Valyrian Steel, makers of authorized reproductions of weapons from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, has shared a preview picture of their second version of Longclaw, which will be a functional weapon using Damascus steel to get an appearance similar to the way Valyrian steel is described in the series. The first version of Longclaw was purely a display weapon, using paint to create the Valyrian steel look; this second version will be both more limited and more expensive to the extra cost that has gone into its construction.
Dark Sword Miniatures has now released its latest two figures in the George R. R. Martin Masterworks series of miniatures, Ygritte and Asha Greyjoy. On the site, you can see pictures of the models painted by studio artists, and find ordering information to go with them.
After the hints from the producers that Sandor Clegane, the Hound, has been cast, GRRM has been relatively quiet beyond mentioning that one role had been cast and that smaller roles were being cast such as “Unnamed Eunuch” and “Redheaded Whore”. Today, however, he posted a new clue: “Eat your porage and you’ll grow up big and strong.”
This almost certainly points to the Scottish actor Rory McCann, who has acted in films such as Oliver Stone’s Alexander. 6’6” tall, he is also known for this classic commercial for Scott’s Porage Oats.
According to this cheeky post from David Benioff and Dan Weiss, it seems very likely that, “Woof woof” indicates that the role of Sandor Clegane, known as the Hound, has been filled. There’s currently no information on who has been cast in the role.
Over at “Not a Blog”, George R. R. Martin has provided larger photos of Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, the two girls chosen to play the parts of Arya and Sansa Stark. George also provides some more information regarding their experience, with Williams having some theatrical credits while Turner has never been in any professional productions up to now.
The “secret seven”, as George R. R. Martin dubbed the seven actors cast in seven roles he has been teasing, have now been revealed at the Hollywood Reporter. Thanks to George’s clues over the last days, almost all the actors had been guessed at by fans at the A Song of Ice and Fire forums and the Winter is Coming blog. GRRM is posting information about each actor a Not a Blog.
George is at it again, following Benioff and Weiss’s remark of “another day, another knight”. It seems the seventh member of the cast is playing a knight, and he has been in some historical film(s) with the actor who plays Jaime.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have popped to tease that another role has been cast for the Game of Thrones pilot. As GRRM previously mentioned Ser Rodrik Cassel as one among a number of minor roles that were still being cast, it seems very possible that that’s the role that has been filled. It may also be that one of the Kingsguard who accompany Robert, Ser Boros Blount or Ser Meryn Trant, has been cast; although those roles are without lines in the pilot script, from what I have heard.
Although there’s no news on the casting front, HBO Game of Thrones pilot production continues to move forward. Production offices have been established in Belfast, according to George R. R. Martin, although production has been moved back two weeks to begin October 26th which is a move GRRM hinted at during Worldcon. He also expects a few more roles to be cast this week, leaving open the possibility that with a critical mass of unannounced casting decisions there may soon be an announcement from HBO.
Green Ronin and their A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game had some success at the ENnie awards, as reported here. They received a Gold award for the best free product with the quickstart document for the game, and a Silver award for best rules. Congratulations to the publisher and designers.
GRRM’s having fun by releasing more hints about the casting. He does indicate most people have figured out one of the clues, indicating two of the roles belong to the children; he further adds that those actors are not listed in IMDB although a number of individuals in there share their name. He also states that casting continues, now aimed for actors to fill smaller roles.
George R. R. Martin dropped some hints regarding the the five roles cast so far, and hard on that revealed that a sixth was cast. The hints are quite obscure, but they’ve lead fans to speculate quite thoroughly. As for the sixth role cast, we do know that Daenerys had been narrowed down to three parts recently, and it may be that they have made their choice and struck the appropriate deal with the actress.
More maps have been added to the Citadel. These maps created by Other-in-Law, are absolutely unique in our experience. While quite speculative and stylized, the colorfulness and sheer whimsy of many of the maps makes them among the most interesting and entertaining maps we’ve ever seen.
Two new maps of Westeros has been added to the Citadel’s gallery of maps, created by an individual named Tear who shared it as a Work In Progress at the Cartographer’s Guild; he has kindly given us permission to host it on our site. One map is a full-sized color map of the Seven Kingdoms, based on various official and unofficial maps as well as close study of the books, and the other uses it to create a speculative map of the political boundaries of the various regions of the Seven Kingdoms.
At this year’s Worldcon, George R. R. Martin held a reading of a previously-unread chapter from A Dance with Dragons. Jughead, a member of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, has written a thorough synopsis. Naturally, it contains spoilers from that book as well as spoilers related to earlier books in the series.
Thanks to Blue Rose, we’ve a fasicnating account of some details surrounding the HBO pilot. Chief among them are the leaks concerning actors cast in roles, which appear to largely have been against HBO’s wishes, as well as some thoughts on the prospects of the series, the effect HBO’s going forward might have on book sales, and the difficulty of casting so many series regulars for a pilot episode for a series where characters might go a whole season unused.
When asked about whether or not Daenerys has been cast, GRRM said that they’ve got it down to three possibilities, each with strengths and weaknesses. He pointed out that it’s all very well to describe Daenerys as “the most beautiful woman in the world” but it does make it quite difficult to cast her.
Thanks to Sophelia for reporting that!
Hot off of George R.R. Martin’s reading and Q&A session at Worldcon, we learn that besides confirming that Jaime Lannister has been cast, GRRM has also said that Theon Greyjoy has been cast. However, as before, GRRM could provide no more information, as it’s up to HBO to release full details.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss dropped by the A Song of Ice and Fire forum to tease the fact that in the last week five roles have been cast; Jaime Lannister must be one of the five, by the sounds of it, and perhaps Daenerys Targaryen as well despite conflicting information on that. However, they add that they have no say as to when information will be released; all they can say with certainty is that it will be soon. Obviously, it’ll be up to HBO to decide when to release this information.
Word just arrived that Theon Greyjoy has also been cast, as we’ve reported here.
On the heels of our report of Daenerys Targaryen being cast, at the Worldcon in Montreal GRRM has privately told fans that Jaime Lannister has also been cast. However, he would not divulge the name of the actor selected for the role.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with two interviews, one from Finland and one from a local Montreal paper; the latter is an audio interview in MP3 format and discusses his writing, the influence of history on his works, and his fans.
At the Avatar Press panel at San Diego’s Comic-Con, Avatar announced that an adaption of George R.R. Martin’s award-winning werewolf horror story, “Skin Trade”, would be published in 2010. The script is a fairly faithful adaption from the original novella, and was carried out by Daniel Abraham, who discusses it in a little more detail here. As mentioned in that thread, Avatar Press had previously announced an adaption of GRRM’s vampire novel Fevre Dream, but apparently issues with the art have prevented anything more than a preview to be published.
Art duties will be performed by Marek Oleksicki, who has recently illustrated Warren Ellis’s Frankenstein’s Womb for Avatar; a preview of that comic featuring Oleksicki’s powerful inked art, can be found at Bleeding Cool.
Thanks to Adam Whitehead who pointed this one out, the actress Natalie Victoria was informed that there were no more auditions for the role of Daenerys Targaryen because HBO has already filled the role. She adds that she was told HBO would not announce the actress who landed the role for a “few weeks”.
It should be noted that GRRM has stated that the role being cast would be news to him. This leaves several possibilities, such as an actress currently being negotiated with to take the part leading to the suspension of auditions for the time being, or that Ms. Victoria was misinformed.
John Anealio has added the 20th in his series of original songs inspired by science fiction and fantasy. In this case, it’s his rendering of Neil Gaiman’s response to a fan’s question regarding George R. R. Martin’s writing.
The Hollywood Reporter reports (and GRRM now confirms) that BAFTA and Tony Award-winning British actress Jennifer Ehle (perhaps best known for her role as Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC’s acclaimed Pride and Prejudice) has been cast as Catelyn Stark. GRRM notes that there’s even more news that THR has not scooped him on as of yet, however, so it seems probable more roles have been cast but not yet announced.
George R. R. Martin teases that he has some cool information concerning the HBO pilot which he can’t divulge, but he might possibly drop some hints at Worldcon. It’s probable that this news is further casting confirmations. A number of significant roles remain to be filled—Catelyn Stark, Daenerys Targaryen, the Lannister twins—and it seems likely that some or all of these may now be locked down.