Westeros

David J. Peterson, creator of the Dothraki language for HBO’s Game of Thrones, has been adding words to the Dothraki lexicon and this time around he decided to immortalize those who attended his Worldcon presentation (which you can download the notes and materials for!) by turning their names into Dothraki words. Some interesting details appear along the way (including the fact that Peterson has a notion of what ‘old Dothraki’ sounds like and how sounds shifted to ‘modern Dothraki’!)

Via Twitter, Peterson’s has also noted that he’ll be making an appearance at the Dothraki.org IRC chat on Sunday at the “usual times” (afraid I’m not quite sure what time that is) where he will make “announcement, of sorts”. Mysterious!

Alyssa Rosenberg has been doing a bang-up job over the past few months of discussing A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones from a critical perspective, so it’s no surprise when she responds at length (NOTE: there may be some ADwD spoilers) to a very criticil piece from Sady Doyle at Tiger Beatdown. It’s definitely worth reading if you’ve an interest in media criticism, and feminist criticism, at that.

I recall reading Doyle’s post and thinking that many of the characterizations of the text were things I’ve seen before written in a much more dialog-encouraging way (no surprise there, since I’ve read them on the forum). Are there reasonable points buried in that quagmire of an outlandishly exaggerated axe-grinding exercise? I’m sure there are, otherwise Rosenberg wouldn’t have taken the time to give it enough serious consideration as to set about demolishing it.

In any case, if nothing else, Rosenberg’s response is worth reading in and of itself. Go and give it a look.

The long road to Emmy night has led to looks at various nominated shows and interviews with nominated people, and the same holds true for Game of Thrones. Deadline Hollywood has already interviewed Emmy-nominated lead hair stylist Kevin Alexander (who shared some interesting details about his job on the production—who else realized they had given Isaac Hempstead-Wright red highlights for his role as Bran?) and now they’re talking to executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Nothing too detailed, but they do touch on the matter of budget.

Also, this quote’s a bit mysterious:

A bit scary, that.

This is fascinating article interviewing foley artist Caoimhe Doyle—part of the Emmy-nominated foley team for Game of Thrones—which discusses in some detail the process of providing all the various sounds in both background and foreground that really cement the action in the minds of viewers. From galloping horses to splashing mud and on to a detailed discussion of Tywin Lannister skinning the deer, this one’s a great article from the Irish Film & Television Network. Well worth reading!

Two more casting notes have come in today, and I think these are quite fun. First off, despite our own thinking that the Iron Islands casting had pretty much wrapped up, it appears that the old master-at-arms of Pyke, Dagmer Cleftjaw, has been cast according to Winter is Coming. British actor Ralph Ineson apparently has the role—quite a change from the character as described, at least age-wise, as Cleftjaw’s said to have a snow-white beard and seems to sound as if he’s in his late 50’s or early 60’s. I’m going to guess that the wound that gives Cleftjaw his name is not going to even be attempted by the show, as that’d be rather extreme make-up! Ineson is among the new cast members who can be found on Twitter.

And just now, EW has the scoop on the casting of Salladhor Saan, a Lyseni pirate king who hires his sails out to Stannis Baratheon, and is an old friend of Davos Seaworth. According to EW, British-born stage and actor Lucian Msamati—who I remember very fondly from HBO’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency as JLB Matekoni—has been cast in the role.

Given our previous casting exclusive regarding Pyat Pree (which also discusses the casting of Balon Greyjoy and Podrick Payne), I think there’s a topic I need to revisit…

HBO’s slowly doling out a few new casting notes, which is always exciting! This time around, we’ve got a look at another Qartheen character to join Nonso Anozi in that part of Daenerys’s story on the continent of Essos: actor Ian Hanmore will play Pyat Pree (HBO writes Pyatt, which may be the official spelling for the series, but we’ll go with his book spelling). Pyat Pree is one of the warlocks of Qarth, who legend claims wield great powers thanks to a sorcerous potion they drink called the shade of the evening. Holding their colloquies in the House of the Undying, the warlocks join the Pureborn and the merchants in determining the fate of the ancient, proud city… and the fate of those who enter it.

In other significant news, Winter is Coming has the scoop that veteran English actor Patrick Malahide has been cast as Balon Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands and father to Theon Greyjoy. Having launched a failed rebellion years ago in which his eldest sons were killed and his youngest son was taken away by Ned Stark as a hostage and ward, Lord Balon has brooded these last years only to see a war spread across the Seven Kingdoms, a war that offers opportunities. Malahide has many credits to his name (including the 1994 BBC production of Middlemarch, and before that the ground-breaking The Singing Detective [widely hailed as one of the greatest television productions ever aired]). He can be seen below in an interview presiding British Equity:

After a long hiatus, it appears that Swedish publisher Forum is giving the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series a third try in translation. Originally having published the first novel back in 1997, slow sales in Sweden led them to drop it until a few years ago when they published the first three novels in the series in translation. Again, however, slow sales—Sweden has a very high percentage of readers who read genre fiction in English rather than in translation—led them to stop. Now they’re back at it, republishing the first three books in paperback and then tackling A Feast for Crows.

Right when the TV series was in the offing, there were efforts to get Forum to bring the books back into print, including some e-mails from us urging them to that effect. The staggering popularity of the new novel, and the series in general following HBO’s television adaptation, seems to have finally swayed Forum to give it another chance.

Here’s their present publishing plan, with the first three novels being republished in paperback:

• Kampen om järntornen (A Game of Thrones) September 19
• Kungarnas krig (A Clash of Kings) October 19
• Svärdets makt (A Storm of Swords) November 21
• KrÃ¥kfesten (preliminary title for the translation of A Feast for Crows) Spring or Autumn 2012
• A Dance with Dragons (no announced Swedish title) 2013

Finally providing confirmation for what had apparently been the case for awhile, HBO has released the following statement concerning the three locations in which shooting for the second season of Game of Thrones would be taking place:

We’ve previously reported on the shooting locations topic. For those Maltese extras and fans who had hoped to see the production shooting there again, this must be a disappointment, but we know that there’ll be a whole lot of Croatian fans eager to know all about the filming there—much of it centered on scenic medieval city Dubrovnik, where casting for extras is ongoing, according to Dubrovinknet  (Croatian).

And another casting surfaces, thanks to the wonders of social media!

German actress Laura Pradelska tweeted the following earlier today:

We’re guessing that that would be the mysterious, masked sorceress Quaithe who is one of several individuals who’ll seek out Daenerys this season.

Pradelska, who’s based in London, had a number of theatre roles to her credit, and below you can see her in a performance of William Whitehurst’s Knuckleball, directed by Andy McQuade:

Each new season is likely to bring not just new actors, but also new directors. Thanks to a sharp-eyed fan, we’ve discovered that actor Forbes KB is listed as playing the part of the famous ironborn warrior Black Lorren... in at least one episode directed by David Petrarca, another in a long list of HBO mainstays. In the last three years, he’s directed HBO episodes almost exclusively, including episodes of Big Love, True Blood, and Boardwalk Empire. He joins Alan Taylor, who was previously announced as directing four episodes for this new season.

Going back to Forbes KB, this character actor has had quite a few roles over the years, and as you can guess by his appearance, he’s often cast as a tough or heavy. He should be just fine as the fierce Black Lorren, a fearless ironborn reaver. Below’s a show reel of the actor:

Roy Dotrice may have been cast as the pyromancer Hallyne in HBO’s Game of Thrones, but for most fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, he’s probably best known as the voice narrating most of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series for Random House’s audiobooks. In the course of that, he’s garnered a Guiness Book of World Records entry. Now, Random House Audio has an interview with the esteemed actor, discussing his work on A Dance with Dragons (which sounds like it may be rewriting that record book), with a few clips of his reading.

Plus, yes, he discusses his role in the TV show!

It sure seems so. There was some surprise here and there on the web when Momoa revealed he had written a treatment for the Conan sequel, which he hoped they would use if to goes ahead. And there was certainly surprise and amusement in the fan community when Momoa made it clear on several occasions that he’d love to return to Game of Thrones, suggesting Drogo could have a twin brother or that magic might somehow be involved.

But did anyone realize that he actually wrote scenes featuring a returned Drogo, which he’s apparently presented to executive producers Benioff and Weiss? Because, according to his interview with NY Magazine’s Vulture site, that’s exactly what he did. Here’s the relevant quote:

I wrote some scenes and they might try to use them. George [R.R. Martin] can only write so much. Something could happen. Drogo could have a twin. You never know.

Got to love his enthusiasm for the show. Speaking of that, he was on Conan O’Brien last night. Here’s an embed of his appearance, where Game of Thrones is mentioned, although much of it is about his soon-in-theaters Conan 3D:

John Hodgman—writer, actor, comedian, and a gentleman who knows everything worth knowing—makes a nod to his George R.R. Martin fandom once again, this time on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Brought in to comment on the challenges of digital distribution for brick-and-mortar bookstores following the bankruptcy of Borders, Hodgman has some… thoughts on steps booksellers might take.

If you’re in the U.S. (and possibly elsewhere, can’t say for sure), here’s the clip from Hulu after the advert:

SF Signal, one of the best blogs keeping a tab on what’s going on in the science fiction genre, has a guest post from Raz Greenberg discussing George R.R. Martin’s proposed Doorways series, which was an original science fiction drama/adventure series that Martin created and executive produced for ABC. They made a pilot which pleased the powers that be… but then the usual story of a change in management meant that it was put on the backburner and, ultimately shelved.

This disappointment wasn’t all bad, though, as it helped fuel part of George’s push to write Avalon... which in turn led to a vivid image of a dead direwolf and her pups, found amidst the summer snow; the rest is history.

Greenberg gives an excellent overview of the history of the project, reviews the pilot episode (which is extremely hard to find—I’ve tried to get a hold of the VHS in Europe and haven’t had much luck), and then discusses the IDW comic book adaptation which was recently collected as a graphic novel (US, UK). Well-worth checking out!

If you’re in New York City, this one’s for you.

Have to love the fans and readers of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, because they keep coming up with amazing ways to share their fandom. The latest?

The Bushwick Book Cub of Brooklyn gathers each month to feature songs inspired by their latest book club selection, written by local songwriters and musicians who perform them at the Goodbye Blue Monday bar. And this month? They’ve been reading, and composing songs for, George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. The club will gather this Thursday at 8PM at Goodbye Blue Monday, and fans of books and music are invited to attend and share in the experience.

Here’s the address:

Goodbye Blue Monday
1087 Broadway (JMZ to Myrtle or J to Kosciusko)
Brooklyn, NY 11221
ph: 718 453 6343

According to organizer Susan Hwang, seven different musical acts are on the slate, including Sweet Soubrette, Dan and Rachel, and Natti Vogel.

Looking forward to seeing pictures and reports from the event!

Another announcement that came by way of George’s “Not a Blog” is the news that renowned fantasy artist (one of the “Big Three” Tolkien artists, alongside Alan Lee and John Howe) Ted Nasmith has signed on to illustrate the new, Subterranean Press limited edition of A Game of Thrones. Nasmith, of course, illustrated the gorgeous 2011 calendar, and will be providing illustrations for The World of Ice and Fire guide book that we are co-authoring with George.

Having helped Mr. Nasmith a little bit with research for the calendar, we know he’s going to do an amazing job realizing some of the scenes and locations from the novel. We’re particularly hopeful that we’ll get a glimpse of Pentos, Vaes Dothrak, and the Mountains of the Moon in his depictions.

George’s post explains the long history of the limited editions of his novels, including the start with Meisha Merlin until its bankruptcy and their being picked up by Subterranean Press. It’s an interesting read, and shows off a bit of the art along the way.

This past weekend, George R.R. Martin posted at “Not a Blog” about two scripts that had been sent to him to be auctioned for charity at this year’s Worldcon, Renovation, appear to have been stolen while in transit to his office. The scripts for episode 9 and 10 were signed by David Benioff, Dan Weiss, and director Alan Taylor. It’s very unfortunate, and we suggest that if anyone spots scripts on Ebay or at other sites matching the above description, to please report it in.

After yesterday’s report that Oona Chaplin—granddaughter of Charline Chaplin—had revealed she was in Game of Thrones, we fielded quite a lot of speculation from fans as to who she might be. A lot of names were thrown out, and we admit, we were intrigued (and hopeful) that it might be Elia of Dorne, which would confirm that there might be a flashback to the time of Robert’s Rebellion…

But HBO has kindly provided us her name, and it’s not Elia: no, Oona will be playing Jeyne—

Mo Ryan‘s at it again: after having interviewed executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, she’s now sharing the first part of what’s looking to be a fairly lengthy interview with George R.R. Martin. Some great remarks concerning the adaptation of his novel to the screen, and a bit of back-and-forth on the topic of “sexposition” that’s worth reading.

Check it out, and keep an eye out for part two tomorrow!

Oona Chaplin, grand-daughter of Charlie Chaplin and a young actress of some note (she’s presently appearing in the BBC’s high-end period drama, The Hour), writes about what her perfect weekend would be, and in the course of it she dropped this tidbit:

By her looks (she’s half-Chilean), she’d pass for a Dornishwoman, wouldn’t she? Or someone from the Free Cities. Someone from other parts of Westeros, too, sure, depending on how make-up goes. Suggestions that have been put forward: the mysterious Quaithe of Asshai, Jeyne Westerling (she’s one-quarter Eastern, after all), Meera Reed (“Too tall!” the inner fanboy cries), Jhiqui, and, rather intringuingly, the dead Elia of Dorne. Is the show relenting on flashbacks, after strenuously avoiding them last season? We can only hope.

Thanks to The Rabbit for pointing out the article.

Cyanide Studio, who are developing the strategy game A Game of Throne: Genesis for release later this year, have also been (fairly quietly) working on another project: an A Game of Thrones roleplaying game. We’ve had some reports and images before in the French gaming media, but France’s Gamekult website now has an extensive video featuring the game’s lead designer, Sylvain Séchi, and a whole heap of shots from the game engine, including in-game cinematic sequences, level designs, and even a few glimpses of the combat.

See below for the video, and some comments:

We posted a couple of weeks ago about NPR asking SF/F readers to vote on a very long list (237 finalists in total) so they could narrow it down to a Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy titles. The results are in, and it’s a great pleasure to see that George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series not only made the list, it went all the way to #5. Ahead of it were Frank Herbert’s Dune, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and at #1, what else? J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Congratulations to George, and to the other authors on the list, which is worth checking out (and lets give a special shoutout to Ursula K. Le Guin’s body of work, which really should have rated much higher, in our opinion… and may have done so, if only someone had thought to put the Earthsea quartet on the list!)

Variety’s Emmy Central blog has an article that speaks to the showrunners of various series nominated for “Best Drama” at this year’s award, including HBO’s Game of Thrones (see the full list of Emmy nominations for the show). One common refrain is the envy some showrunners have towards the big-budget HBO programs such as Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. But when David Benioff is quoted, he’s discussing how the budget has gone towards allowing the production to film in two countries last season… and now three this season:

Well, if Tolkien got the Bored of the Rings treatment, why not? Once they start parodying you, you’ve hit a certain level of cultural currency.

According to The Wrap, Thomas Dunne Books have acquired the rights to A Game of Groans from pseudonymous author George R.R. Contanza. There’s a brief blurb of the novel attached to the report, which reads as follows:

Wow, a veritable flood of casting news! Now The Hollywood Reporter has the exclusive news that Welsh actor Robert Pugh has been cast in the role of Craster, a brutish wildling who rules his “keep”, terrorizing his wives and his daughters… many of whom are one and the same. Considered a friend to the Watch, he’ll play a part in the Lord Commander’s expedition beyond the Wall.

Pugh’s a veteran actor with a number of film roles under his belt, including appearances in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Robin Hood, and The Last Legion.

Well, this is a nice surprise: according to George R. R. Martin’s post regarding this year’s Worldcon, Renovation, he’ll be reading an extract from the sixth book in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, The Winds of Winter. This, and many other items, are on GRRM’s schedule for the convention.

We suspect that the reading on Thursday (scheduled for 2 hours, though we suspect a Q&A is part of it) is going to feature a room filled to capacity.

For those who are primarily interested in the TV show, the Game of Thrones presentation panel was extended from one hour to two hours, so it can accomadate a special screening of George’s episode, “The Pointy End”... with commentary from the author himself! Wow. Besides that, David J. Peterson—creator of the Dothraki language for the show—will be on hand for panels and workshops related to language creation, including a presentation on Dothraki; his schedule can be found here.

Having twice attended Worldcon, we have to really recommend paying a visit—even if just for one day—to get a look at a science fiction convention as the SF fandom community have developed to a high (if sometimes eccentric) art form. Thousands of fellow fans, well-stocked dealers and art rooms, costuming galore, and (literally) hundreds of program items featuring writers, editors, fans, scientists, academics, and even the occasional actor or screenwriter—there’s nothing quite like Worldcon out there. The price may seem steep, but the value’s quite high. Not least if you just want to hang out with George, who we guarantee will be hanging out with the fans at the convention during the nightly floor parties thrown at the convention hotel; make sure not to miss the Brotherhood without Banners parties!

And if you can’t make it… well, I’m pretty sure the forum is going to feature reports regarding these events within hours (perhaps even minutes) of their conclusion. Keep an eye out!

Renovation runs from August 17 to August 21. To learn more about memberships and day rates, see here.

And once again, GRRM confirms the guesses: Irish actor Michael McElhatton has been cast in the role of Roose Bolton, Lord of the Dreadfort, a northern bannerman to the Starks who plays a prominent role in Robb’s campaign. See our previous post with details on McElhatton and why he fit the clues.

McElhatton certainly has the look for Roose Bolton, to say the least. Below is a long showreel from his agency, although unfortunately the audio encoding is a bit of a mess:

George R.R. Martin has a new clue posted, as promised, and by the title… well, we’re going to guess this is for the role of Pyat Pree, one of the warlocks of Qarth, going off the speculation that the Qartheen for the series may not be so homogeneous as they are in the books. Here’s the title and text:

Now to start pondering!

UPDATE: Via Twitter, we were pointed to Irish actor Michael McElhatton, and if that guess right, were going to join everyone else and suppose that this clue is about Roose Bolton and, in this case, is referring to that character’s very pale eyes. He appeared in the film The Tiger’s Tail, wrote and starred in the eponymous Fergus’s Wedding (thereby making him a “double threat” as an actor and a writer), appeared in The Santa Incident, and Wikipedia states he’s been nominated for the Irish Film and Television Awards three times, winning once (in fact, he’s been nominated four times for acting and twice for writing). As to dancing home, his latest role is in the film Shadow Dancer. We’re not sure about his not reading the same book twice, but he seems to match up very well otherwise…

Oh, and it’s definitely for Roose Bolton—we were stuck looking for a role that fit “same book twice”, missing the very obvious fact that Roose Bolton makes a rather similar statement. Thanks to our commenters for noting that.

Rumor of this bubbled up recently when the actor’s CV showed the role, but Access Hollywood now has the confirmation: British actor Karl Davies is Alton Lannister. Davies is perhaps best-known for his role in the long-running British soap, Emmerdale.

Some discussion, and clips featuring the actor, below.

UPDATED: And GRRM has confirmed, and adds that it seems another clue or casting announcement is forthcoming.

We were asleep when George posted this rather late casting clue, so all the guessing has been done and we’re pretty sure fans commenting on GRRM’s livejournal have nailed it down. Here’s the clues:

Several candidates are batted about in the thread, but it sure seems to us that given the character—his being “sad” really suggests the Night’s Watch squire Dolorous Edd—we can eliminate certain of the actors, such as Bernard Hill or the esteemed Christopher Lee. Once you do that, well,  no one fits better than British actor Ben Crompton.

• The post title, “Across the Atlantic Sea”, happens to be part of a lyric from Hair about Manchester—and Crompton is a Mancunian.
• “an ideal choice”: He appeared in the TV series Ideal.
• “a madman”: Played Mad Al in Going Postal.
• “a nut”: Played William Nutt in The Supsicions of Mr. Whicher.
• “a spud”: Played Spud in Midsomer Murders.
• “a martian”: Played Martian X in Radio Mania: An Abandoned Work.
• “a king”: Played King Mike in King Jeff.
• “a slaver”: Played Hodge in The Slavery Business: How to Make a Million from Slavery.
• “he’s gone up with a balloon”: Appeared in a short film, The Balloon.
• “down with a ship”: Appeared in The Sinking of the Laconia.
• “he’s stroked so many women”: Appeared in the sketch comedy Man Stroke Woman.

Can’t get more perfect than that!

Below, we have a few clips of the actor from Man Stroke Woman:

This is the fifth post in the series, and possibly the penultimate one (we do have one prophecy left to discuss from the previous entry), at least for this week as we’re still on vacation and recording isn’t too appealing just now. Want more? Leave some suggestions in comments regarding plot-related matters and we’ll consider them!

In any case, in this entry, we discuss “little mysteries”—various little puzzles or things that weren’t necessarily clear to readers on their initial read, or even on re-read. Hope you enjoy it!

For more videos in our A Dance with Dragons discussion series, visit our Youtube page.

UPDATED: HBO has since confirmed to us that the deal’s done, contracts signed, and Ms. Murray is on board. Exciting!

Thanks to a tip via our forum, it looks likely that the role of Gilly—daughter of the brutish wildling warrior named Craster—has been cast, with British actress Hannah Murray in the role.

Murray starred in the first two seasons of the acclaimed, controversial British series Skins (alongside Joe Dempsie, aka Gendry) before leaving the show to study at Cambridge.

While we seek confirmation from HBO, here’s an interview with Murray which also features a handful of clips from Skins (which is NSFW at one point, unless you’re wearing headphones or are quick with the mute button):

We know a lot of fans who’ll be pleased by this news. Following last night’s clue, George R.R. Martin has confirmed the widely-accepted guess that Roy Dotrice is to play Wisdom Hallyne, a senior member of the Guild of Alchemists, known as the pyromancers for their most renowned work, which involves fire (and, specifically, the alchemical “substance” popularly called wildfire).

As we reported last night, Dotrice was originally cast in the role of Grand Maester Pycelle, but for health reasons had to depart before filming began.

Below are a few clips of the actor, both in the past on Beauty and the Beast and more recently, including a sample of his audio reading work:

The Television Critics Association had their award ceremony last night, and we’re pleased to report that HBO’s Game of Thrones has won the “Outstanding New Program” category, beating out such early favorites such as the popular The Walking Dead and even HBO’s much-lauded Boardwalk Empire.

The show was nominated in three other categories, “Outstanding Acheivement in Drama”, “Program o the Year”, and “Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Drama” for Peter Dinklage, awards which were won by Mad Men, Friday Night Lights for its final season, and Jon Hamm of Mad Men (very deservedly, if we may say so—brilliant work from him last season).

This, we presume, is a hint for the role of Wisdom Hallyne, chief of the Guild of Alchemists of King’s Landing; they’re also known as pyromancers, and are best known for producing “the substance”, called wildfire, which (we hope!) will be on vivid display next season!

So, something to do with Australia—an Australian actor presumably.

UPDATE: Thanks to speculation over at Winter is Coming, we think we know who this is: none other than fan-favorite audio book reader (and veteran actor) Roy Dotrice, who was originally cast in the role of Grand Maester Pycelle until health issues intervened. We’ve heard he recovered well, and certainly well enough to continue his tour de force audio book readings after much demand for his return.

How do the clues fit? We thought “down under” meant Australia…. but when someone mentioned his name in connection to “voice of everyone” (he’s set a world record with the number of characters he’s voiced in the unabridged audio books), it clicked. In Beauty and the Beast, he played Father—“the voice of wisdom”—for the people who lived “down under” New York City in maze of tunnels.

Now fingers crossed that this is, indeed, the case!

We’ve got another great interview to share, this time with Ed Bruce of Screen Scene, a Dublin-based post production company that offers a wide range of services, many of which HBO’s Game of Thrones availed themselves of. Among them? Their visual effects department, which produced just over half of the effects shots for the first season. Some truly eye-popping images in their visual breakdown. Ed discusses a range of topics revolving around Screen Scene’s participation in the first season. Some interesting—and sometimes surprising (they removed Bran’s torso!)—details, and some frank discussion of what was and was not possible to do within the constraints they had.

A great interview, and we hope we’ll see more of Screen Scene’s work in the second season!

Read the interview!

One of the cool things that has developed pretty much from the get-go with the fandom at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum and its predecessors on EESite and EzBoard is a very robust Literature sub-forum, where others works of literature (both in and out of genre) are discussed by passionate readers and fans.

The forum’s won some recognition in this regard, both from fellow fans (Patrick St. Denis of the popular Fantasy Hotlist review site has repeatedly named it his favorite discussion forum on the web) and from authors (a number of whom have joined the forum over the years, either for a few brief words or for a longer period of enagement, such as Richard K. Morgan, R. Scott Bakker, Joe Abercrombie, Jon Sprunk, Daniel Abraham, Brandon Sanderson, Scott Lynch, and ... well, more; not GRRM, though, we should add!)

Now, we’re adding one more author to the list: Patrick Rothfuss, the author of the very popular “Kingkiler Chronicles”, starting with his award-winning The Name of the Wind and this year’s NY Times #1 Bestseller The Wise Man’s Fear. Rothfuss is, suffice it to say, quite a well-regarded author on our forum, and in the general community, and with good reason: a talented writer with a knack with prose, a complicated lead character, and a richly-realized setting, Rothfuss is among a “new” crop of fantasy authors who are pushing fantasy into the mainstream.

Rothfuss will be visiting the forum for our first ever author chat, on August 6 at 4 PM Eastern (that’s 1 PM Pacific, 3 PM Central, 9 PM UK, 10 PM CET), at the forum. The thread where questions can be posted and Patrick will give his responses can be found here, and will open up a few minutes early so as to allow fans to get in a few initial questions for Patrick to work with. The only ground rule for the discussion is that Patrick would prefer not to have spoilers from his series (or GRRM’s, actually!) in the thread, so bear that in mind when posting questions.

Joining the forum is easy, and it supports Facebook and Twitter logins, so please, feel welcome! and start thinking up questions for the chat!

Meant to post our fourth in a series of discussions concerning George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons yesterday, but RL got in the way. So, here it is! This time around, we tackle some of the prophecies—both old and new—and how events in the novel may (or may not) have fulfilled some of their conditions.

(This turns out, inadvertently, to be part 1 of 2—it seems someone [*coughcough*Elio*cough*] forgot to upload the second part and has since deleted it from his computer, so we’ll record a discussion of that last prophecy we wanted to discuss at a later date!)

College Humor envisions how a retro computer RPG inspired by HBO’s Game of Thrones might look… I would totally play this game, lets just say that.

Also: someone show this link to Dan Weiss!

And the casting news keeps coming: Winter is Coming gets the scoop on Jaqen H’ghar, the mysterious Lorathi prisoner that’s among Yoren’s recruits for the Night’s Watch. He was (sort of) glimpsed last season, as a shrouded and hooded figure sitting silently in a cage.

According to WiC, Jaqen will be played by German actor Tom Wlaschiha, who’s made a number of appearances in German film and television, and has since branched out into international productions, including films such as Valkyrie (with the show’s Melisandre, Carice van Houten!) and Munich. He’s had a brush with fantasy in German film Krabat, as well, so this won’t be entirely new to him. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

See below for a short film featuring Wlaschiha, and a link to a long showreel showcasing some of his work in series such as The Deep (with Minnie Driver) and Brideshead Revisted.

Last week we shared VFX breakdowns from the first season of Game of Thrones, produced by the lead VFX vendor during the filming, BlueBolt.

Now we’ve a second breakdown video, this time from another VFX vendor who was involved in the process, Irish post-production and VFX house Screen Scene. By the looks of this show-reel, they handled a few quite memorable sequences, including Bran’s climb, the sprawling Lannister encampment, and various bits of CGI-enhanced violence that are really quite amazing when you look at how they were done.

Screen Scene has some details of their work on the project at their site—it looks like they’re a very full-featured post facility indeed, having not only worked on VFX, but also color timing, editing, sound production, and more.

Ed Bruce, Screen Scene’s VFX supervisor, notes that Screen Scene produced 350 of the circa 686 effects shots across the season, working in collaboration with the series VFX supervisor Adam McInnes.  We hope to get in a short interview with Mr. Bruce about Screen Scene’s work on the show, to release in a few day, but until then, feast your eyes on the videos below, the first being the specific breakdown, the next being a more general showreel (featuring a lot of Game of Thrones footage) set to Johnny Cash’s “When the Man Comes Around”:

HBO’s opening the floodgates (well, cracking them open a wee bit, in any case!) with casting news. Hot on the heels of EW getting the confirmation on Asha Greyjoy (renamed “Yara” for the show), HBO’s given us wee scoop: the indentity of Qartheen merchant-prince Xaro Xhoan Daxos, who will provide Daenerys shelter and support in the ancient, decadent city of Qarth…

For a price.

Cast in the role is British actor Nonso Anozie (Facebook page), a noted theatre actor who set a record for the youngest actor to play the part of “King Lear” in a professional production (at the age of 22 or 23), and won the Ian Charleson Award in 2005 for his performance in the titular role in the Cheek by Jowl production of “Othello”. The first Charleson award winner? Jennifer Ehle, who played the part of Catelyn Stark in the pilot. Fine company! And for that matter, we see over at IMDB that Anozie has also appeared in the forthcoming Conan the Barbarian 3D film with Jason Momoa, aka Khal Drogo. I wonder if he had a chance to talk with Momoa about the show?

Below, see Anozie in a trailer for the film Cass, in which he plays the title role, and an interview with the actor:

British actress Gemma Whelan was first reported to have been cast in the role of Theon Greyjoy’s older sister back in July, but that has not been officially confirmed…

Until now, that is, thanks to James Hibberd and EW. They also confirm a choice that is bound to be controversial among some fans: Asha’s name has been changed to what somewhat less mellifluous “Yara”, out of concern that her name otherwise sounds too much like “Osha”. As some have noted, “Yara” might be readily confused with “Arya” by some, so it doesn’t seem a great choice in that regard. Also, notably, Osha’s name seems to have never been properly used in the TV series—it’s only mentioned outside of the show, in extra material or casting notes—so, all considered, we might have preferred it if they re-dubbed Osha and let Asha keep her name.

Still, in the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn’t matter too much. Though we would have loved it if they named her Disa or Katla…

Below’s a showreel showing Ms. Whelan in several roles:

Continuing our discussion series of videos concerning A Dance with Dragons, this time around Linda and I turn our attention to the topic of… Ashara Dayne. A favorite topic, actually, because we do love Dorne and the Daynes have always held a special mystique from the very first book. This new novel has potentially exploded some long-held beliefs of many fans, and we try and provide some insight into why that may be.

Please feel free to comment, but beware, spoilers! For more discussion about the series (and pretty much every topic under the sun), give the A Song of Ice and Fire forum a try!

The So Spake Martin  collection of interview links, correspondence, and more has been growing by leaps and bounds of late. Today, we’ve added two new entries: a link to an excellent interview at the Sydney Morning Herald, and a transcript of a Q&A with Martin at the Redwood City signing, led by Tad Williams. The transcript comes by way of his Twitter account and his wife, Deborah Beale.

Visitors at Westeros.org have chosen two essay topics for Pearson Moore’s Game of Thrones Season One companion book, “Direwolves and Dragons”, following a poll!

Out of a field of seven essay options, visitors chose “The History of Westeros” and “The Seven Claims to the Iron Throne” for inclusion in the first season omnibus of essays.

According to Pearson, “Visitors chose the two most interesting topics.  If they hadn’t selected them, I probably would have included them anyway.  These are fascinating threads in the storyline!”

The ebook edition of “Direwolves and Dragons Season One Essays” will be published around August 30, and the paperback edition should be available in mid-September.