British actor Donald Sumpter, cast in the role of Maester Luwin in HBO’s Game of Thrones, has been announced to provide his vocal talents towards the new, direct-to-DVD motion captured Ultramarines film in the Warhammer 40k setting. At the 4:05 mark, Sumpter is interviewed, and it gives a great chance get a look a the actor playing one of the many memorable characters in the series. Alongside Sumpter, the likes of John Hurt and Terence Stamp (who has received some support among fans as a possible choice for Tywin Lannister) will also provide their talents to the production.
Much more about Ultramarines can be found at the Wertzone, which brought the video above to our attention.
George R.R. Martin has shared that he will be a guest of Avatar Press for the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo between April 16 and April 18. Besides the usual round of panels, autograph-sessions, and readings, Avatar Press has him listed as being a part of their special VIP event alongside World War Z writer Max Brooks.
Part of the reason for the visit to Chicago? Promoting the new comic book adaption of his much-admired vampire novel,Fevre Dream, which has been adapted by Daniel Abraham and Rafa Lopez into a ten issue miniseries. The first issue is due in April, in time for the convention.
Suvudu.com, a publisher SF/F website, is hosting a fun little Cage Match tournament as an alternative to March Madness. Pitting fictional genre characters against one another, voting has been swift and furious in support of the various candidates aiming to be champion of them all. As they say: there can be only one!
Among the characters? The infamous Ser Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer! Go here to see his first match up, George R.R. Martin‘s commentary on how the fight would go as he sees it (with a cameo by Tyrion, and see if that convinces you to vote for the golden son of Casterly Rock.
It’s nothing we’ve noticed before, but it seems that the production of Game of Thrones was officially carried out by an entity called Fire and Blood Productions. At a guess, this was essentially a temporary production company created specifically for produce the pilot. It’s a nice nod to the series.
It’s also opened up some new production information for us. For example, for the technical gearheads out there, we now know that the popular and widely-used ARRICAM Lite was among the camera systems used on the production, shooting 35mm film, as was the ARRIFLEX 235, a light-weight handheld 35mm film camera which may have been used for spontaneous angles… or, one might speculate based on director Thomas McCarthy‘s previous films, the light handhelds could be used to provide a more inimate, “you are there” feeling to certain sequences.
It also reminds us that Jeremy Woodhead, listed as make-up artist and hair designer for the pilot, has an extensive career, including major films such as The Lord of the Rings and Munich.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Greg Spence is now associate producer of HBO‘s Game of Thrones. According to Wikipedia, an associate producer, “usually acts as a representative of the Producer, who may share financial, creative, or administrative responsibilities, delegated from that producer.”
Spence has a significant amount of history with HBO in similar roles, having been associate producer on their award-winning miniseries, John Adams and Generation Kill, and the recent film Temple Grandin. He also appears to have extensive experience in post-production management, suggesting one of his roles will be to oversee post-production of episodes.
According to actor/writer Michael Goldstrom, his writing partner Bryan Cogman—listed as script editor for the pilot—will be writing the fourth episode of Game of Thrones. We know they’re already at work sorting out scheduling matters, and it seems they already have at least some idea of the first season breakdown and who’ll be assigned to writing various episodes.
Over at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, a member by the name of Lady Nymeria points out an amazing series of character illustrations by a fan of the series in Japan. Drawn in various styles traditional to Japanese manga, there’s some gorgeous pieces. Here’s a few of our favorites: the Lannister siblings, the Lannister twins, and Melisandre of Asshai.
Lady Nymeria runs through yet more A Song of Ice and Fire art scattered elsewhere on the artist’s blog, at this thread, where she offers to help identify characters whose names are only given in Japanese and who aren’t obvious.
Robert Stromberg, visual effects supervisor for Game of Thrones, shared one of the several awards James Cameron’s Avatar won at this year’s Oscars, the award for Achievement in Art Direction. Stromberg was later noted as having given one of the most moving back stage interviews after the win, sharing his survival of a life-threatening illness thirteen years ago which gave him a new perspective on life and his work.
Many congratulations to Mr. Stromberg, whose efforts for Game of Thrones we’re all looking forward to. If you want a more recent example of his work, however, we recommend taking a look at Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, on which Stromberg was production designer, helping to bring Burton’s whimsical visions into reality.
There’s a fresh review and interview of the George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois edited anthology, Warriors (US, UK), at the Suvudu publisher site. The anthology, due March 16th, contains the third in Martin’s “Dunk and Egg” novellas set about 90 years before the events of the series. Shawn Speakman rates the novella as the best of the three, citing the story arcs for the characters and the tensions as they face their most dangerous challenge yet.
In the follow-up interview, Marti and Dozois discuss the origins of the anthology series, their efforts to include the late, great mystery writer Tony Hillerman, and GRRM’s hope to write the next Dunk & Egg novella once A Dance with Dragons is completed.
In an update we’ll get into more soon (Suvudu has delayed the opening of the “Cage Match” event), GRRM does drop a piece of information that appears to be about A Dance with Dragons: “There are fifteen others matches you can weigh in on too. Single elimination. If I was a betting man, I’d put my sheckles on Cthulhu myself, but maybe that’s just because I’ve been writing all those ironborn scenes.”
This has been the busiest week for news about HBO’s Game of Thrones since the filming of the pilot, with a host of new information. To help gather all in one place, here’s our weekend recap of all the notable tidbits:
George R.R. Martin has updated his official site’s News section regarding HBO’s Game of Thrones being green lit for a full season.
There are a couple of new, interesting details in his update: besides confirming that the plan remains for him to write one episode per season, and indicating he believes the show would air starting April or May 2011, Martin notes that a “return to Morocco is also possible, and other locations may be used as well.” It had previously been assumed that Morocco was going to be definitely be used to film the rest of the scenes on the eastern continent featuring Tamzin Merchant’s character, Daenerys Targaryen, but it appears that that assumption is wrong. The reference to “other locations” could mean that sites in Scotland such as the previously-used Doune Castle—where the fact that the site was open to the public led to certain leaks which were said to have annoyed HBO and the production team—have just as uncertain a future, doubtless for budgetary reasons.
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, the Danish actor cast as Jaime Lannister, provides some of the first actor reactions to the media following the announcement of HBO’s pick up of Game of Thrones. The two articles are in Danish, but in summary he notes that he’s to start filming somewhere around July 1st, that it seems Tom McCarthy will be reprising his directorial roll for the first episode to film (which is something we’ll look into), and that though his character is “bad guy #1” to start with, as with other HBO dramas, things are rarely so black-and-white.
Our rough translation follows:
BBC North Ireland has this report discussing HBO’s Game of Thrones, including an interview with local producer Mark Huffam (who reveals that Shane’s Castle was used in the pilot—a detail we never knew before, I believe).
One interesting detail? The Northern Ireland government provided a £1.6 million (roughly $2.4 million) incentive for the production, and promises more cash incentives for continuing production. As we have previously discussed, this would be in addition to the cut-rate price given for leasing the Paint Hall, and the tax credit that could equal as much as $6 million.
For those wondering about some of the footage shown in the video, the fantasy cottage/building featured at one point is from Your Highness, and is not something that would be used for the Game of Thrones pilot.
An article at the Irish Film & Television Network provides some great new details about Game of Thrones from HBO.
It again note the importance of Mark Huffam, a local producer, in helping to land the project in Northern Ireland. More interestingly, an approximate shooting schedule is given—June through to December, which fits pretty nicely with the rumored 30 weeks of filming a source has provided in the past—and then a list of shooting locations beside the Paint Hall.
Most of them are familiar to those who followed the production closely: Tollymore Forest Park (where the opening scene, featured in the first official publicity still, was shot) and Castle Ward (where scenes of Winterfell’s courtyard and gate appear to have been filmed). However, a new name enters the picture: Shane’s Castle in County Antrim. The castle proper has been ruined for almost 200 years, but from the description it sounds like the estate itself may be ideal for filming of exteriors in wide-open spaces.