Author George R.R. Martin will develop more programmes for HBO and its streaming service HBO Max in a massive deal.

According to The Hollywood Reporter website last Friday, the contract spans five years and is worth mid-eight figures.

The network is undoubtedly looking for another mega hit series from Martin, whose A Song Of Ice And Fire novels were adapted into Game Of Thrones (2011 to 2019), which became HBO's biggest and most award-winning series of all time.

The network currently has five projects based on the fantasy world created by Martin, as well as one series which has already been greenlit.

House Of The Dragon, which goes into production next month, is set 300 years before the events in Game Of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen back when Daenerys' ancestors ruled Westeros.

A four-time Emmy winner, Martin is also developing and executive-producing the series Who Fears Death, based on Nnedi Okorafor's award-winning 2011 post-apocalyptic novel; and Roadmarks, an adaptation of Roger Zelazny's 1979 fantasy novel, for HBO.

Besides these HBO projects, he is also working with other studios to adapt his works, including a movie, In The Lost Lands, starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista.

He also heads an experiential immersive entertainment company, Meow Wolf, which runs two interactive, explorable attractions: House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the newly opened Omega Mart in Las Vegas.

A third, Meow Wolf's Kaleidoscope, is due to open at Elitch Gardens Theme Park in Denver, Colorado.

With so much on his plate, Martin has refrained from giving a firm date on when the sixth book in A Song Of Ice And Fire series will be released.

Titled The Winds Of Winter, the much-delayed instalment still has no publication date.

In a blog post last month, he wrote that he managed to write "hundreds and hundreds" of pages last year due to Covid-19 isolation and hoped to wrap up the book this year.

However, he added: "I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, a**holes on the Internet take that as a 'promise', and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful."