Westeros

A great new video has shown up on the official Game of Thrones Youtube channel, which features the filming in Iceland… and our very first look at Mackenzie Crook as Orell:

Courtesy of HBO, here’s one of our very favorite things that come from the Season 2 Blurays (Preorder: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk): the extras featuring the History of Westeros. Last season’s were amazing, but we’re told that this set is going to be even better, with more animation and that wonderful narration by the actors delivering these bits of knowledge as their characters. Here’s Wisdom Hallyne, the pyromancer, telling us all about his order and wildfire:

Have to love Roy Dotrice.

The Bluray hits retailers on February 19th in the U.S., early March in the U.K. and Europe.

This, as they say, is the motherload: many, many stills of characters (both old and new) from the upcoming season of Game of Thrones, set to air on March 31st.

Some terrific images of Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall, the red priest Thoros of Myr, the siblings Meera and Jojen Reed… and some hints as to which episodes many of these characters appearing in.

So, hurry along and check out our gallery and share your thoughts! We may go back and provide further comments to the images when we have a chance.

And now a surprise, as George R.R. Martin trots out Froggie the Gremlin for a most unexpected casting clue. For those who’ve missed them previously, for prior seasons Martin has occasionally revealed actors who’ve been cast in roles by the use of clues. Inevitably, he’d use his Froggy the Gremlin avatar to signal when it was a clue.

This one threw me, since it’s rather early to be casting season 4 when the 5th season isn’t even greenlit. But of course, others who are smarter (or at least in earlier timezones) resolved the clue quite quickly: “It’s the Pits!” refers to a specific pit that will be appearing this season, and the “son of Homer” is, of course, Bart Simpson.

Here’s a rare sight: an interview with actor Conleth Hill, who so memorably plays the role of the eunuch master of whisperers, Varys. Hill, a noted and award-winning theater actor, largely discusses theater matters… but there are some remarks regarding Game of Thrones, including the fact that he originally read for a different role entirely before being offered the part of Varys.

The official Game of Thrones Tumblr has just announced a contest for art-inclined fans of the television series. The challenge? Create your own fan poster for Season 3. The rules explain all you need to know about the requirements to participate, as well as the rather substantial prize package with an estimated retail value just south of $5,000 (including the limited edition Iron Throne and the awesome direwolf bookends from Dark Horse.)

The contest runs from now to 12 PM Eastern time on to June 14th, so plenty of time to get to work!

Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has posted the fact that he and co-editor Gardner Dozois have delivered the cross-genre anthology, Dangerous Women. He has provided a full list of contents, and there’s a surprise in there for fans of the series:

Emphasis mine, for those looking for details on Martin’s story.

Here’s a couple of fascinating tidbits from interviews with Ciarán Hinds and James Purefory, both who had been on HBO’s Rome—a fine show, one of the most lavish productions ever put to screen as a regular hour long drama—and who have been asked (for various reasons) to remark on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Of course, only one of these actors is actually on the show, but the other has been a fan-favorite when it comes to casting speculation…

First, of course, is Ciarán Hinds, the actor cast as Mance Rayder whom we recently glimpsed in HBO’s latest video. Speaking to Irish Central, Hinds had the following to say about the first season of the show when he decided to catch up to it:

We’ve just received word that Random House’s A Game of Thrones comic book adaptation, written by Daniel Abraham> and drawn by artist Tommy F. Patterson,  is now available through an app at the US iTunes Store. A faithful adaptation of the books, fans of the TV show will find scenes that never made it to the television series, while fans of the novels will get to see the world and characters visualized with George R.R. Martin’s input.

The app costs $3.99, but includes the first issue of the series for free. To learn more, check out our interview with writer (and author) Daniel Abraham shortly after the project was announced.

A shower of riches from HBO, as yet another video featuring characters and moments from the third season has appeared on the official Game of Thrones Youtube channel:

I haven’t even finished screen-capping the last one!

This is a nice bit of information (thanks to Olaf Keith for pointing it out: according to USA Today, every book of the A Song of Ice and Fire series were among the 100 top-selling novels of 2012. The highest placed on the list? The first and the oldest, A Game of Thrones, at #21. That’s quite a position for a book published 16 years ago!

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, everyone’s favorite Kingslayer, was recently in Canada to promote his new film, Mama, a Guillermo del Toro-produced horror film that’s been getting some positive press.

Of course, where there’s film promotion, there are interviews. One of the best interviewers in Canada is George Stroumboulopoulos, who had a great interview with George R.R. Martin last year, and it looks like his interview with Coster-Waldau is similarly interesting. Here’s

the whole interview which will air tonight on CBC Television at 7PM, and should be on-line at the George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight Youtube channel soon thereafter, which features some discussion of Game of Thrones at the 3:55 mark:

Courtesy of Tor.com, Daniel Abraham’s original story set in the WIld Cards shared-world universe is now available on-line. “When We Were Heroes”  features Curveball and Bugsy, two characters introduced in the “new” Wild Cards trilogy that began with 2008’s Inside Straight. Tor.com suggests that this is the first of several stories George R.R. Martin has commissioned in the wake of the success of Fort Freak.

In further news, over at “Not a Blog” GRRM has noted that the follow-up to Fort Freak, Lowball, is nearly done, and that the third novel in this trilogy—High Stakes—will be in progress immediately after Lowball has been delivered to the publisher.

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.

Valyrian Steel has reported that they have received 25 copies of Dark Horse‘s Iron Throne replica, part of a set of 125 that were artist proof’s, due to an error. However, it seems HBO has decided to allow Valyrian Steel to keep them and sell them on to fans who might be interested. It’s a rare opportunity to get a hold of a very rare (and high quality) replica item, and you can place an order here at Valyrian Steel’s storefront.

The regular limited edition of the throne can be found at Amazon.com, while a miniature and more widely available (and therefore more affordable) version can be found at Things From Another World, which ships globally.

We’ve posted a newly-available video to the So Spake Martin collection from TIFF. Although released in December, it was recorded at a private “Master Class” talk in March. It’s lengthy, and quite excellent, and contains hints of things to come later in the series.

Make sure to also watch the “In Conversation” public event that was hosted the following (or possibly the prior) day, if you’ve not seen it before.

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.

We had a hint that there’d be something new to tease the upcoming season of Game of Thrones, though it’d be in the vein of the very earliest teases, just whetting the appetite. Turns out that was about right, as there’s this nicely atmospheric teaser featuring a three-eyed crow

raven flying through a modern city, letting us know that Game of Thrones is returning this March to the tune of The National’s rendition of “The Rains of Castamere” (available on the official soundtrack for season 2):

Seems very likely that the first big teaser for season 3 will have to wait until later this month (or, perhaps more likely, next month—perhaps in time with the premiere of the BBC/HBO co-production Parade’s End, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch?)

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.

A belated holiday gift from a very busy George R.R. Martin: a new chapter from The Winds of Winter. In this case, it’s the first Arianne Martell chapter from the novel, picking up from where A Dance with Dragons left off. Some interesting details, but spoilery (of course). You can read it at Martin’s official site, via the Ice and Fire Sample page.

Have it, and then join the discussion on forum, where we have a section devoted to the chapters previously released and those he’s read at conventions and signings. The

[EDIT: Ah, in fact this is a brand new chapter that precedes the one GRRM has read], but lets just say a lot of details either missed being supplied in the reports, or have been added as he’s worked on the chapter.

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”.

Valyrian Steel is on quite the tear! In short order they’ve announced the first two releases in their line of licensed Game of Thrones replicas, and now they’ve followed it up with a third item that shall soon be available for pre-order: Robb Stark’s sword. In fact, when the license was first announced, Valyrian Steel noted that the sword was the first thing they were going to work on. Had we a guess, we’d think they probably already have some other weapons and armor replicas in the works.

You can find out more about the sword, which can be pre-ordered beginnign the 13th, at their store.

After a long wait since it was announced that Valyrian Steel had acquired the license to produce replicas based on HBO’s Game of Thrones—to go along with their license to produce weapons based on A Song of Ice and Fire—it looks like the first products have been unveiled and will start shipping in time for Spring 2013 (and the third season of HBO’s hit show). It seems all replicas will be produced in limited editions, make them even more interesting for fans and collectors.