George R. R. Martin has announced that Warner Bros. Animation is adapting his 1978 short story, The Ice Dragon, into an animated film.
Martin made this revelation during a recent interview with Penguin Random House while he was promoting his new book The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty.
The author and scriptwriter stated, "Some of you may know that I occasionally wrote other books that were not part of Westeros or that [story]. And one of them that I wrote way back in 1978 was a short story about a dragon, an ice dragon, and it's called The Ice Dragon. Just a short story, as I said. It's primarily a kid's story, but we are going to make that [into a movie]. Warner Bros. Animation has purchased the rights to it, and we're going to expand it to a fully animated film… a theatrical film, we hope, to be released in motion a motion picture palace near you, and David Anthony Durham will be writing the screenplay. And he better do a good job!"
While Martin wrote The Ice Dragon in 1978, the short story wasn't published until 1980. The fantasy book follows a young girl named Adara who was born during the worst winter her people ever remembered. Unfortunately, Adara's mother died while giving birth to her and the little girl grows up cold and emotionless. Over the years, Adara befriends a fearsome ice dragon. When she was four, she touched the dragon. A year later, at the age of five, Adara rode the ice dragon for the first time.