Westeros

Animation World Network has an interesting piece discussing the truly international effort to creat VFX for Game of Thrones, with the work largely being handled and supervised by Pixomondo.

Episodes can range from having as few as 60 VFX shots to as many as 140 VFX shots (I’m guessing that upper end is where “Blackwater” falls). Some interesting notes about changes to the dragon design to show that they’re growing, and a lot of talk of how the work was handled by nine of the twelve Pixomondo studios across the globe, plus some work outsourced to other VFX production companies, Baked FX (which has a brief announcement about their involvement) and Entity FX.

According to TV by the Numbers, the latest episode “The Prince of Winterfell has ticked up to match its series high of 3.9 million viewers and 2.0 share, narrowly missing beating the second round of the NBA playoffs as top cable show on Sunday. The second showing later that evening added just over a million more viewers and a 0.5 share, taking it to just shy of 5 million viewers in all.

Will “Blackwater” get us over the 4 million and 5 million marks respectively? Given all the promotion from HBO positioning this episode as something of an event, I think odds are good at least a few subscribers are going to tune in to see what the fuss is all about.

Bryan Cogman, story editor, writer of “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things” and the awesome “What Is Dead May Never Die” (still the most-liked episode of the second season according to fans at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum), and a fellow fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, has deactivated his twitter account. Why? Bryan explains in a statement he wrote that he’s asked us to share, and you can read it below:

Episode 8 is come and gone, and our full coverage of the episode can be found at our “The Prince of Winterfell” episode guide! This includes the full recap, our review/analysis, and our book-to-screen break down. The bonus video... maybe tomorrow, but possibly later, as family business is keeping us busy through Wednesday; our apologies!

This interview with executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss is a great read, as they discuss the upcoming “Blackwater” in some detail. There are some mild spoilers for those who haven’t read the novels, but a lot more of it is about the challenges of producing the battle. They’ve already previously noted that they received a “stipend” above and beyond the decided season budget to be able to put it together, but one interesting detail that I believe is new is the fact that originally “Blackwater” was due to be directed by another director until a personal emergency forced put an end to that. Neil Marshal was the name that popped up as a replacement, and it worked very well indeed.

I’m going to guess that the unnamed director was Jeremy Podeswa, who had at one point indicated (during, I believe, a red carpet interview) that Game of Thrones was on his schedule and then seemed to never be mentioned again in connection with the show. Podeswa’s credits include a number of HBO shows and miniseries, perhaps most saliently The Pacific in which he directed the episode “Iwo Jima”.

In any case, make sure to check out the interview, which includes another preview for the episode.

We’ve heard about a social Game of Thrones game being in the works in the past on several occasions… and now, finally, it looks like they’re getting ready to reveal more about it. Here’s the press release announcing the game, made in partnership between HBO and Disruptor Beam, which seems to indicate that the game is their first big launch (though they do have prior experience developing games):

And here is that promised teaser for “Blackwater”:

HBO has also released a trailer titled “War of the Five Kings” which adds a couple more glimpses of the episode, as well as doing a very succinct job of setting up all the rival kings (and their situation to date):

Looks like there’ll be much blood and mayhem in this Neil Marshal-directed, George R.R. Martin-written episode!

(And yes, our coverage of “A Prince of Winterfell” is still not going up until Monday afternoon !)

Of course, it’s “The Prince of Winterfell” tonight at 9PM Eastern, and that promises to be an interesting episode… but for many fans, the episode that’s been looming first and foremost all season long has been “Blackwater”, penned by one George R.R. Martin. It promises to be an epic episode.

So epic that HBO is releasing a special promo for the episode this Sunday at 10:01 Pacific… or 1:01 Eastern on Monday, and it should be available online via HBO.com, Making Game of Thrones, and of course the official Youtube channel. So, yeah, check that one out. ;) We’ll probably be getting up early tomorrow just to get a peek at it.

Oh, and so epic, that in the lead up to it, no screeners have gone out to us (and possibly to others), not even for “The Prince of Winterfell”. So our usual coverage is set for Monday afternoon at the earliest, time permitting. Until then, enjoy the episode!

HBO has sent out two preview images… and unusually, one of them is not for the next episode, “The Prince of Winterfell”, but also for the penultimate episode of the season, the George R.R. Martin-penned, “Blackwater”.

The image to the right features Varys—who has been absent for the last few episodes—speaking with Tyrion in episode 8 as Tyrion seems to be examining a very topical book about the history of sieges in Westeros. Not a tome described in the novels (should have been a tattered, partial manuscript of Ayrmidon’s Engines of War!)

And the more notable image, that of Bronn with a longbow (!) preparing to send a firey arrow… somewhere. What’s going on? No idea. However, we may be getting a hint on May 27, 10:01 Pacific / May 28, 1:01 am Eastern, because it looks like a special preview for “Blackwater” will be airing at that time. Exciting!

Casting is well under way for season 3 of HBO’s Game of Thrones, and though rumors and whispers are running around about which roles are being sought—we can pretty reliably say that Daario Naharis, Shireen Baratheon, and Edmure Tully are among roles being sought, that Brynden Tully (aka the Blackfish) also seems likely from details we’ve picked up from a recent (now vanished) audition video, and of course significant roles for this season such as Mance Rayder are also being sought, while it certainly sounds from the show that the character of Ramsay Snow is going to be needed.

It’s notable that the casting for extras is also underway... and a detail rather caught our eye:

We set the fundraiser for Westeros.org at what I thought was a not-very-modest goal—about twice as much as we ever really asked for before—and it turns out, I very much undervalued how much the site means to the community of users! After less than a week, the fundraising has come to a close… and we raised something north of $3000! An amazing job, one and all, and we truly appreciate it. Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed, to those who would if they could, and everyone who’s contributed to make it such a terrific community site.

The Game of Thrones RPG contest grew to a close yesterday, and now I can name the winners!

From the competition for our Twitter followers:

• Brandon Excell
• Robert Dimitri

From the competition for our Facebook followers:

• Christopher VeRn Varney
• Valeria Vianes

Congratulations to the winners! They’ve all been contacted via Twitter or Facebook, and will see their copies of the Game of Thrones RPG sent to them once we have the mailing addresses. The Game of Thrones game has been released in the US today (XBox, PS3, PC Download) and will be available in the rest of the world from June 1st (UK XBox, UK PS3, UK PC DVD).

As the screeners have dried up, reviews here on out will no longer be posted earlier than Monday… and after quite a few hours of work, I’ve finished up most of our material for A Man Without Honor. The usual video we create won’t be done until tomorrow, however—apologies for that, but writing the recap, analysis, and chapter-by-chapter breakdown took most of the day!

And for those interested, here’s the preview video for “The Prince of Winterfell”.

One of the most recent departures from the show has been that of Irri, the Dothraki handmaiden and companion to Daenerys Targaryen. Played by actress Amrita Acharia, Irri showed herself to be spirited and dutiful, and it seems that last trait may well have led to her character’s very unexpected death on the series. We had the opportunity to speak to Amrita about he role, what it was like to be involved in a production of this scale, the difficulties of acting when speaking an imaginary language, and the problem of being one of the Horse Lords but without ever riding a horse… !

Unlike most of our interviews, this one has been published at Suvudu, where I’ve contributed a number of reviews and articles related to Game of Thrones. So go ahead and read the interview!

The Game of Thrones RPG is rapidly approaching, and Cyanide Studio and Focus Home Interactive—perhaps taking a page from HBO’s many behind the scenes videos—has released a video taking us “Behind the Wall”:

We’ve also updated our gallery with a heap of new screen shots.

The RPG hits shelves on the 15th of May in North America, and Junest 1st in the rest of the world. And if you’re in the US and interested in winning a copy for XBox or PS3? Look here!