The Wall Street Journal has a great article on the production of HBO’s Game of Thrones, which notes a couple of tidbits likely to make fans salivate. First up, a hint as to where the production may do some filming if it goes forward:
¨Before production began, fans posted renderings online of how they imagined colorful King’s Landing, the lush, chilly Winterfell and the eerie blood-covered Castle Black. “I of course ignored all of that because I wanted to make it my own world,” production designer Gemma Jackson said from Croatia, where she was scouting locations for season two before heading to Turkey.
Don’t go leaping for joy yet, folks. The show still isn’t greenlit at this time. There’s a lot of things that need to be prepared in advance of a greenlight, and some of that prep work has to go on now rather than later. But ,,, it’s not a bad sign. And Croatia? Turkey? Interesting. Not only are there going to be some very excited fans in Croatia and surrounding countries if the production sets up shop there for a time, but it does lead one to wonder what locations in these countries might be used for if the second season goes forward.
And on the matter of the budget, this is what the WSJ’s reporter has to say:
HBO says the budget for the 10-episode first season of “Game of Thrones” is about $60 million. A person familiar with the budget says it’s closer to $100 million. Each episode took as long as 17 days to shoot, compared with eight days for a network drama.
Take that with a grain of salt. That sounds very over-inflated… but if you suppose they were figuring in a substantial, eight-figure marketing budget (and certainly, $10+ million seems likely), one supposes we’re looking at upwards of $70 million for the cost of production and marketing. Or more. But more than $80 million, which is what the quote implies? We think that as dubious as the claim to a $7 million-per-episode budget that another April-premiering show allegedly has.
In other news, radio host Fearless Fred has run a great audio interview with Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, as part of the promotion for the series in Canada. The fact that Harington’s currently filming in and around Toronto certainly hasn’t hurt when it comes to getting a few interviews from the actor. We’re looking forward to hearing and reading more of them in coming days.