Westeros

Or, our second interview with Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau! Not much more to say here—why delay the read? It’s short but sweet… and Nikolaj dodged the one question we were most hoping he’d answer. Well-played, Kingslayer, well-played.

Read the interview!

San Diego Comic Con’s over, but more interviews are appearing done around then (keep your eye out for one of our own!), and here‘s a video interview from the CBC in which George R.R. Martin discusses the adaptation by HBO, its genesis, and the impact its had. Oh, and he mentions The World of Ice and Fire, which he’s co-authoring with Linda and I!

This was unexpected, and pleasant, news:  according to SF Awards Watch (as originally reported in Chinese Science Fiction Newsletter, George R.R. Martin has won “Most Popular Foreign Author” in the annual Galaxy Awards run by Science Fiction World magazine in China.

China actually has quite a burgeoning science fiction and fantasy readership, with SFW at one point claiming the largest circulation of any science fiction periodical in the world.

Congratulations, George!

As promised in our video review of A Dance with Dragons, Linda and I recorded a few videos discussing various topics we thought interesting and worth talking about from George R.R. Martin’s latest entry into the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. Today we’re releasing the first set—I recalled only rather belatedly that I had 15 minutes, not 10 minutes, per video, so this first bunch is split in two—on the topic of… well, see for yourself. But note: there are definitely spoilers.

For further discussion of these and many other topics, we highly recommend the forum, and have begun work to expand the Citadel’s Frequently Asked Questions and Prophecies sections to cover the novel, with work soon about to go under way on the Concordance.

... paper of record, the New York Times, and several of its best seller lists! With a phenomenal opening week of sales making it the fastest-selling new fiction release of 2011 to date, A Dance with Dragons stormed atop the Hardcover Fiction, E-book fiction, and Combined Print and E-Book charts, making the second #1 debut for George R.R. Martin (after A Feast for Crows back in 2005). Besides that, after briefly dipping, A Game of Thrones has surged back into the #1 Mass-market Paperback Fiction list, giving GRRM no less than 4 #1’s this week. A tremendous, and well-deserved, accomplishment!

To add to the plaudits, we note that A Dance with Dragons also debuted at #1 on USA Today’s best seller list, the first time George has managed that feat (AFfC ended up at #2).

The Times has a graphic showing the climb through the charts of all five novels of the series. Beginning with the Game of Thrones hype, the novels have climbed upward, with A Game of Thronesnow having spent 14 weeks in the top ten of the combined print and e-book charts.

Following up on our previous report, Access Hollywood has posted two videos, the first featuring several minutes with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Ser Jaime Lannister), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), and Emilia Clarke Daenerys Targaryen), discussing season 2.

In the earlier article, the quote from Coster-Waldau made it seem as if characters not in the novels would be making an appearance, but from watching the video it seems much likelier that he’s simply referring to characters who have been introduced from A Clash of Kings, the second novel in George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

See the videos below!

Access Hollywood has one of the most detailed Season 2 remarks from the actors and executive producers of HBO’s Game of Thrones. A lot of choice quotes here. But here’s a couple of highlights:

• Kit Harington confirms an old, old report (we first heard of it around the time S1 wrapped filming) that the production is headed to Iceland: “It was cold last season, but this season we’re going to Iceland,” he said. “It’s going to be freezing, so that’s going to be a bit of a task…it’s pretty grueling stuff for Jon Snow.””
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau apparently indicates some not-from-the-books new characters are part of his story: “I heard they were going to add new characters, but I didn’t know what that meant,” he explained. “I know now. And it’s very cool.”
• Executive producers Benioff and Weiss confirm some A Storm of Swords plot details will figure into the second season “They also revealed that some plot details from Martin’s third novel, “A Storm of Swords,” will be used in Season 2.”

The voting for this year’s Ennie Awards is now open to the public, and Green Ronin—publishers of A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying—are up for several awards!

Of note, the A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide is up for three awards: Best Cover Art (this is by the amazing Michael Komarck), Best Setting, and the coveted Product of the Year. GR has a number of other products nominated, including their DC Adventures Hero’s Handbook which is also competing in the Product of the Year category.

Congratulations to Green Ronin, and please considering weighing in with your vote!

There have been many reports and tweets covering the panel (with reports stating as many as 7,000 people were waiting in line for a relatively few vacant seats), and we expect to have some fuller reports down the road, but in brief one of the main questions on the minds of many—whether the panel might unveil any cast-but-unannounced roles—was answered quite succinctly: no.

This was a celebration of the first season, the actors and the writers and the fans, and though the second season was discussed somewhat, it was not in any great detail.

Lots and lots of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones, and Wild Cards-related events at San Diego Comic Con. Below, we’ll try and pick out some of the most notable:

We previously posted our video with our thoughts on ADwD, but that was a bit scattershot.

Now we’ve added our written review of the book, which includes some context for its writing and what we believe its place is in the overall narrative. It’s a hefty book (over 3 lbs., we’re told), and there’s a lot to consider, so this review came out… uhm, rather lengthy!

And another casting has now been revealed by James Hibberd of EW (who scores a hat-trick, with three casting announcement scoops in one day)!

Joining Carice van Houten, Stephen Dillane, and Oliver Ford Davies is actor Liam Cunningham, late of Starz’s now-cancelled Camelot. This, paired with Dillane having been in the film King Arthur (in the role of Merlin), suggests Camelot actor Clive Standen was absolutely on the mark when he said a Camelot actor and another one who’d been in some other Arthurian production were being cast.

Cunningham, an Irish actor and veteran of stage and screen, has been involved in a number of genre productions besides Camelot; including Dog Soldiers, the remake of Clash of the Titans, and Centurion.

We pretty quickly figured out that George’s latest casting clue concerned the Laurence Oliver Award-winning actor Oliver Ford Davies would play the part of Maester Cressen, and now GRRM has confirmed!

Cressen is an aged maester in the service of Stannis Baratheon. Having served Stannis’s father, Lord Steffon, Cressen went on to serve Stannis after Robert—newly-crowned—appointed him as Lord of Dragonstone. Cressen has advised Stannis over the years, but is growing old and increasingly marginalized as Melisandre of Asshai, a red priestess of R’hllor from the far-distant land of Asshai, begins to hold sway at Stannis’s court. Melisandre and Stannis have both been cast, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the Cressen news has come out to compliment it.

Below, we have a video featuring an excellent scene from the 2009 Hamlet featuring David Tennant (perhaps best known for his Dr. Who stint) and Davies in the roles of Hamlet and Polonious, respectively. (As a side note, the clip is part of a video series comparing a number of productions of Hamlet—it’s quite an amazing idea!)

James Hibberd at Entertainment Weekly has the scoop!

Melisandre of Asshai, also known as the Red Woman, will be played by Dutch actress Carice van Houten, perhaps best known internationally for her leading role in Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book. She’s also recently co-starred with Sean Bean in the british medieval action-horror film Black Death (a nice still of her from that film can be found here).

As for Stannis Baratheon, King Robert’s brother (and Renly’s elder brother), an HBO veteran has ended in the role, British actor Stephen Dillane. Dillane received an Emmy nomination in his role of Thomas Jeffreson in the much-lauded HBO miniseries John Adams.

Below we have a couple of videos featuring both actors (Van Houten in an interview, Dillane in a scene as Jefferson). This looks like another great casting job by Emmy nominated casting directors Nina Gold and Robert Sterne!

Via Not a Blog, George has a brand new casting clue:

Have at it, Game of Thrones fans!