Westeros

Something must be in the air, because as spring comes around, thoughts clearly turn towards traveling for some. And in this case, they seem to have informed two quite different (and quite good!) interviews from two travel sites. George R.R Martin is certainly no stranger to travel, and in fact is presently in the UK ahead of Eastercon and his appearance at the Bloomsbury Theatre.

First up, Josh Roberts conducts an excellent interview with George for Smarter Travel. As noted at the top of the interview, it has some major spoilers for all five novels in the series, but it’s noted when they’re crossing into the spoiler section. Here’s a favorite part from it:

Some last bits of promotional material sneaking out from HBO. This time, we’ve two new videos featuring a look at new characters and new destinations that we’ll be seeing this season. Good stuff, and an excellent chance to hear from some of the newest cast members:

EW continues its exclusive series of interviews leading up to the premiere of Game of Thrones, as James Hibberd shares his interview with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Ser Jaime Lannister) and Lena Headey (Queen Cersei Lannister). Some interesting comments in there from both actors. Including Coster-Waldau’s dislike of the fact that Jaime’s imprisoned, but he had to admit that it was important for the character’s journey for him to be out of the action. It must gnaw at Jaime, when you think about it, to be locked up when deeds are being done and the Lannister family needs defending.

You can find more of EW’s excellent coverage of the series at this link.

That’s right, folks: the last day of Week 3 in Hulu’s “Best in Show” tournament, and Game of Thrones is pitted against Sons of Anarchy. Worse yet, SoA is leading by a very narrow margin: 51% to 49%

A margin so very narrow that I suspect that if every single person who read this post voted, and voted now, we’d turn the tables.

If you folks vote and Game of Thrones takes the prize, I’ll let you all select which interview we’ll run next—do you want to hear from Kit Harrington, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, or Emilia Clarke? Vote, leave your answer in comments, and help the show carry the day in the third week of the tourney!

The fourth in our series of interviews from the international press junket Westeros.org attended last month (see our latest interview for links to all three earlier interviews), this time we’re touching on a brand new character to the series: Ser Davos Seaworth, the “Onion Knight” who faithfully serves Stannis Baratheon.

Irish actor Liam Cunningham plays the role, and plays it well from what we’ve seen of the first four episodes, conveying Davos’s conviction in his loyalty to Stannis despite the odds against the eldest surviving Baratheon. In the interview below, Cunningham discussed his role, the contents of the pouch at his neck, who he’d love to see dub him in Brazil, and shows his true colors as a fan of the series with an insatiable appetite for more. If you’ve seen earlier interviews with Cunningham, you know he’s amusing, and he was very charming as he chatted with us!

Read the interview!

Courtesy of HBO, here are six brand new clips from the first episode of the new season, “The North Remembers”! Focused primarily on Tyrion and Jon—with four of the six clips devoted to their part of the story—you’ll also get a glimpse of King Robb and Alton Lannister, as well as a nice look at Daenerys Targaryen and Drogon.

And as an added treat, if you’re in the UK or Ireland, you can get access to Sky’s interview special! I was there when they filmed some of these interviews, during the press junket in London, and it sounded like they got some great material. More about that junket shortly…

The third in our series of interview from the international press round table interview junket (see our previous two interviews: Charles Dance and Michelle Fairley), this time we’ll cross the narrow sea, through the tall grass of the Dothraki sea, and into the red waste and beyond to talk with Iain Glen, who plays Ser Jorah Mormont, Daenerys’s guardian, advisor, companion…. and perhaps a bit more. A Scottish actor gifted with a charm and a voice that apparently gets not a few hearts racing, Glen has done a bit of everything on stage and screen, including roles in blockbusters like Kingdom of Heaven and smash hits like Downton Abbey and, of course, HBO’s Game of Thrones.

In the interview, Glen discusses a range of topics: Jorah’s relationship to Daenerys, what we might expect over the next season, how it was to work in Dubrovnik, and more.

Read the interview!

Having had the opportunity (courtesy of HBO) to see the first four episodes of this coming season (premiering April 1st in the US and Latin America, April 2nd in the UK and—I believe—a deal of Eastern Europe), Linda and I share some very general thoughts on what to expect from those episodes, and what the dangers might be for the rest of the season. All in all, the first four episodes play pretty well, but for our part the first two episodes start on the back foot somewhat—they’re not as strong as we might have liked, and we try and give some sense of why.

As always, we’re die-hard fans of the novels and everything, inevitably, is touched by that perspective… but sometimes, reasonable and even necessary decisions for the sake of adaptation don’t necessarily lead to the very best storytelling. It’s a difficult beast, adapting a mammoth series such as A Song of Ice and Fire, and it can’t fire on all cylinder all the time. But most of the time? It gets there, for the most part, and there are some sections of the story which should please even the most hardcore purists. Other areas… perhaps not so much, especially as sometimes the changes seem gratuitous, change for the sake of change.

To read our thoughts in full, go here!

Tomorrow will see the Game of Thrones graphic novel—collecting the first six issues of the series, which were published by Dynamite Entertainment—hitting store shelves (Order: Amazon US, Amazon UK). Adapted by the team of Daniel Abraham and Tommy F. Patterson, with covers by Mike S. Miller.

The first in four planned volumes, the collection will eventually contain all twenty-four issues of the A Game of Thrones adaptation, with plans to continue adapting the series if the audience is there for it—a potentially monumental effort, if each book takes a minimum of two years to adapt!

HBO has kindly dropped us a note revealing that they’re set to announce a brand new book, a companion to the TV series, titled Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones (Pre-order: Amazon US).

This book, written by Bryan Cogman (the designated keeper of the lore for the series, writer for both seasons, story editor, and the man behind the first year of Making Game of Thrones set reports) with a foreword by George R.R. Martin and an introduction by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, is due fall 2012. Here’s the press release with more details—but in brief: exclusive interviews with cast and crew, photos galore, a map of Westeros, material on the Dothraki language, and more!

You can pre-order the book at Amazon US.

April is coming, and it’s time for HBO to kick Game of Thrones promotion into high gear. Earlier today we shared the news of the “You Win or You Die” video being put online… and to follow it up, there’s a bevy of new character images to be seen. Starting here, you’ll find images of a number of the new cast members, including the very best shot of Ygritte yet.

Besides that, HBO’s also provided us a Q&A with executive producers and chief writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss which, for the most part, is quite good… but we had to leave a little editorial preface, because sometimes the show’s producers and actors put forward one particular notion that we find a little bit questionable! Read it for yourself here. This will be the first of two Benioff & Weiss interviews we’ll be bringing you, as our account of the roundtable interview we took part in with the executive producers will be up some time next week.

HBO is being very generous indeed, now having released the whole “You Win or You Die” promo—which, so far as I recall, doesn’t air on the HBO channel until the 25th—online, via Youtube. Great inteview bits, mostly recapping the first season for viewers… but also giving a taste of season 2!

David J. Peterson, the constructed language expert who was hired by the production of Game of Thrones, will be on Reddit today taking part in the Ask Me Anything series they have there. Great chance to learn more about his work on the show, his views on conlang in general, and anything else you can think of!

Based off of early viewing of the second season—screeners went out to critics beginning two days ago (our set will be arriving this Thursday, with any luck)—Ken Tucker over at EW.com gives the first several episodes an overall A- score in his overall impressions. His wrap up makes for a choice quote:

A pretty good start, and we now that the Daily Beast’s Jace Lacob has been very positive on the first three episodes he’s already viewed.

Continuing our series of interviews leading up to the April 1st (or April 2nd, if in the UK) premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones! At the press junket the day after the episode 1 screening which I intended, I had the opportunity to interview a number of actors, as well as the executive producers, about this season of the show. You’ve already seen our interview with Charles Dance, and now we bring another veteran of the show: Michelle Fairley, Lady Catelyn Stark herself.

To say that this is an opportunity I’ve long been looking forward to is an understatement—Fairley happens to play my favorite character in the novels, after all, and I was eager to learn more about her views on the character, and the series in general. Below you’ll get some hints about what’s in store for Catelyn this season, and maybe what’s in store for House Tully, too… and you’ll learn a bit about what it’s like to suddenly become so recognizable as the show’s burgeoning popularity grows by leaps and bounds.

Read the interview!