Of particular interest are producer Mark Huffam’s comments, reiterating that the natural, unspoiled beauty of Northern Ireland played a part in convincing HBO to set the fantasy drama there. He cites several locations as examples: “There’s the Mournes, Tollymore, the Antrim Coast and Shane’s Castle to name but a few.”

And from the article, just because it’s amusing: “The demand for suitably hairy extras was so great that some had to be recruited from local heavy metal message boards.”

British actor Donald Sumpter, cast in the role of Maester Luwin in HBO’s Game of Thrones, has been announced to provide his vocal talents towards the new, direct-to-DVD motion captured Ultramarines film in the Warhammer 40k setting. At the 4:05 mark, Sumpter is interviewed, and it gives a great chance get a look a the actor playing one of the many memorable characters in the series. Alongside Sumpter, the likes of John Hurt and Terence Stamp (who has received some support among fans as a possible choice for Tywin Lannister) will also provide their talents to the production.

Much more about Ultramarines can be found at the Wertzone, which brought the video above to our attention.

Spence has a significant amount of history with HBO in similar roles, having been associate producer on their award-winning miniseries, John Adams and Generation Kill, and the recent film Temple Grandin. He also appears to have extensive experience in post-production management, suggesting one of his roles will be to oversee post-production of episodes.

Many congratulations to Mr. Stromberg, whose efforts for Game of Thrones we’re all looking forward to. If you want a more recent example of his work, however, we recommend taking a look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, on which Stromberg was production designer, helping to bring Burton’s whimsical visions into reality.

There are a couple of new, interesting details in his update: besides confirming that the plan remains for him to write one episode per season, and indicating he believes the show would air starting April or May 2011, Martin notes that a “return to Morocco is also possible, and other locations may be used as well.” It had previously been assumed that Morocco was going to be definitely be used to film the rest of the scenes on the eastern continent featuring Tamzin Merchant’s character, Daenerys Targaryen, but it appears that that assumption is wrong. The reference to “other locations” could mean that sites in Scotland such as the previously-used Doune Castle—where the fact that the site was open to the public led to certain leaks which were said to have annoyed HBO and the production team—have just as uncertain a future, doubtless for budgetary reasons.

Our rough translation follows:

One interesting detail? The Northern Ireland government provided a £1.6 million (roughly $2.4 million) incentive for the production, and promises more cash incentives for continuing production. As we have previously discussed, this would be in addition to the cut-rate price given for leasing the Paint Hall, and the tax credit that could equal as much as $6 million.

For those wondering about some of the footage shown in the video, the fantasy cottage/building featured at one point is from Your Highness, and is not something that would be used for the Game of Thrones pilot.

It again note the importance of Mark Huffam, a local producer, in helping to land the project in Northern Ireland. More interestingly, an approximate shooting schedule is given—June through to December, which fits pretty nicely with the rumored 30 weeks of filming a source has provided in the past—and then a list of shooting locations beside the Paint Hall.

Most of them are familiar to those who followed the production closely: Tollymore Forest Park (where the opening scene, featured in the first official publicity still, was shot) and Castle Ward (where scenes of Winterfell’s courtyard and gate appear to have been filmed). However, a new name enters the picture: Shane’s Castle in County Antrim. The castle proper has been ruined for almost 200 years, but from the description it sounds like the estate itself may be ideal for filming of exteriors in wide-open spaces.

Thanks to About Yea High at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum for pointing it out.

If you’re new to Westeros.org and its forum, it should be noted that David Benioff and Dan Weiss—the executive producers of the series—are members of the forum, and while the pilot was rolling into production they specifically asked fans to pitch suggestions for roles. Our suggestion threads then seemed to have an effect as a number of roles cast were pretty much spot-on to names fans put forward, and hopefully this chance for fans to express their further ideas is going to help them to choose some more, great actors.

Some caveats: if you’re just signing up for the forum, please be patient, I manually approve the queue a couple of times a day (manual approval helps cut down on spam bots quite a bit). Also, when posting, try to focus on British actors—95% of the roles are going to go with actors who are part of the British actors association, as special exemptions are needed for non-Brits.