Westeros

Our latest audio commentary on episode 6, done along with Tom and Daniel of MTV Geek, is now live! Took a bit longer than usual to get out from under everything else, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to return to a more regular schedule on these! You can find it here.

HBO’s put out two sneak peeks at episode 7, “You Win or You Die”. The clips feature Osha (Natalia Tena) and Maester Luwin (Donald Sumpter), and Lord Commander Mormont (James Cosmo) which you can find below:

Oh, the mischief Froggy wreaks!

Turns out that that last post from GRRM is not a casting clue, as confirmed by Amy Joyce Hasting herself. According to her, that cover (created by Poppaea Bicknell) was for a prop for the film The Callback Queen. Morgane Deare played Horatio King, a bestselling fantasy author whose books were the basis of a big production…

And it turns out that he and his film were directly inspired by GRRM and HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is why George shared it. As to the mischeviousness? Froggy the Gremlin is a troublemaker.

Perhaps the most elaborate casting clue yet has cropped up on GRRM’s “Not a Blog”, involving a fake book cover, with a fake title, fake blurbs and quotes, a fake author…

What to make of it? We were left scratching our heads, but a clever fan got a cigar from GRRM by figuring out that the photo is of actor Morgan Deare, who plays a character named Horatio King in the film The Callback Queen. Can’t figure out anything about his role—is he the actor cast? It seems unlikely, because Deare is very much an American, and in fact does voiceover work in which he’s noted for his “authorative American” sound. Not to say he couldn’t do a British accent, but… If he were in it, who would he be? Salladhor Saan? Xaro Xhoan Daxos? Hrm.

However, while digging around, we came up with an interesting fact. Could his role in the film be someone who’s inspired by someone else? Such as the lead actress, Irish-born Amy Joyce Hastings, who was sporting some very red hair for that particular role? Her looks would not be bad for Melisandre…

ETA: We see that others have had the same idea. Lets see what GRRM says as more people bring the possibility up in comments.

UPDATE: It’s definitely Amy Joyce Hastings! Check this post from last year, when we found a video of hers on Vimeo featuring her audition for the role of Doreah. Follow through—the video is now private, but notice the name details? 22:22 Productions!

She “inspired” Horatio King, so I’m going with Melisandre here, but some are thinking Ygritte.

It’s been noted to us that there’s been some movement on international air dates for Game of Thrones, so we’ve updated our air date listing. Moving out of the “approximate date” category is Australia, which has since been set for a July 17 airing. We’ve gotten more detail about approximate air dates in Germany and Austria (both will be on TNT Serie in Winter 2011), while Sky Italia will be bringing the show to Italy in 2011.

Over at his website, John Picacio provides an exclusive sneak peek of the 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar from Bantam. The award-winning artist has completed his work on the project, and slowly, slowly indeed Bantam is beginning to lift the veil when it comes to his work. The image featured in his post is a cropped version of the January image, featuring Bran.

In the post, he also allows readers to put forward which character they’d most like to see a sneak peek of next, giving three options: Arya, Melisandre, and the Hound. We know from Twitter comments that there’s also a Tyrion and, we believe, a Jon, on top of whch we know there’s a Ned Stark image which also features on the cover of the calendar.

It looks like HBO Connect has now gone live. This is a really interesting initative from HBO, a way for fans to easily follow and take part in conversations about the show through Twitter. The site design is slick, and it promises to have some unique content down the road…

Like the Conversations section, which will apparently include a fan-driven conversation with Jane Espenson, co-writer of Episode 6. And perhaps more Game of Thrones crew or cast members down the line?

As promised, our interview with actor Harry Lloyd is now available!

We asked the actors about a number of topics, from his audition for Viserys Targaryen, his experience filming in Morocco for the pilot, all the way through to his final scenes, along with some book-based discussion (including the question he’d most like to ask George about the series)

So, that was a pretty good episode, wasn’t it? HBO has gone and posted an inside-look at the latest Game of Thrones episode with director Daniel Minahan and executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, as well as posted an interview with actor Harry Lloyd, who certainly had a memorable turn as Viserys. Keep an eyes open for our own interview with Lloyd, later this evening!

On top of that, there’s a preview for episode 7, “You Win or You Die”, which includes our introduction to the Lord of Casterly Rock, Tywin Lannister!

Looks like Froggy the Gremlin is back to his old tricks at George R.R. Martin’s “Not a Blog”. For those who are newer fans of the show, Froggy was a character on a children’s variety program from GRRM’s day, a mischevious gremlin who has now become GRRM’s persona when he’s preparing to start hinting at casting through dastardly riddles and hints.

In the comments to the post, he’s asked about Stannis, and reveals he hasn’t seen any of those yet… but he has seen auditions for “Melisandre . . . Ygritte, Asha, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, Davos, Dolorous Edd, Margaery Tyrell, Brienne, and many more.”

With the help of Philo, we’ll be having a chat party for this Sunday’s episode!

Comment on the episode live with others watching it, turning viewing into a social experience! As with Philo’s other chat parties, there’ll be prizes for the best comments—the two best comments, in fact—featuring items from the HBO Store. And just for taking part, you’ll earn the nifty little award you see here, an exclusive for those participating in the event.

There’s a great Dothraki piece from TV Guide, with a lot of cool details… including a few long awaited phrases. Me nem nesa!

The latest feature article from Pearson Moore is now available for your reading pleasure, in which he examines the way different characters choose their priorities through the lens of “The Wolf and the Lion”.

A Dance with Dragons (US, UK) is now completely done, according to George R.R. Martin, with his . The final manuscript is 1,510 pages, just shy of the A Storm of Swords final manuscript—the “sweat” of the book removed about 61 pages from the final tally. He even provides some details regarding new POVs, saying that his original plans had only included one new POV… but in the end, there are four additional ones, with 16 total POV characters (not counting the prologue and the epilogue characters).

Most interestingly of all, he provides a rather detailed summary of the road towards completion, back from when he was hopeful he could finish the novel in a year.

Below, behind spoiler protection, is our run-down of those POVs, extrapolating from what he’s said and filling in some blanks from remarks he’s made in the past:

George R.R. Martin’s official website has had a few updates of late. Most notably, he has provided his mostly-complete US signing tour schedule, though he’s indicated there’s probably one more stop to be decided. He’s also announced his presence at Semana Negra in Gijon, Spain in 2012.

At his “Not a Blog” he’s also made several posts, including a reminder about the forthcoming publication of the latest entry in the Wild Cards, Fort Freak, the signing of a contract for the 22nd entry in the series tentatively titled Lowball that would be a follow-up to Fort Freak, and a recommendation that viewers of the TV show (and fans in general) consider donating to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, a rescue organization for wolves and wolf-hybrids.