. Martin wrote in the 1980s. It hit the shelves as part of Amazons II, an anthology of fantasy stories with female protagonists. Martin was one of the few male writers in the collection. He was mostly working in sci-fi at the time, but Lost Lands is a straight-up dark fantasy. It follows Gray Alys, a mysterious sorceress who grants whatever wild request reaches her ear. She’s an odd protagonist who is usually a villain in most fantasy stories. “In the Lost Lands” sees her accept a request from a queen, who seeks the powers of a werewolf. To that end, she ventures into savage territory with a mighty hunter. Martin apparently intended to write more tales about Alys, but no such stories came to be.
In 2015, screenwriter Constantin Werner bought up the rights to “In the Lost Lands” and two of Martin’s other short stories. He intended to combine them into one movie, but that pitch entered development hell. Oddly enough, he wanted Milla Jovovich for the role of Gray Alys. When Paul W. S. Anderson joined the project, it became a fun reversal of the theory that he puts his wife in everything. Anderson and Werner dreamed up a new post-apocalyptic environment for the story, veering away from the more traditional fantasy source material and into Western territory. Jovovich will star with Dave Bautista as the male lead. There’s no word yet about how they’ll handle the magic elements, but the differences are noticeable.
Many George R. R. Martin fans haven’t read “In the Lost Lands,” but the upcoming film will stand as a rare cinematic adaptation of his work. Hardcore fans will find a lot of his hallmarks in the text. He’s an author who loves certain tropes, twists, and details that stand the test of time. Anderson also tends to stay firmly within his creative comfort zone, but we’ll have to wait and see how those styles intermingle. In the Lost Lands comes to theaters on February 28th, 2025.
