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Very interesting report from Deadline Hollywood‘s Nellie Andreeva following an interview with Franesca Orsi, HBO’s head of drama. It’s a wide-ranging interview covering a lot of HBO’s shows, but for our purposes, the most interesting tidbits relate to House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, and potential other Westeros shows.
Addressing the on-going production of season 2 of House of the Dragon, Orsi noted that HBO was fully prepared to rewrite and reshoot anything that needed fixing once the WGA strike ends and the writers can take up their pens again to do writing work, but until then they are confident with the completed scripts they had to work with and have not dealyed producation at all. Speaking of a potential season 3 approval, it sounds like they’re not far from giving an immediate go ahead to season 3 to try and improve the turnaround from season to season. That said, how many seasons for the show in total remains a question:
“George and Ryan are going to meet after the writers strike. They had originally planned to meet before the strike took place and that was to figure out at what point the series itself was going to end. Is it four seasons? I don’t think from where I sit at this point will be any less than four. But could be more. We’ll see.”
George R.R. Martin • House of the Dragon • Other Books and Projects | Comments:
Back in January, the A Song of Ice and Fire 2024 Calendar was announced featuring artwork from award-winning artist Justin Sweet. Now, two new preview images have been added to listings of the calendar, one depicting a scene from the end of A Dance with Dragons, and one perhaps depicting something from The Winds of Winter... or perhaps something being referenced again in The Wind of Winters.
Major news out of Hollywood has been the strike of the Writers Guild of America after the breakdown of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers; more details can be found here. In the wake of that, news of various productions started to come out regarding how they were dealing with the strike, with variations from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘s showrunners completely stopping working on their production to House of the Dragon‘s Ryan Condal remaining on set but in a strictly non-writer capacity (this apparently has caused some umbrage among WGA members, who argue that “all” producing is “writing”, but to be honest this seems to fly in the face of their own Basic Agreement which acknowledges there are producers who are not subject to the Basic Agreement, e.g. non-writers can do production work, so why can’t writers do non-writing production work?). George R.R. Martin has now weighed in on the strike, and one particular sticking point—so-called “mini-rooms” which have upended what was once a long and successful means of developing and promoting writers—and in the course of it has laid out where various Hollywood projects stand (for those who don’t want to read it all: everything Hollywood-related is on hold for him, as he’s a proud WGA member and thoroughly in agreement with the strike).
To quote him:
“(Many of you will be wondering, rightfully, about the impact of the strike on my own shows. The second season of DARK WINDS wrapped several months ago. Post production has been completed on five of the six episodes, and will soon be done on the last. The show will likely air sometime this summer on AMC. No decision on the third season will be made until after the strike. Peacock has passed on WILD CARDS, alas. A pity. We will try to place it elsewhere, but not until the strike is over. The writer’s room on A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS: THE HEDGE KNIGHT has closed for the duration. Ira Parker and his incredible staff of young talents are on the picket lines. Across the ocean, the second season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON started filming April 11 and will continue in London and Wales. The scripts for the eight s2 episodes were all finished months ago, long before the strike began, Every episode has gone through four or five drafts and numerous rounds of revisions, to address HBO notes, my notes, budget concerns, etc. There will be no further revisions. The writers have done their jobs; the rest is in the hands of the directors, cast and crew… and of course the dragons).”
The Writer’s Guild of America has begun a strike, which means members of the guild will not be writing for any productions they’re working on. There’s a lot of questions about just what this means for many productions, questions that Variety has tried to answer with its FAQ. But fans of House of the Dragon have worried about the show being delayed because of the strike, and as it happens, Variety has an answer for that question as well.
Per Variety, all the scripts for the season have been finished ahead of time, and production will continue. So, good news! However, as some may realize, most scripts are not completely done and in final form when a show is produced. There’s often talk of rewrites and the need to ADR (“Automated Dialogue Replacement”) to insert new dialogue or change existing dialogue. As Variety notes, it’s unclear just how that aspect of things will work for programs already in production. Will they take different footage from different angles to give them more wiggle-room to add entirely new dialog when a character’s mouth can’t be seen? Will they employ some of the new tech out there to simply dynamically change a character’s lips to the words they’re saying? We live in fascinating times, as it were.
Over a week ago, we collaborated with the Folio Society on a contest to win one of their gorgeously illustrated, high-quality bound and slipcased copies of A Dance with Dragons to celebrate the 12th anniversary since the premiere of Game of Thrones. That contest ended recently, with over five hundred entries! Congratulations to Jordan from Iowa for winning the competition! For those who did not win this time, the Folio Society has promised to send something special to your e-mail quite soon!
Now that production is in full swing, casting news for the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon was sure to be around the corner… and today we get the first tranche of new actors and roles for the show, courtesy of Variety. All four are characters from the original source material, described in George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood:
- Gayle Rankin will play Alys Rivers, “a healer and resident of Harrenhal”. Spoilers at the Wiki of Ice and Fire.
- Multiple Olivier and Tony Award-winning actor Simon Russell Beale plays Ser Simon Strong, castellan of Harrenhal. Spoilers at the Wiki of Ice and Fire
- Freddie Fox plays Ser Gwayne Hightower, son of Otto Hightower and brother to Queen Alicent. Spoilers at the Wiki of Ice and Fire. Fans will remember that Gwayne rode against Prince Daemon at the tournament in the first episode, but that was a stunt actor who wore a helm throughout.
- Abubakar Salim will play Alyn of Hull, described as “a sailor in the Velaryon fleet” who participated in the Stepstones campaign. Spoilers at the Wiki of Ice and Fire
To mark the 12th anniversary since HBO’s Game of Thrones aired on April 17th, 2011—my, how time flies!—the Folio Society and Westeros.org are collaborating to give away a copy of the beautifully illustrated, slip-cased A Dance with Dragons that they released last year. We own all the Folio Society editions of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, and they are truly gorgeous!
Entry is easy, just head to https://www.foliosociety.com/uk/westeros and sign up!
RULES
• Open internationally
• Closes 23:59 (UK time) Friday 21 April 2023
• No giveaway or spam accounts
• One entry per person
• Winner will be contacted directly over email by The Folio Society no earlier than Monday 24 April 2023
• Not endorsed by or affiliated with Facebook
• Winner must acknowledge their win within 10 days or be redrawn
• T&Cs apply
See below for full terms and conditions, as well as additional images of the book!
George R.R. Martin has posted to his “Not a Blog” to discuss the big news that HBO has ordered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight (a working title, GRRM notes, that is not finalized) straight to series. George goes into some more detail about the project, pointing out that he first floated the Dunk & Egg stories for adaptation seven years ago, so things can move slowly… until they don’t. He also notes that despite reports (spurred by his own remarks that some things had been shelved, and some shifts of the Starling Inc. website that we reported on here), both the 10,000 Ships and Sea Snake shows remain in development. But more on that later.
On A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, George has some particular new details to share:
Our premiere season will be an adaptation of the first of the three published novellas, “The Hedge Knight,” the tale of how Dunk & Egg first met during a tournament at Ashford Meadow. The pilot script is already written, and I think it’s terrific. It was written by Ira Parker, who is no stranger to Westeros. He was part of Ryan Condal’s writing staff for the first season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, and wrote the fourth episode of Hot D’s first season, “King of the Narrow Sea.” That’s the one where Prince Daemon returns to King’s Landing after conquering the Stepstones, and takes Princess Rhaenyra down into the stews of Flea Bottom. Ryan Condal is on board as well, as an Executive Producer. So am I.
In a big presentation to announce their upcoming plans, including the launch of a new streaming service combining HBO MAX and Discovery+ called MAX, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they had ordered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight straight to series (no pilot episode) with the following log-line describing the basic idea of the show, which is based on the Dunk & Egg novellas:
A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.
Fans have long wanted to see Dunk & Egg brought to the screen, as they give a very unique look into the Seven Kingdoms and the Targaryens from the eyes of a man of low birth who rises to great fame over his lifetime. Notably, HBO has also shared details about the writers and executive producers for this series.
To mark the occasion of the official start of production of House of the Dragon, HBO has put out a press release with the announcement, a remark from showrunner and lead writer Ryan Condal, and some other notes, plus a nice behind-the-scenes shot of the Iron Throne:
Production has commenced on the second season of HBO Original drama series House of the Dragon at Leavesden Studios in the United Kingdom.
Logline: Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the series, set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen.
Ryan Condal, Co-Creator/Showrunner/Executive Producer, quote: “House of the Dragon has returned. We are thrilled to be shooting again with members of our original family as well as new talents on both sides of the camera. All your favorite characters will soon be conspiring at the council tables, marching with their armies, and riding their dragons into battle. We can’t wait to share what we have in store.”
Variety has an exclusive scoop: HBO is actively considering a TV show about Aegon’s Conquest, which would take the Game of Thrones franchise back to the very beginning of the establishment of the Targaryen dynasty in Westeros. Per Variety:
As the project is in its very early stages, no writer is currently attached, though sources say that the search is underway as HBO is keen to move forward and get it into development. Sources also say that there may be a feature component to the project, i.e. HBO and Warner Bros. would produce a feature film that would then lead into the potential series, though plans remain in flux at present.
The full story of Aegon’s Conquest was first told in The World of Ice and Fire, which was later expanded with more information about the aftermath in Fire & Blood.
Some significant House of the Dragon news reported by Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva, who has received word (and confirmed some parts of it with HBO) that for “story-driven” reasons the plan of a 10 episode 2nd season has been changed to an 8 episode 2nd season, which has necessitated some re-writing and likely has contributed to the slight delays to the planned commencement of filming (however, production is imminent and the prospective air date remains summer 2024). Per Andreeva’s report:
“It has been reported that House of the Dragon‘s creative team had envisioned the series running for three or four seasons. I hear executive producer-showrunner Ryan Condal, working with author/executive producer George R.R. Martin, took a step back as Season 2 was being put together to take a big-picture view of the series, which follows Martin’s Fire & Blood, and figure out the overall narrative flow, including how to break up the stories season-to-season and what battles to include and when.”
Interestingly, Andreeva notes that even with the reduction of two episodes, Condal and GRRM are still discussing whether three or four seasons work better. Her piece goes into some more detail about just what was moved out of the 2nd season for the prospective 3rd season, which we’ll quote below and speculate on a bit.
Variety has a report drawn from a longer profile of HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys. In it, Bloys suggests that summer 2024 is a good guess for when the second season of House of the Dragon would air. Like the season before it, this second season is due to start in March, and as we know from that first season it wasn’t until August of the following year that the season premiered, so this seems in line with expectations.
Bloys also goes on to make comments on more Game of Thrones spin-offs:
From a recent post on his “Not a Blog”, fans have learned that the long-gestating film adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s short story “In the Lost Lands” has been filmed and now only post-production waits. Besides some exclusive photos from the production, featuring star Milla Jovovich and the director Paul W.S. Anderson, GRRM provides some background on the story, one of his first straight “fantasy” stories about a character named Gray Alys that he had once intended to be a recurring character in a series of stories. Co-starring with Jovovich is actor Dave Bautista, in the role of Boyce.
It’s become an increasing trend among creators to have Patreons where they can connect more directly with fans, and with the launch of Highgarden Entertainment George R.R. Martin has joined the bandwagon—but with a twist. As some may know, George has poured time and money into supporting the arts and commerce in his home of Santa Fe, NM. Most notably, he saved the Jean Cocteau Cinema which is now a venue for independent and genre films as well as talks with authors and filmmakers, and opened up his own bookstore, Beastly Books. The Patreon has three separate segments (which can be combined into one offering at a discount): one focused on GRRM, one focused on the Jean Cocteau Cinema, and one focused on Beastly Books.
