HBO’s official Game of Thrones Youtube channel has uploaded a brand new video, featuring writer and editor Bryan Cogman (recently interviewed here regarding season 3) about the process of turning the books into the series. Cogman’s work entails providing the notes and outlines of the books that help serve as the underpinnings of the upcoming season, and it’s interesting to see that process described somewhat. Also, the video features some glimpses of season 3 filming, including a brief scene featuring Dame Diana Rigg as Olenna Tyrell, as well as other new cast members such as Ciarán Hinds as the King-beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder (lacking, alas, his black cloak sewn with red silk) and Clive Russell as Ser Brynden Tully, called the Blackfish.

Via Flicks and the City (which is a great source for interviews of film and television actors, particularly those based in the UK), there’s an excellent interview with Julian Glover, who plays Grand Maester Pycelle. He discusses details of the third season (including giving a taste of a scene he shares with Charles Dance), and also the way that his character was somewhat adjusted from what’s in the novels. Initially, the writers wanted Pycelle to simply be a dottering old man, but Glover indicates he grew tired of this and asked for more to do… and so they came up with the notion that his aged demeanor is a put on, a way to disarm suspicion and attention from himself. Of course, in the novels, Pycelle is rather less decrepit until events in A Clash of Kings than he has been played in the show.

You can see the interview below (and beware, there are spoilers for future season!):

It looks like SciFi Now managed a brief interview with editor and writer Bryan Cogman about the third season while it was still filming. He notes he had just watched the filming of one of the “iconic sword fights” in the series, and comments that he knows a few things about the overall story, and suspects David Benioff and Dan Weiss know a bit more.

Via George R.R. Martin and his “Not a Blog”, we learn that episode 7 of season 3 has been retitled. As we noted earlier in the week, it was called “Autumn Storms”, but it will now be titled “Chains”. It’s a title Martin says he likes rather more, noting it has literal and metaphorical meanings:

According to the National Post, Wilko Johnson—a living legend of rhythm and blues and member of UK band Doctor Feelgood, as well as Ser Ilyn Payne, the King’s Justice on Game of Thrones—has been diagnosed with untreatable cancer of the pancreas. His website states that Wilko is planning to focus on finishing a CD and preparing a farewell tour, having opted not to receive chemotherapy.

Tragic news to hear, but it sounds like he means to do the things he loves best, with those who matter most to him. We wish Johnson the best.

You may remember this from last year’s excellent season 1 Bluray set, when the Stark kids (Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Isaac Hempstead-Wright) provided an acapella rendition of the Game of Thrones theme.

Well… they’re back for more. It’s quite amusing (especially when Maisie breaks out into fits of giggles)! See below this excerpt from their commentary from the Season 2 Bluray (Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK) and DVD (Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK). The discs are set to be released on February 19th in the US, and we have more information about their full contents in this previous report.

As has started to become a tradition, HBO has sent out the list of the writers and directors for the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. Many of these we’ve been able to piece together over the previous months, but I believe this is the first time some of these have been confirmed. You can find them below. As is also tradition, no titles have been given, though we do know Martin’s episode (#7) has been titled “Autumn Storms”.

Last night, the official Game of Thrones Twitter account reminded us that Emilia Clarke would be appearing on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live late night show, and as is their wont, the talk show has made the appearance available on Youtube. Listen to Emilia discuss getting quite literally stuck on the toliet while filming a particularly sticky scene, and the time she was punched in Vietnam under rather curious circustmances:

A sharp-eyed fan (thanks, Jonas!) stumbled across the fact that Mero of Braavos, called the Titan’s Bastard, has been cast. The role of the notoriously brutal and untrustworthy sellsword captain is to be played by Mark Killeen, according to his CV. He also lists director Michelle McLaren as the director of the episode or episodes he appears in. As we’ve previously reported, MacLaren directed episodes 7 and 8 of the third season.

So, the notable sellswords Daenerys meets in Slaver’s Bay are largely accounted for. Is Brown Ben Plumm also in the cards? We’re pretty sure that if he does appear, it’ll be in the fourth season or even later, but you never really know.

New cast member Iwan Rheon, whose casting confirmation we reported on awhile back, and whose role (“BOY”) has been the subject of a lot of well-founded speculation, was interviewed by the always-excellent Red Carpet News regarding his experience filming on the show and just who he worked with.

(Watch the interviewer rather cheekily taking a stab at Rheon’s character’s identity with his opening question):

(Thanks to CoolOff on the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum for bringing the interview to our attention.)

GQ.com has declared “Blackwater”—the George R.R. Martin-pennied, Neil Marshall-directed penultimate episode of season 2—the “Year’s Best Television Episode”.

It’s hard to make an argument against that (though Matt Weiner and Vince Gilligan can surely make them), but the honor does come with a very nice “oral history” of the episode, from its conception to completion, as told by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, as well as GRRM and Marshall. Some interesting details along the way, and it’s well worth reading.

However, we can say that one detail in the article seems to be an error—or, at least, was not sourced from the participants. Writer Brian Rafferty writes toward the end that “Martin is halfway” through the sixth novel. We contacted Martin’s office about this detail, to verify it, and have been informed that GRRM made no such statement. It may have been a misunderstanding or a mistaken assumption, but in any case, GRRM has not stated that he is “halfway” done with The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

This is very nice indeed. Courtesy of HBO, there’s now a long teaser featuring Will Simpson (storyboard artist) discussing the making of the history of Westeros pieces featured on the Season 2 Bluray (Pre-order: US Bluray, UK Bluray). Better still, we get one of those histories, narrated by Rose Leslie (Ygritte)  who tells the tale of the raising of the Wall and the existence of the wildlings as only one of their own can see it.

These were definitely one of the highlights of the previous Bluray set, and we’re sure they’ll be a highlight for the second season set as well. For more information on the Bluray set, we have full details available here.

A brief but interesting update from the Making Game of Thrones production blog, discussing the fact that the introduction of Mance Rayder—played by Ciáran Hinds—was also Hind’s very first day of work, which was unusual. Daniel Minahan returns after his season 2 hiatus, as well, directing the first two epiodes of the season.

And, as a passing note, this confirms the return of Edward Dogliani as Rattleshirt, something which we didn’t really doubt, but hadn’t heard anything specific regarding it.

The release of Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones was a chance for fans the world over to get a closer look behind the scenes at the making of the series, thanks to the writing of series story editor and writer Bryan Cogman having penned the book, filling it with the insights he was able to take from fellow members of the production team and the cast.

And now the collector’s edition has been released (Order: Amazon US, Amazon UK), and it adds an additional wrinkle: among the various bits of swag, such as the scrolled maps, is a whole second volume, this one containing storyboards from artist Will Simpson which are a key part of the process of creating and producing the series.

To explain more about the books, and what they reveal and what’s contained within, we had the opportunity to interview Bryan so that he can provide a better understanding of what fans can expect to find.

Read the interview!

Over at the Making Game of Thrones production blog, an interview has been released with Jonathan Barrass, SFX floor supervisor who works with the Wolf and Dragon units that have been filming in the UK and will soon be filming in Iceland.

Some interesting bits are mentioned along the way regarding season 3 scenes that he’s working on. It’s all mysterious, but some of these are perhaps worth speculating about (beware spoilers from the third novel):