Westeros
The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain
News
We’ve added a link to a new interview at the So Spake Martin collection, this one by Catalan blog Adria’s News. It’s an excellent interview with GRRM, covering a wide range of topics connected both to the books and the TV series, with a lot of questions and answers one doesn’t often see in more run-of-the-maill interviews. It’s a good read, though I’ll note there’s some small grammatical errors in the course of transcription (pretty sure GRRM repeated his old remark that trying to please everyone, rather than “anyone”, to give an obvious example).
There are spoilers, but they are hidden behind spoiler protection.
Some good interviews have appeared in the last week related to Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones (of which the Collector’s Edition, with the storyboard book, can now be ordered via Amazon US and Amazon UK) , which provide insight not only into the book, but perhaps a bit of insight into the third season of the series.
World Fantasy Award, Chesley Award, Locus Award, and now (finally) Hugo Award-winning artist John Picacio has set up an online shop to sell prints of his work. There’s a nice range of prints, but of particular interest to fans of George R.R. Martin’s are his 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar artwork. Prints are limited to 100 for each image, and come signed by the artist.
There’s a mass of beautiful work to consider, so do give it a look.
Over at Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin has posted about the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which helps comic book artists, retailers, and more in defending against attempts to restrain their rights to free speech. It’s a good cause, as he writes:
The CBLDF is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the rights of free speech and free expression in comics books, graphic novels, and related fields. My own roots as a “funny book” fan go all the way back to the letters of comment I published in FANTASTIC FOUR, AVENGERS, and other Marvel comics back in the early 60s. I also attended the very first comicon, and won my first writing prize for an amateur prose superhero yarn (an Alley Award, which I never received, sob), so comics are a medium dear to my heart… as anyone who has ever read my own long-running WILD CARDS series of mosaic novels surely knows.
And in support of it, he’s donated 100 signed hardcovers of Inside Straight, the first in the “new generation” Wild Cards series of superhero fiction, to the CBLDF. Signatures come from all contributors (including GRRM), excepting the “elusive” S.L. Farrell. It’s a worthy cause, and a good read to boot.
Here’s an interesting photo gallery: stills from the second season taken by Paul Schiraldi, one of the on-set photographers for Game of Thrones (and a number of other HBO shows, past and present, by the looks of it).
Among the many stills never seen before? This one, taking during a scene that was cut, featuring the murder (by strangling) of Irri. It was something left vaguely mysterious and unclear, though by the final episode the implication was clear enough—but now we can see just how the first thought of staging the scene.
(Thanks to Kissed by Fire for pointing it out.)
MTV reporter Kara Warner had a chance to talk with George R.R. Martin and Richard Madden during the Emmys, and she received some choice quotes from both. Visit the site to read the transcript of the remarks, and see the video interviews below. Beware, spoilerish material below, though somewhat obfuscated!
The Making Game of Thrones production blog has a great interview with Will Simpson, storyboard artist for the series. Simspon’s worked in comics over the years (I just realized he drew some Hellblazer arcs written by Garth Ennis!) and has largely shifted into storyboard and animation work. Some of his storyboard work is featured in Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones, the production companion book that HBO has recently released.
The interview also refers to a book containing Simpson’s storyboards… and that, too, has recently been revealed as part of a special collector’s edition (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK), paired with Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones, two maps, and a presentation box. The portfolio sounded as if it wasn’t all that many pages… but reading the details more closely, it suggests the book is just as large as Inside…, which would be quite a lot of storyboards indeed!
Filming for season 3 of Game of Thrones has begun in Dubrovnik, and as usual with filming there, the local press gets quite a lot of scoops—it’s hard to hide what you’re doing in a small, busy city filled with historic sites. The Dubrovnik Times already reported on early filming involving boats and a special (expensive) camera rig for shots on the water.
More notably, however, have been our very first glimpses (English article hereof the lead actors in costume, as Aidan Gillen, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Jerome Flynn, and Daniel Portman were led through the streets and up hills to a filming location. Of particular note in the article’s accompanying photo gallery? Aidan Gillen’s costume looks much the same… but Peter Dinklage is sporting a prosthetic scar, and Lena Headey has a brand new dress (gorgeous fabrics) which may reflect Michelle Clapton’s remark in Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones that there’s a new trend-setter at court now in the form of Margaery Tyrell; the scoop top of the gown certainly reminds one of the more extreme dress last season.
This past weekend was Titancon in Belfast, and according to all reports, it was a smashing success. A few of the guests from the first Titancon made an appearance again…. and a few new ones appeared. Among them? Ian McElhinney, Ser Barristan the Bold himself, who revealed that he is indeed getting ready to film for season 3.
Thanks to Ian and his nephew Manfonse, we have three signed photos from Ian to give away, and we decided to try a new contest format: fan art. The contest will run for 7 days (why 7? Do you need to ask?), and we’ll announce winners shortly afterward. So, to be clear, last entrys will be at 11:59PM, October 2nd—anything coming after will be disregarded, alas. Winners will be contacted for mailing information and (hopefully) personalization requests
At last, Chronicle Books and HBO have published Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones (order: Amazon US, Amazon UK). We’ve had a chance to give it a look at it early, and give some thoughts on it.
The short version for those who’d rather: beautiful and informative, with interesting tidbits… but there’s too much already-seen photography and too little concept art, plus space constraints mean it often only scratches the surface. Variety rather than depth seems have been the aim.
A new and somewhat mysterious entry at the Making Game of Thrones production blog, as we get a random sampling of quotes overheard on the set. Doubtless as consolation for Game of Thrones scoring nil at the Prime Time Emmys (though, with 6 Creative Arts Awards, it turned out to be the drama with the most individual awards by the end of the show), but there’s some interesting bits.
The muddy sinkhole would almost surely be the quagmire that is the Maghermorne Quarry where scenes for Castle Black (and some other things) have been shot. And the cave built inside Paint Hall… well, there’s a couple of things that could be, if they’re sticking to the books. I’ll leave that up to you, though!
This is quite cool.
The HBO Store (in the US) has a special set of Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK) with bookplates signed by story editor, writer, and all-around good guy Bryan Cogman…
...plus some very special additional goodies: two of HBO’s maps (there’s a map I saw them making when I visited the production office that I’m still hoping to see published some day, but these are pretty good—if not accurate to what the official Lands of Ice and Fire map set (Pre-order: Amazon US, Amazon UK) will be revealing), and perhaps much more interestingly, a portfolio featuring never-before-published storyboards from storyboard and concept artist Will Simpson. Simpson’ll be at Titancon in Belfast tomorrow, so maybe there’ll be some questions about the storyboards that will be in the portfolio.
Jace Lacob at the Daily Beast has a fun article with quotes from numerous comedy show writers (including writers and producers from Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, and The Mindy Project
Game of Thrones took over some of their writers’ rooms.
Here’s a brief excerpt:
While he sets the dragons to dancing and stokes the winds of winter (and gets ready to sit in the audience at the Emmys), it should be noted that today is George R.R. Martin‘s nameday
birthday. He’s a jolly good fellow, and may he have many more! And what better way to celebrate a birthday, than with a song? Shared by Gigamesh, the Spanish publishers of A Song of Ice and Fire, is this terrific Spanish-language version of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”, titled “El Oso y la Doncella”
May there be many more songs to come!
Amin, Mimi, and Ashley of the Podcast of Ice and Fire have once again been kind enough to invite Linda and I back to talk shop with them. Not only do we join them in discussing a particularly interesting Tyrion chapter from A Clash of Kings, but we also chat about Game of Thrones, the fandom, The World of Ice and Fire, the climate of Essos, and quite a lot more.
(Note: There are spoilers discussing all novels in the series, and occasionally adult language and topics are mentioned, so… maybe not for the workplace.)