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:
I’ve got a part in Game of Thrones…
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:
A Light Shade of Pale
Thrice nominated, once victorious. A double threat. He wrote the script for his own wedding. Has struggled against the Spider’s sort, taken on Santa, caught a tiger by his tail. Never reads the same book twice. Last seen dancing home.
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.