Westeros
The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain
News
We’re very happy to report that the Shire Post‘s effort to create real gold dragon coins, using Kickstarter to raise the seed funding to acquire the necessary gold, is now a reality! Today, the Kickstarter crossed its $10,000 goal. Many congratulations to Tom at Shire Post, and to those who’ve contributed towards making this happen.
Last year, George R.R. Martin and Subterranean Press revealed that the new, limited edition of A Clash of Kings was to feature the art of noted artist Richard Hescox. With this year’s Worldcon approaching, Hescox has noted that he’ll be in attendance and will be displaying some of his artwork for the limited edition at the convention…
... but he’s shared a sample of that work, over at his gallery page for the book. The gallery features over a dozen artworks, both in color and black and white, out of the total of sixteen paintings and over sixty black-and-white illustrations that he’s provided for the book.
Pre-orders for the book began in July, with exclusive rights to pre-order to those who’ve purchased A Dance with Dragons previously. As noted by Subterranean, this limited edition release actually precedes the planned A Game of Thrones limited edition, as the artwork for that one has not yet been completed. Pre-orders on remaining, unclaimed volumes of A Clash of Kings will take place in October.
HBO’s official Youtube channel for Game of Thrones has just released the deleted scene previously shown at Comic-Con, indicating that it will be part of the season 3 Bluray set (Pre-order: US Bluray, US Bluray Amazon Exclusive, UK Bluray, UK DVD)
The scene features Lord Tywin and Grand Maester Pycelle discussing recent news… and Pycelle’s choice to hide behind feigned infirmity. You can see it below:
Season 3 of Game of Thrones won’t be released on Bluray and DVD until next year, per usual HBO practice, but that doesn’t mean that HBO isn’t interested in whetting the appetite of fans of the show. The latest volley? Amazon.com has revealed its exclusive Bluray set. Not only does it also include the full Bluray set, as well as (barebones) DVDs, but it features a pretty remarkable, sculpted packaging that you can see here:
HBO sends the following information, describing the sculpted package:
In this limited edition sculpture, Daenerys’s dragon from the season 3 poster art takes center stage with its impressive wingspan and a highly detailed tail, which wraps around the core of the piece. Created in durable heavy weight material, the highly textured collectible is finished with a weathered
patina evoking the feel of Westeros and a bygone era. The collectible also contains a hidden compartment which houses The Complete Third Season.
The limited packaging of course comes at a premium… but you can always order the regular Bluray and DVD sets at the more usual price (Pre-order: US Bluray, UK Bluray, UK DVD), if that’s more your speed. That packaging does look rather stunning, though, so it should be very tempting to quite a few fans.
Tom Maringer of the Shire Post Mint, official licensed producers of replica coins based on those described in A Song of Ice and Fire, has been on a roll lately with the coins he’s been making and selling… and he’s now reveal a plan that he’s long been dreaming of: replica gold dragons using genuine 22k gold. But it’s a very costly endeavor, acquiring the gold to produce the coins, so he’s reached out via c to get the initial seed funding to realize the dream.
Via the project, Tom shares:
We are currently rolling out the new Game of Thrones “Dragons of Westeros” brass Dragon coins! These are about the size and weight of the old $10 gold piece, about 1-1/16” diameter and weighing 14 grams in brass. The actual gold ones will be more like 16.9 grams of 22k gold such that they contain exactly 1/2 troy ounce. Both types will be officially released at WorldCon, down in San Antonio, Texas, at the end of August.
Support levels for the project range from a thank you from Tom and co., to copies of the brass versions of the dragons (as well as the very popular Faceless Man coin), all the way up to the top level including the three new coins both in brass and gold. The Kickstarter project page has many, many images of the coins to admire. Tom’s shared some great videos and background information in his project updates, so make sure to check them out!
The 2014 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, illustrated by the incomparable Gary Gianni, was released last month (Order: Amazon US, Amazon UK) to great acclaim… and already, another fantastic artist is hard at work at next year’s calendar.
This time, it’s Donato Giancola, who’s just as legendary an artist as Gianni, Nasmith, and all the other remarkable artists that have tried their hand at depicting George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire setting and world. Giancola has posted an early sketch (note: technically NSFW) for one of the paintings, with some commentary. He seems to find the novels a great source of inspiration, as he laments there being only twelve months in a year.
Tor.com has been busily posting excerpts from the George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois anthology, Dangerous Women (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK), and today they have released the excerpt of Martin’s own entry, “The Princess and the Queen”.
The novella—which distills details Martin revealed for The World of Ice and Fire—recounts much of the Dance of the Dragons, the destructive civil war that tore the Seven Kingdoms apart from 129 to 131, and should provide some very interesting insights into the ancestors of Daenerys Targaryen. The excerpt is also accompanied by a longer, not too spoilerish review of the entire novella.
Dangerous Women will be published on December 3.
A Song of Ice and Fire • George R.R. Martin • Other Books and Projects | Comments:
It’s been awhile, but George R.R. Martin has provided a casting clue on “Not a Blog”. Given the end, it’s clearly for the role of Mace Tyrell, Lord of Highgarden…
... and some quick work on the Internet already points to British character actor, writer, and director Roger Ashton-Griffiths, who fits all the particulars in the clue to a T. He’s appeared in a wide range of films and TV programs, including Brazil, Gangs of New York, The Tudors, and A Knight’s Tale, and will be appearing in Grace of Monaco in the role of Alfred Hitchcock.
Update: And Martin has since updated his post, confirming that Ashton-Griffiths is indeed playing Mace Tyrell.
This is a pleasant surprise—on old fan casting of ours has come true, as James Hibberd over at EW reports that Indira Varma will be joining Game of Thrones as Ellaria Sand, the paramour of Prince Oberyn Martell.
She’s an HBO veteran, having been in Rome, and has a great deal of experience besides in television series such as Luther and Hunted.
Filming in Iceland has commenced, as reported recently, and it looks like it’ll run for a couple of weeks. Of course, Iceland in the summer can look very different from Iceland in the winter… and it seems that the production is really using it to its advantage, because all signs point to it representing regions much nearer to King’s Landing than in the past. Reports of Maisie Williams and Gwendoline Christie both being spotted in Reykjavik have been confirmed, and it’s unlikely to be a coincidence (though that can’t be ruled out).
The last we saw of Arya, she was in the riverlands with Sandor Clegane, while Brienne of Tarth was last in King’s Landing…. but we’ve some speculations below (with spoilers):
The Game of Thrones panel at San Diego Comic-Con has drawn to a close, and unlike last year—where a number of new cast members were unveiled at the event—there’s really no season 4 news to speak of. The host of actors, as well as the executive producers and George R.R. Martin, discussed the seasons that have come before and their various experiences, but season 4 remained a largely ignored topic. There’s no premiere date information, and certainly no new casting appearances. That said, there’s some amusing anecdotes, and GRRM remarks that if he were ever to write prequels to the series (after he’s done with it), it’d probably be about Aegon and his sisters, or perhaps Aegon the Unworthy.
Alan Sepinwall has a great recap, including the bit where Jason Momoa crashed the panel briefly, to much acclaim.
A deleted scene from season 3—which will certainly be on the Bluray (US: DVD, Bluray. UK: DVD, Bluray)—was aired for fans, featuring Tywin and Pycelle ...
And one other video, an “In Memoriam” piece for those characters who’ve departed the show, which you can see below:
... to give Paul and Storm a little lesson:
All in a bit of fun, of course! The source of GRRM’s “ire” would be this popular song from the comedy music duo, “Write Like the Wind (George R.R. Martin)”:
Lucky fans at San Diego Comic-Con are going to be seeing an amazing plethora of Game of Thrones products, from pop-up guides to puzzles. And among the newest products to be unveiled at Comic Con? Dark Horse is going to be showing off a new line of non-articulated sculpted figures depicting key characters from the Game of Thrones series.
The first two figures? Daenerys Stormborn and Jon Snow. Below is the press release from Dark Horse naming three more planned figures, and more images of the first two figures:
As is starting to become a habit, the third season of Game of Thrones has been nominated in the “Outstanding Drama Series” category for this year’s Emmy’s. But it’s not the only award it’s been nominated for, with a total of seventeen nominations (one of them in a special class). Here’s the complete list this season:
Last night, James Hibberd at EW revealed another exclusive scoop: British actor Mark Gatiss—perhaps best known to fans in the US as Mycroft Holmes on the BBC’s Sherlock, which he happens to also be co-creator of—is joining the cast of Game of Thrones. But the role… well, that’s a mystery, apparently. Hibberd notes that Gatiss will be at San Diego Comic-Con to take part in Sherlock‘s first ever panel at the convention, a panel he himself is moderating, so he’s hoping there’ll be news there… but there’s always the chance that Gatiss will be brought out as a surprise guest at the Game of Thrones panel on Friday, so we’ll have to wait and see.
What role could Gatiss play? The most significant male characters as yet unannounced as being cast are Mace Tyrell and the Magnar of Thenn, but there’s a number of other roles—including the interesting notion of recasting the Bowen Marsh from the first season to give Jon Snow an additional foil on the Wall—where he might well fit.