George R. R. Martin’s official site has a new post on “Not a Blog”, concerning his forthcoming travels which begin with a trip to Fargo for a convention this weekend, followed by his flight out to the U.K. two days after he returns from the event. He is looking forward to seeing Marrakesh after the Irish leg of his production visit. He also notes that he’ll be away from football much of that time, and expects to be back home sometime around Thanksgiving.
Thanks to Louie Pastore, an expert in medieval and Scottish martial arts, we’ve learned that he’ll be involved as part of a fight team for scenes being filmed at a Scottish castle for HBO’s pilot episode of Game of Thrones. This is being done through the auspices of the Clanranald Trust, an organization dedicated to preserving and reenacting Scottish historic culture. The trust has formed “Combat International” to provide fight-teams to productions. Members have been involved in noteworthy films such as Gladiator, King Arthur, and Ridley Scott’s upcoming Robin Hood, and are now adding Game of Thrones to the list.
We’ve mentioned GRRM’s latest clues for casting of HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot briefly, but we’d be remiss not to share the exact text and some of the speculations that have followed.
Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune confirms the casting of Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark. A child actor associated with the Kent Youth Theatre, Bran is one of the last outstanding roles remaining to be cast. Ryan adds that filming begins the 24th with Scotland and Morocco as additional locations, and the fact that the role of Khal Drogo is not yet cast.
George R.R. Martin adds a confirmation of Drogo not being cast in his remarks, and teases that the “gray man” (Maester Luwin) once had groupies, suggesting the actor may once have been a musician.
It seems a number of the actors who are confirmed or suspected to be cast—Jennifer Ehle, Esmé Bianco whose role as “Ros” (formerly “Red Headed Whore”) GRRM has confirmed in e-mail, and Jamie Campbell Bower who many believe is playing Waymar Royce—are travelling to Belfast in connection to the production. In fact, Campbell Bower has already returned from Belfast, indicating he had a “good readthrough” in a tweet. This suggests that much of the activity has to do with preliminary read-throughs of the pilot script by the various members of the cast, and possibly other production-related activities such as costume fittings.
Following GRRM’s most recent clues, fans scoured the Internet to try and figure them out. Now one of them has been found for certain, as the actress Esmé Bianco—burlesque and cabaret performance, singing, and modelling are among her other activities—has the news up on her official website.
For those wondering what guesses are for the other two parts, Jamie Campbell Bower, who is involved in the most recent Twilight and Harry Potter adaptions, seems surest as Ser Waymar Royce. The third role, the one GRRM said no one would guess, seems to have been cracked by Paul Gude and the rest of the sleuths over at Winter is Coming seems to have cracked it: Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark, who is a member of the Kent Youth Theater where the news ticker is presently congratulating him for a “role in a new series”. A photo can be found at the WiC site, and more can be seen at the Kent Youth Theater page such as this one (scroll down a bit).
In comments to his latest post, GRRM provides some details concerning the remaining speaking roles left to be cast, the writing out of a minor part, and a list of non-speaking roles or features extras that are set to appear in the pilot:
On the heels of his most recent post, GRRM now provides more hints for three actors who have not been previously announced in roles. These are particularly befuddling, to say the least.
A quick update from GRRM on Game of Thrones, revealing that the third and final member of the trio of characters featured in the prologue has been cast. He provides no clues, however. He indicates that in three weeks or so he’ll be leaving for Ireland to see some of the shooting, and he will also travel to Morocco to watch some of the Daenerys shooting before returning to the U.S.
Some smaller pieces of news concerning HBO’s pilot adaption of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire”. First up, the 7’+ actor Conan Stevens provides an update (scroll towards the bottom) to an audition he first posted about in September. Providing more details, it seems almost certain that he auditioned for the role of Drogo, primarily with an eye towards having the casting directors see him so that they’ll remember him if the series goes forward and they need to find an actor for Gregor Clegane. He indicates that someone else has been chosen for the role he auditioned for.
Via Twitter, we came across tweets from Marisa Clayton, indicating that she will be working on post-production for Game of Thrones starting in February. An employee of post-production specialists Modern VideoFilm, she is listed as a digital intermediate producer in most of her entries at IMDB. Modern VideoFilm is a well-established, leading post-production company with extensive credits in both film and television, offering a range of post-production services. They also provide visual effects services, so it’s possible that they’ll handle digital effects for the pilot.
Adam Whitehead of the Wertzone points out that a costume designer for the pilot seems to be set: Michele Clapton (IMDB). She’s coming off a recent BAFTA victory in costume design for her work in “The Devil’s Whore”, and has also won acclaim for costuming a recent Sense and Sensibility television production and a Casanova TV series.
George R.R. Martin provides some clues to another of the trio of actors cast for HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot, and it’s quite quickly solved thanks to the actor having the news on his own website already. Bronson Webb is a young actor with roles in a number of U.K. productions, and who has been involved in larger films such as a small role in Kingdom of Heaven. Given the title of the post, he’s playing the ranger Will, who viewers will be introduced to at the start of the pilot episode.
George R.R. Martin provides clues for another actor cast in a role for HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot that will begin filming this month. Given his previous item of news concerning “poor doomed souls” and the title of this post, the role that has been cast must be Gared, a veteran ranger of the Night’s Watch.
George R.R. Martin teases the fact that two of three roles have been filled, and contracts are waiting on the last. Given the title, “Poor Doomed Souls Department”, it seems a safe bet that a certain trio of early characters are being discussed.
Via a new post at “Not a Blog”, GRRM provides hints for a supporting role that has been cast. The post, titled “The Old Knight”, must refer to Ser Rodrik Cassel, the master-at-arms of Winterfell.