A new site, Game of Thrones, has been added to Westeros. It will be dedicated to the (hopefully) forthcoming HBO series based on A Song of Ice and fire, and the plan is that if the series is picked up it will offer news, some yet-to-be-decided features, character pages, episode guides and a gallery. We have already started posting to the News blog, but until we know whether the series goes ahead or not, the other sections will see fairly minimal usage. The site is also not fully finished in terms of layout, since we are developing a new look which we then hope to migrate to the other sites on Westeros.
If you have any questions, comments and suggestions about the new site, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Although Game of Thrones is not directly mentioned, The Hollywood Reporter has notes from HBO’s most recent press tour that concern its current success and the outlook for future development. HBO’s development pipeline is described as “full” and that it will give HBO some “tough choices in coming months”. Some shows discussed as possible competitors to Game of Thrones—Treme and Boardwalk Empire—are both either greenlit or very likely to be greenlit at this stage, however, and so don’t fall into the “tough choices” category.
The good news is that HBO’s current offerings have been very successful, especially the vampire series True Blood which has pulled down the best ratings the cable network has had since The Sopranos. HBO says that while they don’t have more money for developing shows in the past, they still have “enviable” amounts to be able to produce what they feel like producing. Giving that their budgets in the past have stretched to cover expensive shows such as Band of Brothers, Rome, and the yet-to-air The Pacific, this is certainly positive news regarding whether HBO has the wherewithal to afford a show like Game of Thrones.
Following on the heels of the Concordance being updated through “The Sworn Sword” and A Feast for Crows, all references to the So Spake Martin collection have now been turned into links to the corresponding topic. The last updates we need to do after this are including thematic details from a backlog of newer SSM entries, which we expect will not take very long. Should you spot any errors or broken links, please let us know.
Via George R. R. Martin, we learn that Green Ronin has received multiple nominations for this year’s ENnie Awards. Among them are Best Interior Art for their Wild Cards campaign book, and Best Rules, Best Product, Product of the Year for the A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game (as well as Best Free Product for the ASoIaF RPG quickstart rules).
The award winners are determined by voting from the public, which can be done online at the ENnies website.
As part of an official site update, it is noted by George R.R. Martin in the “News” section that Warriors—a cross-genre anthology edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois—will be published by Tor on March, 2010. The update includes a full list of contributors and the titles of their contributions, including Martin’s own “The Mystery Knight”, the third Dunk and Egg novella.
After rumors have swirled across the internet the last few days, George R.R. Martin has confirmed that Sean Bean has been cast as Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell, for HBO’s pilot of Game of Thrones that will begin shooting in Belfast, Ireland in October. GRRM mentions that the casting has gone global, with casting sessions held in New York, London, Los Angeles, Dublin, and most recently Australia.
Other roles have been cast, including Mark Addy as King Robert, a young Irish actor named Jack Gleeson as Prince Joffrey (he is about 17 or 18 years old now, for those who might wonder), Harry Lloyd (late of the BBC’s Robin Hood) as Viserys, and finally a theatrical actor, Kit Harington, as Jon Snow.
After some years of delay, the Concordance has been fully updated through A Feast for Crows. The Concordance is, as far as we know, the most comprehensive compilation of thematic facts and trivia presently available, covering over 3,000 pages of text and including details from the Dunk and Egg novellas as well as George R.R. Martin’s correspondence with fans, interviews, signing Q&A sessions, and so on. The next step we’ll be undertaking is to update all references to the So Spake Martin collection of correspondence, interviews, and reports within the Concordance to link directly to each cited item. This is a bit daunting, as we shifted from a numbered system a good while ago and it will take time to figure out what each reference now points to. However, we look forward to completing that, and hope to do so by the end of the year with any luck.
Many thanks to all those who’ve sent their appreciations and encouragements regarding the Concordance over the years. It’s been very much appreciated!
Thanks to Rimshot, a member of the forum who works as an extra in Belfast, we’ve learned of this report on on-going production work at the Paint Hall studio where Game of Thrones will be filmed. While the program is primarily concerned with a medieval comedy film set to start shooting there in three weeks, the video does mention a “large American TV production” that will start shooting immediately after Your Highness wraps. The pilot episode of Game of Thrones is set to start shooting in October.
Tom C. Wilcox, better known to many by his Internet handle of EnlightenmentHK (and variations of same—Enlightenment HK, EHK, EHK for Darwin), passed away unexpectedly on the morning of July 4th. A long-time member of the A Song of Ice and Fire fan community, Tom was well-regarded for his fierce intelligence and the fiery rants that amused, infuriated, and (of course) enlightened. He was a man of strong opinions who lived life to the fullest, stinting nothing in his pursuit of new sights and new experiences. Many of his fellow Ice and Fire fans had the pleasure of meeting him in Glasgow for the 2005 Worldcon, where he entertained all and sundry with stories about the horrors of RyanAir and the pleasures of pub crawling in diverse places. He will be sorely missed by his friends and his family.
An obituary with more information can be found here. A fundraiser to raise funds for a flower arrangement for his wake and to keep the guest book associated with his obituary permanently on the internet is being organized. More information can be found here.
James Poniewozik, TV critic at Time magazine, praises A Game of Thrones after reading it for the first time and makes the case for why it could be a great TV series on HBO. He continues discussing the series in comments, though asks for spoiler warnings as he wants to continue reading the series without knowing what’s coming next.