Westeros

Here’s a quick round-up of some items from the last few days that we thinks fans of HBO’s Game of Thrones might find of interest. We’ve tweeted them, but haven’t yet had an opportunity to post them up:

• There’s a great, short profile of Maisie Williams (Arya) in a local Somerset paper, discussing her love of dance and her experience acting on the show. She notes she’s been asked to learn how to ride a horse, but she didn’t actually get around to riding on the show. Not yet, anyways…
• There’s a fantastic essay by Christopher Morgan over at Shadowlocked that makes for a good read, as they describe and reflect on the series and its translation to screen. They saw things a little differently in their mind’s eye than we did, but there’s some very thoughtful commentary.
• One of the interesting bits of trivia we had earlier in the week was more information on the dogs that play the direwolves. Ghost (who in the shot above is probably Cooper, though we’re not sure he’s the only “Ghost”) is a Northern Inuit dog, a relatively recent breed created to achieve a wolf-like appearance but with a domesticated dog’s ease of training. 90% of the dogs used for the direwolves—there are sometimes two or even three dogs that interchangeably play the part of a direwolf—are pure Northern Inuits, with one or two being Northern Inuits crossed with other breeds. Thanks to Rachel Blackmore of Lukoi Northern Inuits, we’ve learned a bit more about the dogs, including the name of one that was in the part of Lady: Zunni. They’re handsome animals, to say the least! As U.K. laws prohibit the use of wild animals such as wolves, using dogs that have a wolf-like appearance has been the only feasible option. Cooper, by the way, was one of the two dogs that got into a scrap with one another back in November.
• Over at io9, Charlie Jane Anders files a report on what seems to be the denouement of the Dwejra situation, which we’ve reported on previously. It seems that some of the more dire estimates of the accidental damage incurred at the Dwejra protected site proved to be very pessimistic; in particular, there is no evidence that the bio-habitat has been significantly or permanently damaged, which falls in line with the Maltese Environmental Protection Agency’s claim that the filming region was a buffer zone with less vulnerable flora and fauna. However, fossil and rock damage did take place due to the production’s contractors bringing in heavy machinery, in violation of the production’s permit to film there. MEPA will consider levying further fines against the production due to this.
• Turns out that someone has again perpetrated a hoax on Twitter, starting up a false account claiming to be Aimee Richardson (Princess Myrcella). Thanks to her father, the impostor was revealed, and Aimee now has her own account. We’re told by representatives of HBO that they’ll be looking into compiling a list of cast and crew whose accounts they can verify. Until then, though, our list is pretty solid. One notorious fake we should note is the fake Jason Momoa account—Momoa has verified that he does not have a Twitter account.
• Fans of Game of Thrones in New Zealand may be in for a long wait: via garmandude, we learned hat Sky NZ has no current plans to pick up the show, though they add that their plans are always under review. If Sky doesn’t get it, it sounds like it may be months before a terrestrial network airs it.

Finally, although there’s really no new footage here, here’s HBO’s latest “Buzz” video piece highlighting a number of their upcoming shows, including Game of Thrones: