Westeros

James Hibberd over at EW has a nice scoop on some of the new characters that will be introduced in season 3. Some of these we’ve reported about already—Lady Catelyn’s brother Ser Edmure and her uncle Ser Brynden, called the Blackfish, as well as the sellsword Daario Naharis—and others are quite new. You’ll have to check out EW for the whole list, but here’s a couple more fans should be very happy to hear about:

This is not an exhaustive list, as James notes, but rather a sampling of some of the key characters in play for this season. Little birds have told us that Ramsay Snow, Lord Bolton’s bastard, is also being cast, and a leaked audition revealed that the sellsword Vargo Hoat was also casting. We’ve ever heard whispers of some other characters in the East that Daenerys shall be meeting, besides Daario Naharis.

HBO’s placed the trailer for the final episode, “Valar Morghulis”, up at Youtube in HD. Looks interesting, and I can spot a scene or two that comes straight from the books… and one or two that are definitely brand new. Hrm!

Our full coverage of “Blackwater”, written by George R.R. Martin and directed by Neil Marshall, is now live! It’s quite lengthy, so the short version: amazing.

Our usual video will be available some time tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the episode guide! And if you want to see what fellow fans are saying, and perhaps even join the discussion, visit the forum!

This innocuous post from Northern Ireland Screen, calling for trainees to join it’s Skills Development Scheme. But thanks to this tweet from Cat Taylor, it looks like most (if not all) the trainees will end up working on season 3 of Game of Thrones. If you met the application criteria, it’s a great opportunity to have a hand in the show!

A huge, amazing episode deserves a huge, amazing response, and “Blackwater” seems to have gotten it. The title went on to Twitter’s trend list, and tweets were fast and furious. Writer George R.R. Martin and director Neil Marshal have, based on early responses, turned in the single most well-regarded episode of the series to date. A lot of it has to do with the spectacle, no doubt…. but a good deal has to do with the skillful, cinematic direction and the writing that brought some of the characters to life in a way no one else seems to quite be able to manage.

Our full coverage of the episode will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon or early evening (that’s US hours), but until then make sure to visit the forum, read the responses from fellow fans and, hey, even sign up for the forum and wade into the discussion youself!

A competition! 

In support for a brand new webseries, The Clandestine, that’s currently getting funded through Kickstarter (there’s another familiar name involved, for those fans who followed the show from the start), the mighty Conan Stevens—the actor who brought to life Ser Gregor Clegane in the first season, and who’s currently set to have a role as a big, bad orc in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit—is running a giveaway contest.

The prize, Game of Thrones fans?

A bit belated on our part, as personal stuff has kept us busy these last couple of weeks, but GRRM has a number of updates at “Not a Blog” which we thought we’d make note of, with comments. See them below:

We’ve updated the So Spake Martin collection—our archive of correspondence, interviews, and more with George R.R. Martin—with the latest interview we’ve seen from GRRM, with Mark Lawson for the BBC’s Frontrow program.

UPDATE: It looks like the soundtrack is already available for download at iTunes (if you’ve an account with the US store, in any case).

Thanks to Film Music Reporter, we’ve the full track listing for the Game of Thrones Season 2 soundtrack (Preorder at Amazon: US, UK), which has been pushed back to a June 19th release date.

Here’s the full list… and there’s some vague spoilers in here, so beware:

• 1. Main Title (1:46)
• 2. The Throne Is Mine (3:15)
• 3. What Is Dead May Never Die (2:06)
• 4. Warrior Of Light (3:03)
• 5. Valar Morghulis (2:59)
• 6. Winterfell (2:42)
• 7. Qarth (2:11)
• 8. Wildfire (3:39)
• 9. I Am Hers, She Is Mine (2:17)
• 10. Pyat Pree (2:12)
• 11. Don’t Die With A Clean Sword (3:22)
• 12. We Are The Watchers On The Wall (2:37)
• 13. Pay The Iron Price (2:32)
• 14. One More Drink Before The War (2:05)
• 15. House Of The Undying (5:02)
• 16. Stand And Fight (2:04)
• 17. The Old Gods And The New (2:38)
• 18. Mother Of Dragons (2:34)
• 19. I Will Keep You Safe (2:17)
• 20. The Rains Of Castomere† Performed by The National (2:23)
• 21. Three Blasts (2:40)

Yes, “The Rains of Castamere” is misspelled, and yes, we’ve seen to it that HBO has been notified just in case that can be fixed. Most notable about it is the fact that it seems we’ll be getting a rendition of the song by the indie rock band The National. We’re guessing that if it appears on the show, it’ll be an end credits thing rather than somehow shoe-horning them into an actual episode!

Animation World Network has an interesting piece discussing the truly international effort to creat VFX for Game of Thrones, with the work largely being handled and supervised by Pixomondo.

Episodes can range from having as few as 60 VFX shots to as many as 140 VFX shots (I’m guessing that upper end is where “Blackwater” falls). Some interesting notes about changes to the dragon design to show that they’re growing, and a lot of talk of how the work was handled by nine of the twelve Pixomondo studios across the globe, plus some work outsourced to other VFX production companies, Baked FX (which has a brief announcement about their involvement) and Entity FX.

According to TV by the Numbers, the latest episode “The Prince of Winterfell has ticked up to match its series high of 3.9 million viewers and 2.0 share, narrowly missing beating the second round of the NBA playoffs as top cable show on Sunday. The second showing later that evening added just over a million more viewers and a 0.5 share, taking it to just shy of 5 million viewers in all.

Will “Blackwater” get us over the 4 million and 5 million marks respectively? Given all the promotion from HBO positioning this episode as something of an event, I think odds are good at least a few subscribers are going to tune in to see what the fuss is all about.

Bryan Cogman, story editor, writer of “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things” and the awesome “What Is Dead May Never Die” (still the most-liked episode of the second season according to fans at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum), and a fellow fan of A Song of Ice and Fire, has deactivated his twitter account. Why? Bryan explains in a statement he wrote that he’s asked us to share, and you can read it below:

Episode 8 is come and gone, and our full coverage of the episode can be found at our “The Prince of Winterfell” episode guide! This includes the full recap, our review/analysis, and our book-to-screen break down. The bonus video... maybe tomorrow, but possibly later, as family business is keeping us busy through Wednesday; our apologies!

This interview with executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss is a great read, as they discuss the upcoming “Blackwater” in some detail. There are some mild spoilers for those who haven’t read the novels, but a lot more of it is about the challenges of producing the battle. They’ve already previously noted that they received a “stipend” above and beyond the decided season budget to be able to put it together, but one interesting detail that I believe is new is the fact that originally “Blackwater” was due to be directed by another director until a personal emergency forced put an end to that. Neil Marshal was the name that popped up as a replacement, and it worked very well indeed.

I’m going to guess that the unnamed director was Jeremy Podeswa, who had at one point indicated (during, I believe, a red carpet interview) that Game of Thrones was on his schedule and then seemed to never be mentioned again in connection with the show. Podeswa’s credits include a number of HBO shows and miniseries, perhaps most saliently The Pacific in which he directed the episode “Iwo Jima”.

In any case, make sure to check out the interview, which includes another preview for the episode.

We’ve heard about a social Game of Thrones game being in the works in the past on several occasions… and now, finally, it looks like they’re getting ready to reveal more about it. Here’s the press release announcing the game, made in partnership between HBO and Disruptor Beam, which seems to indicate that the game is their first big launch (though they do have prior experience developing games):