Westeros

It’s now HBO Go! And boy, this is full of new material, that’s to say the least. 1:50 long, it contains new lines from the season, and new images—including our best look at Nonso Anozie as Xaro Xhoan Daxos, our very first look at a CGI Direwolf, our first scene featuring Qhorin Halfhand, a hot and heavy moment featuring the mysterious Jeyne, and a lot more.

Here’s a scene-by-scene breakdown of the clip. Spoilers ahoy:

Thanks to Manu at Fantasy.fr, we’ve got another taste of what Ron Perlman—star of Beauty and the Beast and Sons of Anarchy, and much, much more (including a great turn in the beautifully-directed Drive)—has to say about his old BatB colleague George R.R. Martin, and whether he’d like to be part of Game of Thrones himself.

Sounds like his role on SoA means he hasn’t been approached, and that it’s unlikely that he will so long as he’s committed to another regular TV series. Shame, that, as I’m convinced he’d be an amazing Tormund Giantsbane or Magnar of Thenn (he looks completely wrong in terms of the looks of the characters, maybe, but he can definitely get their different personas across quite well). He also has some terrific praise for GRRM, citing his episodes as the ones he most looked forward to as an actor on Beauty and the Beast.

We’re getting nearer to season 2, and with each day new interviwes with cast and crew seem to be coming out. Following up recent interviews with Rory McCann and Carice van Houten & Aidan Gillen, My Fanbase has a fresh interview with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Van Houten provides a tantalizingly brief summary of just who Melisandre of Asshai is in an interview with Tribeca Films regarding Black Butterflies.

And while there’s a very brief quote or two from Kit Harington (whom we’ve previously interviewed during Season 1), this Men’s Health Journal pictorial is a lot more about fashion than Game of Thrones, as they give a few casual looks modeleld by Harington. But, hey, for those who like that sort of thing, he’s shirtless in one shot, and in his boxers in another…

Yeah, lets see if MHJ can handle the rush of traffic!

We started seeing this buzzed about—a 64-page art book showing concept art and sketches, apparently printed to quite high standards, that will be included with pre-orders of the Game of Thrones RPG from Cyanide. Among those sellers is Amazon US, so mosey on there to pre-order the PS3 or XBox 360 editions (for some reason I can’t track down PC preorder links…) It’s unclear whether this initiative will also take place in Europe, as Atlus USA is the one putting out the press release… so, sorry folks, this may be North America-only.

For more information about the game, visit the official game site or our previous coverage.

Here’s the official press release from Atlus USA:

Via HBO, it looks like the HBO Go streaming service (for HBO subscribers only) will be getting the first look at a brand new trailer for season 2 of Game of Thrones. It will be premiering on Friday night, Feburary 24th, at midnight (Eastern time).

An interesting move from them, and doubtless a fine way to get a good measure of what portion of their audience are Game of Thrones hard-core fanatics. We’ll try to get the details on the trailer as soon as it’s out, though it will likely be a day or six before HBO releases it through other, legitimate channels, so hang tight those not in the U.S.

Access Hollywood continues its series of interviews with Game of Thrones actors, this time talking to Rory McCann, who plays Sandor Clegane (and whose audition—one of the hidden dragon eggs on the Blu-ray—has a remarkably powerful moment in it that really sold me on his having the power needed for the character). In the interview, McCann reveals that he’s gotten through A Storm of Swords—deciding he wants to stay “just ahead” of the story—and he even mentions that he’s visited forums (surely our forum must be one of them!)  to read fan views on the character and maybe pick up a few good tips about him. He gives a little hint or two about what he’s up to this season, including jousting while wearing a “gold helmet” (that must mean he’s in his Kingsguard gear at some point—on the show the character seems to move back and forth between that and his regular equipment).

Also? He’s learned that his name actually derives from “wolfhound” or something like—Wikipedia seems to support it. Rather neat coincidence!

Two fresh interviews with Game of Thrones cast members have cropped up today, and they’re both quite interesting. First—and most substantial—is an excellent interview with Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger) that covers a range of topics, including the TV show, his last work with HBO on the Wire, and more. We love the fact that he says he’s read all the novels of the series—as far as I know, he’s the first actor in the production to have done so (though I would not be surprised if Ron Donachie had done so as well).

The other is a brief video interview with Carice van Houten (Melisandre of Asshai) regarding her latest project, the film Black Butterflies, but just before the three minute mark it turns to Game of Thrones. Most notably, she states that she appears in four episodes (#1, #2, #4, and #10), and she means to come back in season 3 (*knock on wood*) with a vengeance.

Heja Sverige! Game of Thrones premieres tonight at 10PM on SVT1, and at the same time you’ll find TV-circkeln ready to discuss the episode. It’ll air immediately after the show on SVT Play, and then—wonders of wonders, because I’m still fairly sure SVT has never done this before—the program will air on SVT1 as well at 11:25. Looking forward to it!

HBO’s got the full-court press going to promote the Blu-ray and DVD launch, it seems, and given the price-war... well, this should add fuel to the fire. In the Blu-ray review we linked in our last post, we praised some of the added features in the Blu-ray… especially a couple of items in the In-Episode Guide that just blew our geeky minds. And now, HBO and MTV are bringing a taste of one of those items, an excerpt from the Charles Dance-as-Tywin-Lannister narrated House Lannister history:

It’s region-locked, I’m afraid… but if you’re in the U.S. (and maybe Canada?), do check it out—it’s worth it. And that’s just an excerpt—it runs for about three or four minutes in the guide, I believe!

And right after we posted about HBO UK’s efforts to promote the March 5th release of Game of Thrones on Blu-ray and DVD… Amazon US and Best Buy decided to go to war on the price of the season set. Best Buy cut prices first—but Amazon US price-matched with remarkable alacrity, and now the Blu-ray can be had for 56% off(!) at just $34.99… and the DVD price has been driven down, as well, to 50% off and a $29.99 price.

Just $5 dollars separating the two… and if you missed it, we’ll note that we point out the great value in the added content for the Blu-ray in our review.

Ahead of the March 5th release of Game of Thrones on Blu-ray and DVD (Pre-order: UK DVD, UK Blu-ray, US DVD, US Blu-ray), HBO UK has started promoting the launch in various ways. First there was an iOs soundboard app featuring quotes from numerous characters in the first season. Then, they noted that they had a new site just to promote the release, filled with the familiar strains of Ramin Djawadi’s theme, video clips, images, and a countdown to the release.

And that’s not all, as they say. Via their Facebook page, they revealed that the Iron Throne will be in London on March 5th! Per their post:

Sounds like it’ll be fun! We know for a fact that HBO UK has one or two more things up its sleeves to promote the release—which is one reason why Linda and I were in London this past weekend…

Another new video giving a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the second season of Game of Thrones... and this one’s particularly interesting as it contains a few glimpses of some things (and people) we haven’t seen before:

The most notable bits? They’re toward the end. First, Robb is speaking with a woman whose back is to the camera… and that’d be the Jeyne, played by Oona Chaplin. And the other? That’d be Tyrion Lannister holding up a glass container holding a mysterious green liquid that actually looks like it’s glowing; that must be the show’s take on wildfire.

Oh, and unless I’m mistaken, we see Roxanne McKee in an earlier shot—which suggests Doreah is surviving rather longer on the TV show than she is in the novel.

That, and more, can be found in the video, which is certainly worth watching through a couple of times, if for nothing else than some more glimpses at the Harrenhal set.

Hollywood.TV caught up with executive producer David Benioff and his wife Amanda Peet at the Writers Guild of America Awards, where the show was nominated in the Best Drama Series and the Best New Series categories. Benioff apparently expected that this wasn’t Game of Thrones‘s year, from the sounds of it—and he was right, as Breaking Bad and Homeland took those awards, respectively. However, he was in a cheerful mood, as was Peet (who seems to have used marital privilege to get a look at the season already—or at least the scripts!) and he shared some thoughts on the second season:

Nothing really new here, as such, but Benioff does think this season will look even better than last season, and he feels the actors have had more time to get their characters and push them to another level. Amanda Peet focused on just how “tortuously suspensful” it was in her remarks, and claimed it was a problem in their marriage, which one could certainly understand! Benioff was also asked about faithfulness to the series, and he indicates that it’s still very much George’s world and story and characters, though of course, as an adaptation some changes need to take place, and they’ve moved some thing from later in the series into this season.

Here’s a 30 minute interview with Ted Nasmith, one of the celebrated “Big Three” Tolkien artists who has recently (and very successfully) turned his hand to depicting George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, with his series of castle paintings for the 2011 calendar (and The World of Ice and Fire book that Linda and I have co-written with GRRM). He’s presently working on the new A Game of Thrones limited edition. Among the topics of discussion are Nasmith’s approach to depicting the setting, and his career in general.

Thanks to the Tower of the Hand for sharing it!

Two new interviews with Game of Thrones actors have surfaced in the last couple of days. First, Access Hollywood has a fun interview with Alfie Allen,  aka Theon Greyjoy, regarding the second season. Funniest of all? Check out which Game of Thrones actor he was working with the day before! He sounds very enthused about his involvement in the series.

The other interview cropped up last night, thanks to Marcelo Cordova pointing it out. At 1883 Magazine, Richard Madden (Robb Stark) talks his status as Scotland’s most fashionable man, fitness, and gives a little hint about what’s going on in the 2nd season, among other things. Another good interview.

And for something completely different: here‘s Oona Chaplin (Jeyne) randomly on the way to the Vienna Opera Ball. Yes, she took that in the airplane’s lavatory. Yes, she changed in the plane. Made me laugh when I figured out what the picture was about.