George R.R. Martin’s sale on hardcover copies of the first of the new “Wild Cards” series, Inside Straight (US, UK), signed by almost all the contributors is in its last day. It’s a fun read, multiple authors (including GRRM) writing stories within one particular narrative, something which the Wild Cards Consortium have mastered when many other shared-world series have fallen by the wayside.
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.
Dark Sword Miniatures have posted Tom Meier’s amazing sculptures of Ser Gregor Clegane and Prince Oberyn Martell locked in combat. Meier’s one of the best in the business, and the detail he’s able to squeeze into figures just over 54 mm tall (or about 2.1 inches—although the Mountain, being to scale, would be nearer to 3 inches) is remarkable. These are part of Dark Sword’s continuing series of George R.R. Martin Masterwork miniatures. In Dark Sword’s newsletter, it’s noted Meier is hard at work on two more “A Song of Ice and Fire” figures in Wave 2 of the series, Robb Stark and Brienne of Tarth.
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.
According to Not a Blog, one more of the two remaining major roles has been cast. He also noted that the Norwegian movie wolves that people have speculated would be the direwolves are not intended for those roles, because UK law makes it impossible. Our speculation is that the law doesn’t allow children and wild animals to work together. GRRM has also posted some cryptic hints to the persons identity.
Extras NI—an agency that gathers extras for film and television productions in Northern Ireland—is looking for extras for Game of Thrones. They place particular emphasis on confident male horsemen between 16 and 60. As was reported earlier by Irish extra rimshot, the call confirms that those extras who’d grown their hair and beards for the Your Highness filming are in good position to participate as extras for the HBO pilot. Finally, the notice ends with “URGENTLY”, emphasizing just how close to production we now are: almost exactly one month.
Thanks to Winter is Coming for turning this one up.
George R. R. Martin has confirmed that the Hound will be played by Scottish actor Rory McCann. While this wall but certain shortly after GRRM’s clues were cracked, it took until today for there to be an official confirmation from HBO, by way of Jay Tomio of BSC Review. GRRM goes on to add why McCann was selected over other actors, citing both his imposing size, physicality, and his terrific readings.
The BBC has released a two-part news feature covering various angles of the filming of Your Highness in Northern Ireland. The film is currently being filmed at the Paint Hall studio where Game of Thrones will be primarily based. The video report includes discussion on the quality and variety of crews and independent businesses that can be drawn on for a production, and the first part of the feature mentions the HBO pilot in passing at the 2:15 mark.
Westeros.org’s digest of feeds—covering almost all of our sites—is now being tweeted via our new twitter account, westerosorg. We’ll occasionally try and tweet some small news items exclusively via Twitter when it’s suitable to the microblogging medium.
Thanks to a tweet from Chris Martin of a Belfast-basd media company, we’ve been informed that the sets for HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot are currently being built at Belfast’s Paint Hall facility. In a follow up to a question from us, he confirmed that the sets were being built in a different area from where Your Highness, a medieval fantasy comedy, is currently filming.
Dark Sword Miniatures has released pictures of two new miniatures by Jeff Grace in their George R. R. Martin Masterworks series, Victarion and Aeron Greyjoy. The figures are excellent additions to the series, without a doubt, and in the next week or so two more miniatures, this time by the acclaimed Tom Meier and featuring Gregor Clegane and Oberyn Martell, will be posted.
GRRM provides tentative signing dates in Ireland, in the run up to his visit for some of the filming of the pilot episode of Game of Thrones. He writes that on November 3, he’ll sign at Eason’s Bookstore in Belfast at 1 PM, and that David Benioff, Dan Weiss, and possibly some of the cast may attend the signing. There’s also a second signing on the 5th, at 5 PM, at Eason’s on O’Connell Street in Dublin. These are, again, tentative dates and not yet set in stone.
George R. R. Martin provides a small update on the progress of HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot. Most notably, he indicates two significant roles remain uncast as well as some more minor roles, as well as his intention to fly to Ireland to witness some of the filming. He hopes to hold signing events in Belfast and Dublin while he’s there, although dates for his trip and the signings are not currently finalized.
George R.R. Martin has shared the table of contents of the cross-genre anthology, Warriors, which he and Gardner Dozois are co-editing and contributing stories to. Martin and Dozois join Robert Silverberg, Tad Williams, Robin Hobb, Joe Haldeman, Naomi Novik, Diana Gabaldon, and many more stories centered around the eponymous character type. Publication is set for March 2010. Martin’s own contribution is “The Mystery Knight”, which he states is the third and longest of the Dunk & Egg stories set in the past of the Seven Kingdoms.
Having worried at the “Meereeneese knot” and not making much headway, George R. R. Martin reports that he turned his attention to completing a chapter for another character who is “far away from Meereen” and whose second chapter wraps up her part of the story. GRRM finishes claiming that he has 38 POV characters to go, but that’s certainly a teasing joke on his part. Speculation as to who the character whose final chapter was completed is can be found below.
In honor of the recognition Green Ronin won at the ENnie awards for it’s Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying Game, they’ve placed both the printed and the PDF version of the rulebook on sale, as well as the Narrator’s Kit if the player buys the roleplaying game. The offer lasts for approximately a week.
The PDF of the rulebook has also been updated with all known errata, and those who have already purchased it over Green Ronin’s on-line store system can redownload it to get an updated version.
Some time tonight or tomorrow, most of Westeros.org’s sites will go down while everything is shifted over to a brand new server. With luck, the service interruption will be brief, and it will lead to better service in the long-term (as the new server is much more high-powered than the current one). We cannot give a more precise date than this; but if the site goes down at some point, that would be why.
In the course of an update on multiple fronts, George R. R. Martin discussed the latest news on the pilot for HBO’s Game of Thrones adaption. One more secondary role has been cast, and an actor is being offered another role. Besides that, another role that was already cast and intended for the pilot has been written out of it; however, the role (with a “world-class thespian” already attached to it) will appear later if the pilot goes to series.
George R. R. Martin shares a number of updates on several different topics at his “Not a Blog” journal, ranging from current progress on the book (his attempt to defeat the problem he’s termed “the Meereeneese Knot” hasn’t succeeded and it’s back to the drawing board) to comics (“Skin Trade” and “In The House of the Worm” to be published by Avatar Press, while Wild Cards: The Hard Call has its final issue still undrawn and with no set completion date) and anthologies (Songs of the Dying Earth has sold out, Warrior is due for a March publication, Star-Cross Lovers is progressing, and a new cross-genre anthology called Down These Strange Streets—mixing private eye mystery with fantasy and SF—has been contracted to Penguin/Ace.)
There is also a brief update on the progress of the pilot, with one more role cast, another role being offered to an actor, and a third role (and its selected actor) having to be written out of the pilot.
The colocation facility where Westeros.org is hosted was compromised by some crackers installing rootkits. Sparks has taken some of the server functions down, and that seems to cover HTTP or the server where the forum and wiki are right now. Westeros.org sites such as the Citadel, All Sorts of Weird Stuff, Game of Thrones, and so on are currently working, as is the Blood of Dragons MUSH, however.
Will update when we’ve more information.
At “Not a Blog”, George R. R. Martin breaks the news that there will be no 2010 A Song of Ice and Fire calendar to follow the 2009 edition published by Dabel Brothers Productions with art by Michael Komarck. That calendar ran into significant delays, shipping, and customer relations issues, and the planned 2010 calendar with Michael Kaluta set to provide the art was cancelled due to this and other issues. According to GRRM, there is too little time to produce and market a 2010 calendar, but he hopes to strike a new publishing deal for a 2011 calendar. No artist has been named, but in comments Martin makes it plain that his intention was that there would be a new artist featured each year, so Michael Komarck is unlikely to return; however, Komarck will continue to provide covers for the new Wild Cards novels.
Over at “Not a Blog”, George R. R. Martin again mentions the Meereenese Knot, which is an especially problematic section of the book which has been puzzling him for a good while. Writing that he’s taking another hack at it, he mentions that he’ll split two large chapters into four smaller chapters so that he can change the order of events somewhat.
In comments, he also adds that he’s hopeful there’ll be news about a new A Song of Ice and Fire calendar soon.
Thanks to the pointer from Adam Whitehead of the Wertzone, we wanted to share this photo montage of nearly all the currently-cast actors. It’s a good selection of pictures. The only actor missing that comes to mind is Rory McCann, who has not yet been officially announced.
After confirming the casting of Lena Headey as Queen Cersei in HBO’s pilot of Game of Thrones, George R. R. Martin wen on to provide a list of characters still to be cast.
Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune has the exclusive news that Lena Headey has been cast as Queen Cersei, and is the last major role to be filled. Headey, now best known for her title role in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, hs an extensive film and television background. Ryan cites the strong fan interest in the pilot, which she says is not at all the norm for a series that has not even started filming, much less received a season order. She shares the view of Time’s James PoniewozikRome.
George R. R. Martin is offering a special sale copies of Inside Straight, the first in the latestWild Cards shared-world series. At $25 (with domestic media shipping included), buyers will get the Tor hardcover signed by six of the contributors, including himself.
George R. R. Martin reveals that Cersei Lannister—arguably the last major adult role left to be cast for the HBO pilot of Game of Thrones (arguable, as some might note the importance of Khal Drogo in the grand scheme of things)—has been cast. As usual, he also provides some clues.