Westeros

Courtesy of HBO, we now have the official poster for season 5…. and it’s quite a sight to behold, to say the least.

Featuring Tyrion Lannister’s familiar figure at the bow of a ship or boat surrounded by mist, the familiar (and increasingly-large) figure of Drogon, Daenerys’s great black dragon, hovers into view. It’s very eerie, and a very tantalizing glimpse of what’s to come for Tyrion, a glimpse that confirms speculations following the release of the trailer for the upcoming season. Season 5 will premiere on April 12th in the US, April 13th in the UK.

Speaking of tantalizing glimpses, HBO’s “The Sight” campaign—somewhat controversial among fans, for its randomly distributed, extremely short, and mobile-only focus—has come to an end with two (randomly distributed) sneak peeks at brief scenes from the upcoming season. You’ll find them below the cut, as the official Game of Thrones channel very kindly had mercy and posted them online:

Thanks to a Facebook update by artist Magali Villeneuve—one of the many artists contributed beautiful artwork to The World of Ice and Fire—we see that Random House has released some official information (including a cover image)  regarding the 2016 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar (Pre-order: Amazon.com). Due for release on July 28th, there’s one particularly interesting detail about her work on the calendar:

That should be quite interesting, especially if it were to be from a chapter that no one has gotten a glimpse of yet.

Thanks to HBO Nordic, a score of lucky followers (that’s 20!) of Westeros.org will get a chance to attend the Game of Thrones exhibition  in Stockholm, Sweden on March 6th, a day before it opens to the general public! The famed exhibition—which has never been in Stockholm before—contains props and costumes from all five seasons of the hit fantasy series, as well as interactive installations. Should be a fun, exciting occasion.

To enter, just comment on this post in the Facebook comments—or tweet us with the tag #GOTSTHLM—and answer this question:

This contest runs through the 27th.

NOTE: This contest pertains only to entry to the exhibition. Transportation and accommodations are not provided.

A good deal has been going on in the world of Game of Thrones, starting with the release of the Season 4 Bluray/DVD set in the U.S. and U.K. (Order: US Bluray, US DVD, UK Bluray, UK DVD), with a great deal of pomp and circumstance—especially in the UK, where the promotional push included an elaborate, pop-up restaurant installation created by The Wandering Chef for HBO UK:

At the same time, the Writer’s Guild of America awards saw Game of Thrones‘s writing staff nominated in two categories: best drama series, and best individual episode for George R.R. Martin’s “The Lion and the Rose”. While neither award went to Game of Thrones, it was an occasion for some interviews with George R.R. Martin. Access Hollywood learned from him that he’d recently met with the main writers of the show to discuss their plans for season 6, and teases the appearance of the Sand Snakes:

Although we’ve a gallery of screencaps with comments up following the season 5 trailer released, we decided that we should also put together a video discussing what we see in the trailer with a bit more depth. You can find it below:

HBO’s half-hour special, Game of Thrones: A Day in the Life, highlighting the multi-national production, has just aired and HBO has gone ahead and placed it online. See it here:

Screencaps and commentary to follow in the coming days.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK) now has an official release date in the UK and North America: October 6.

While a collection of the book has been published in translation in a few countries, this will be the first English-language collection of the three Dunk & Egg novellas—“The Hedge Knight”, “The Sworn Sword”, and “The Mystery Knight”—which are set approximately 90 years prior to the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Also, unlike the foreign editions that came out in recent months, this edition will feature a bevy of interior illustrations by award-winning artist Gary Gianni, perhaps best known for his work in illustrating the stories of Robert E. Howard. This is not Gianni’s first foray into the Seven Kingdoms—he previously illustrated the 2014 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar (preview).

Thanks to Harper Collins Voyager, GRRM’s UK publisher, and UK bookseller Waterstones, we have a glimpse at George R.R. Martin’s very early description (Page 1, Page 2, Page 3) of his plan for the then-trilogy A Song of Ice and Fire series. Suffice it to say, it presents a very different story than what we have had so far. In a letter sent to the late Ralph Vicinanza, a literary agent who was one of GRRM’s representatives, George very loosely outlines the three prospective novels of the series, while giving a more detailed description of his plans for the first book, A Game of Thrones.

It’s quite the eye-opener, showing how much the narrative evolved from its earliest beginnings.

According to Variety, it looks like more George R.R. Martin work is going to hit the silver screen. According to the report, In the Lost Lands will go into production in the fourth quarter of this year and may potentially star Milla Jovovich, who is said to be in talks. The film’s story appears to be based on three of Martin’s short stories: the eponymous “In the Lost Lands”, featuring a sorceress called Gray Alys (the role Jovovich will prospectively play); “The Lonely Songs of Laren Dorr” (available online at Fantasy Magazine); and a personal favorite of mine, “Bitterblooms”, one of a number of GRRM’s stories inspired by songs (in this case, Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”).

All three share certain themes—there’s a deep sense of melancholy in all three, and love and betrayal runs through them all—but are otherwise unconnected, so it does raise the question as to whether the film will rework them as being part of a single narrative (which seems to be what’s implied), or whether it will instead be more of an anthology film with some sort of bridging material connecting them together. Some details can be found at Constantine Werner’s page for Rusalka Films, including some character designs and “concept designs” (actually more like design inspirations).