We posted a couple of weeks ago about NPR asking SF/F readers to vote on a very long list (237 finalists in total) so they could narrow it down to a Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy titles. The results are in, and it’s a great pleasure to see that George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series not only made the list, it went all the way to #5. Ahead of it were Frank Herbert’s Dune, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and at #1, what else? J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Congratulations to George, and to the other authors on the list, which is worth checking out (and lets give a special shoutout to Ursula K. Le Guin’s body of work, which really should have rated much higher, in our opinion… and may have done so, if only someone had thought to put the Earthsea quartet on the list!)
Variety’s Emmy Central blog has an article that speaks to the showrunners of various series nominated for “Best Drama” at this year’s award, including HBO’s Game of Thrones (see the full list of Emmy nominations for the show). One common refrain is the envy some showrunners have towards the big-budget HBO programs such as Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. But when David Benioff is quoted, he’s discussing how the budget has gone towards allowing the production to film in two countries last season… and now three this season:
Well, if Tolkien got the Bored of the Rings treatment, why not? Once they start parodying you, you’ve hit a certain level of cultural currency.
According to The Wrap, Thomas Dunne Books have acquired the rights to A Game of Groans from pseudonymous author George R.R. Contanza. There’s a brief blurb of the novel attached to the report, which reads as follows:
Wow, a veritable flood of casting news! Now The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive news that Welsh actor Robert Pugh has been cast in the role of Craster, a brutish wildling who rules his “keep”, terrorizing his wives and his daughters… many of whom are one and the same. Considered a friend to the Watch, he’ll play a part in the Lord Commander’s expedition beyond the Wall.
Pugh’s a veteran actor with a number of film roles under his belt, including appearances in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Robin Hood, and The Last Legion.
Well, this is a nice surprise: according to George R. R. Martin’s post regarding this year’s Worldcon, Renovation, he’ll be reading an extract from the sixth book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, The Winds of Winter. This, and many other items, are on GRRM’s schedule for the convention.
We suspect that the reading on Thursday (scheduled for 2 hours, though we suspect a Q&A is part of it) is going to feature a room filled to capacity.
For those who are primarily interested in the TV show, the Game of Thrones presentation panel was extended from one hour to two hours, so it can accomadate a special screening of George’s episode, “The Pointy End”... with commentary from the author himself! Wow. Besides that, David J. Peterson—creator of the Dothraki language for the show—will be on hand for panels and workshops related to language creation, including a presentation on Dothraki; his schedule can be found here.
Having twice attended Worldcon, we have to really recommend paying a visit—even if just for one day—to get a look at a science fiction convention as the SF fandom community have developed to a high (if sometimes eccentric) art form. Thousands of fellow fans, well-stocked dealers and art rooms, costuming galore, and (literally) hundreds of program items featuring writers, editors, fans, scientists, academics, and even the occasional actor or screenwriter—there’s nothing quite like Worldcon out there. The price may seem steep, but the value’s quite high. Not least if you just want to hang out with George, who we guarantee will be hanging out with the fans at the convention during the nightly floor parties thrown at the convention hotel; make sure not to miss the Brotherhood without Banners parties!
And if you can’t make it… well, I’m pretty sure the forum is going to feature reports regarding these events within hours (perhaps even minutes) of their conclusion. Keep an eye out!
Renovation runs from August 17 to August 21. To learn more about memberships and day rates, see here.
And once again, GRRM confirms the guesses: Irish actor Michael McElhatton has been cast in the role of Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort, a northern bannerman to the Starks who plays a prominent role in Robb’s campaign. See our previous post with details on McElhatton and why he fit the clues.
McElhatton certainly has the look for Roose Bolton, to say the least. Below is a long showreel from his agency, although unfortunately the audio encoding is a bit of a mess:
George R.R. Martin has a new clue posted, as promised, and by the title… well, we’re going to guess this is for the role of Pyat Pree, one of the warlocks of Qarth, going off the speculation that the Qartheen for the series may not be so homogeneous as they are in the books. Here’s the title and text:
A Light Shade of Pale
Thrice nominated, once victorious. A double threat. He wrote the script for his own wedding. Has struggled against the Spider’s sort, taken on Santa, caught a tiger by his tail. Never reads the same book twice. Last seen dancing home.
Now to start pondering!
UPDATE: Via Twitter, we were pointed to Irish actor Michael McElhatton, and if that guess right, were going to join everyone else and suppose that this clue is about Roose Bolton and, in this case, is referring to that character’s very pale eyes. He appeared in the film The Tiger’s Tail, wrote and starred in the eponymous Fergus’s Wedding (thereby making him a “double threat” as an actor and a writer), appeared in The Santa Incident, and Wikipedia states he’s been nominated for the Irish Film and Television Awards three times, winning once (in fact, he’s been nominated four times for acting and twice for writing). As to dancing home, his latest role is in the film Shadow Dancer. We’re not sure about his not reading the same book twice, but he seems to match up very well otherwise…
Oh, and it’s definitely for Roose Bolton—we were stuck looking for a role that fit “same book twice”, missing the very obvious fact that Roose Bolton makes a rather similar statement. Thanks to our commenters for noting that.
Rumor of this bubbled up recently when the actor’s CV showed the role, but Access Hollywood now has the confirmation: British actor Karl Davies is Alton Lannister. Davies is perhaps best-known for his role in the long-running British soap, Emmerdale.
Some discussion, and clips featuring the actor, below.
UPDATED: And GRRM has confirmed, and adds that it seems another clue or casting announcement is forthcoming.
We were asleep when George posted this rather late casting clue, so all the guessing has been done and we’re pretty sure fans commenting on GRRM’s livejournal have nailed it down. Here’s the clues:
From England, England hails this fellow, an ideal choice. He’s been a madman, a nut, a spud, a martian, a king, and a slaver, he’s gone up with a balloon and down with a ship. But why he is so sad when he’s stroked so many women?
Several candidates are batted about in the thread, but it sure seems to us that given the character—his being “sad” really suggests the Night’s Watch squire Dolorous Edd—we can eliminate certain of the actors, such as Bernard Hill or the esteemed Christopher Lee. Once you do that, well, no one fits better than British actor Ben Crompton.
Can’t get more perfect than that!
Below, we have a few clips of the actor from Man Stroke Woman:
This is the fifth post in the series, and possibly the penultimate one (we do have one prophecy left to discuss from the previous entry), at least for this week as we’re still on vacation and recording isn’t too appealing just now. Want more? Leave some suggestions in comments regarding plot-related matters and we’ll consider them!
In any case, in this entry, we discuss “little mysteries”—various little puzzles or things that weren’t necessarily clear to readers on their initial read, or even on re-read. Hope you enjoy it!
For more videos in our A Dance with Dragons discussion series, visit our Youtube page.
UPDATED: HBO has since confirmed to us that the deal’s done, contracts signed, and Ms. Murray is on board. Exciting!
Thanks to a tip via our forum, it looks likely that the role of Gilly—daughter of the brutish wildling warrior named Craster—has been cast, with British actress Hannah Murray in the role.
Murray starred in the first two seasons of the acclaimed, controversial British series Skins (alongside Joe Dempsie, aka Gendry) before leaving the show to study at Cambridge.
While we seek confirmation from HBO, here’s an interview with Murray which also features a handful of clips from Skins (which is NSFW at one point, unless you’re wearing headphones or are quick with the mute button):
We know a lot of fans who’ll be pleased by this news. Following last night’s clue, George R.R. Martin has confirmed the widely-accepted guess that Roy Dotrice is to play Wisdom Hallyne, a senior member of the Guild of Alchemists, known as the pyromancers for their most renowned work, which involves fire (and, specifically, the alchemical “substance” popularly called wildfire).
As we reported last night, Dotrice was originally cast in the role of Grand Maester Pycelle, but for health reasons had to depart before filming began.
Below are a few clips of the actor, both in the past on Beauty and the Beast and more recently, including a sample of his audio reading work:
The Television Critics Association had their award ceremony last night, and we’re pleased to report that HBO’s Game of Thrones has won the “Outstanding New Program” category, beating out such early favorites such as the popular The Walking Dead and even HBO’s much-lauded Boardwalk Empire.
The show was nominated in three other categories, “Outstanding Acheivement in Drama”, “Program o the Year”, and “Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Drama” for Peter Dinklage, awards which were won by Mad Men, Friday Night Lights for its final season, and Jon Hamm of Mad Men (very deservedly, if we may say so—brilliant work from him last season).
This, we presume, is a hint for the role of Wisdom Hallyne, chief of the Guild of Alchemists of King’s Landing; they’re also known as pyromancers, and are best known for producing “the substance”, called wildfire, which (we hope!) will be on vivid display next season!
Down under he was the voice of wisdom.
Later on he was the voice of everyone.
Now he’s wisdom.
So, something to do with Australia—an Australian actor presumably.
UPDATE: Thanks to speculation over at Winter is Coming, we think we know who this is: none other than fan-favorite audio book reader (and veteran actor) Roy Dotrice, who was originally cast in the role of Grand Maester Pycelle until health issues intervened. We’ve heard he recovered well, and certainly well enough to continue his tour de force audio book readings after much demand for his return.
How do the clues fit? We thought “down under” meant Australia…. but when someone mentioned his name in connection to “voice of everyone” (he’s set a world record with the number of characters he’s voiced in the unabridged audio books), it clicked. In Beauty and the Beast, he played Father—“the voice of wisdom”—for the people who lived “down under” New York City in maze of tunnels.
Now fingers crossed that this is, indeed, the case!
We’ve got another great interview to share, this time with Ed Bruce of Screen Scene, a Dublin-based post production company that offers a wide range of services, many of which HBO’s Game of Thrones availed themselves of. Among them? Their visual effects department, which produced just over half of the effects shots for the first season. Some truly eye-popping images in their visual breakdown. Ed discusses a range of topics revolving around Screen Scene’s participation in the first season. Some interesting—and sometimes surprising (they removed Bran’s torso!)—details, and some frank discussion of what was and was not possible to do within the constraints they had.
A great interview, and we hope we’ll see more of Screen Scene’s work in the second season!