[caladanbrood]

It does strike me that people are heaping a whole load of pressure on this to be "great". Seems risky to me, because the more expectation, the more likelihood that it might actually be a bit disappointing. All I'm saying is, we ought to at least see the pilot before, like in that blog, it's referred to as fantasy's Battlestar Galactica...

[Slow Ben]

Nope, I'm goin in wide eyed stupid for awesomeness.

[Slick Mongoose]

caladanbrood, on 03 March 2010 - 05:38 PM, said:

It does strike me that people are heaping a whole load of pressure on this to be "great". Seems risky to me, because the more expectation, the more likelihood that it might actually be a bit disappointing. All I'm saying is, we ought to at least see the pilot before, like in that blog, it's referred to as fantasy's Battlestar Galactica...

Don't be silly, it's HBO. It's going to rock.

[caladanbrood]

Fair enough

[Werthead]

Additional BBC report.

Love the bit where the producers admit they could find enough hairy Northman-looking extras for the Winterfell scenes, so logged onto a Northern Ireland heavy metal internet forum and asked for help

[Tiste Simeon]

Wait, I'm a hairy northerner! I should write in!

[The Black Oil]

I know its early yet, and "XXX should play such and such character" opinions are going to be a dime a dozen, but if this gets to season 2, I really hope they get Michael Ironside as Stannis. He was BORN for that role. What else is he doing right now anyway? It has to be better than starring in Mosquitocheetah 2 or whatever crappy SciFi Channel movie of the week he's in.


Anyway, here's hoping the series goes the distance, which also entails Martin getting the remaining books out in time.

Maybe Season 5 will consist entirely of footage of Martin writing blog posts about new miniature sets?

This post has been edited by The Black Oil: 12 March 2010 - 04:08 AM

[cerveza_fiesta]

sweet.

Very stoked to see the ice wall realized in the show. It could be very cool if they do that right.

Also very stoked to see a fully-realized winterfell.

This thing's budget is going to be out of control.

I wonder if they'll do much filming in Canada too...

This post has been edited by cerveza_fiesta: 15 March 2010 - 05:10 PM

[Abyss]

Considering that the first book goes almost halfway before any stabby kicky action happens, I suspect they are going to either need some truly brilliant performances from the cast or else change the story at least slightly. Even Rome opened with a big Gladiator-opening-type siege scene to kick things off in the pilot. Iirc, Eddard has a flashback that would fit nicely.

I curious to see whether they take the 'gritty realism' approach to combat that Rome generally took, or go with an over-the-top Hercules/Xena/LegendsoftheSeecrap type. I'd bet on the former. This is HBO after all. As mentioned up thread, they don't make bad series'.

- Abyss, will also be getting HBO for this.

[Macros]

I can see a scene setting flashback to the ending of the siege of K's landing.

[Werthead]

Noted SF TV scriptwriter Jane Espenson has been added to the writers' roster for GAME OF THRONES. She will pen the sixth episode of the first season as a freelancer.

If you're a BUFFY, ANGEL, DOLLHOUSE or FIREFLY fan this news will no doubt cheer you (she did 'Shindig' for FIREFLY and 'Conversations With Dead People' for BUFFY, both very highly rated). If you're a GALACTICA fan it may be slightly more mixed (she did 'The Passage' and 'The Hub', which were okay, but she also did the extremely disappointing 'The Plan').

Newcomer Bryan Cogman will write the fourth episode, with David Benioff and Dan Weiss writing most of the rest. One episode, probably late-season if not the finale, will be written by George R.R. Martin himself (maybe only if ADWD is done though, although the final finale script may not be needed until the autumn, so that gives him a while yet).

[Gothos]

This keeps getting better and better!

[Werthead]

Reposting from elsewhere, so there may be some duplication from earlier in the thread:

Casting for GAME OF THRONES has now resumed in the UK, with roles such as Barristan Selmy, Renly Baratheon and Littlefinger currently being sought.

However, there has been some recasting going on. Jennifer Ehle, who played Catelyn Stark in the pilot, is out and has been replaced by Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley. No word on why Ehle left the project, but she reports via Twitter that it was all very amicable, she is a big fan of the books and will be tuning in next year, so it doesn't sound like major drama was the cause.

It also sounds like auditioning is currently going on for the role of Daenerys Targaryen, despite the fact that she was played in the pilot by rising British actress Tamzin Merchant (who can currently be seen as Katherine Howard in the final season of THE TUDORS). This leads to the conclusion that Merchant is also out and will be replaced by another actress. Again, no reasons have been given for why this might be the case.

In both cases, the actresses' scenes from the pilot will be refilmed for the series itself, to ensure no continuity errors.

On the production side of things, it has been confirmed that George RR Martin will be writing the eighth episode of the first season himself, and is now bent on finishing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in the near future so he can throw himself into the script work.

GRRM has also shared some pictures (with permission) of actress Maisie Williams, who is playing Arya Stark, posing with a replica of the sword Needle from the books.

[caladanbrood]

I hope they get Littlefinger spot on. The rest of the casting is relatively unimportant, as long as he and Tyrion are excellent

[Tiste Simeon]

Werthead, on 08 April 2010 - 10:46 PM, said:

On the production side of things, it has been confirmed that George RR Martin will be writing the eighth episode of the first season himself, and is now bent on finishing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in the near future so he can throw himself into the script work.

Will he though? Will he??

Dunno bout Arya yet... Will give it time though.

[Werthead]

HBO have announced that they have hired a linguist to develop the foreign languages that will be used in the Game of Thrones TV series. First up is Dothraki, which will have a 1,800-word vocabulary and full grammar developed for it. They have indicated the other foreign languages in the books, such as Valyrian, may receive similar treatment for later seasons.

[Tsundoku]

Werthead, on 08 April 2010 - 10:46 PM, said:

On the production side of things, it has been confirmed that George RR Martin will be writing the eighth episode of the first season himself, and is now bent on finishing A DANCE WITH DRAGONS in the near future so he can throw himself into the script work.

This just in.

Production time estimates:

Episodes 1-7, 6 months total.

Episode 8, 9 years. 8 years 11 months of which are due to scripting redrafts.

Episode 9, some time after the scriptwriter for Episode 8 has 200 separate vacations, writes 3 seasons of 4 other minor HBO shows and makes 1000 personal appearances at aGoT merchandise tie-in conventions.

[Garak]

And Dance with Dragons will not be out even then.

[Werthead]

Tamzin Merchant has left the production, so the role of Daenerys will be recast and the scenes in Pentos (filmed in Morocco) will be re-shot.

[Garak]

Why do I have a feeling it will take forever to get this thing going? Maybe Dance will be out by the time we get the pilot episode ..... yeah right.

This post has been edited by Garak: 30 April 2010 - 04:20 PM