Sean Bean‘s starring in Black Death, a medieval action/horror film which opens late next month. The trailer’s just been released, and one notices that Bean probably looks pretty close to how he’ll look as Eddard Stark, beard and all:
Thanks, once again, to raijap for retweeting this one.
Since the Dothraki news, new items on HBO’s Game of Thrones has been fairly thin on the ground, but here’s a small handful of tidbits for those interested: raijap on Twitter has pointed out that Birds & Animals UK, an animal handling and training service for film and television, lists the series in its credits. They may well be the source of the direwolf pups used in the shoot.
The_Rabbit kept up his busy searches and came across items listing Coral Messam and Kemi Durosinmi among dancers who apparently performed in Game of Thrones. They would have been among the wedding dancers in the Morocco shooting, and seem to be visible in the photos GRRM has shared which we linked previously when we rabbit pointed out a third dancer earlier in the month. A fourth, Kharis George, can be found here, via Winter Is Coming, who notes the Casting Call Pro site lists a number of extras who list their credits as evocatively as “Free Rider” and “Buxom Serving Wench”.
Another extra, David Blair, can be found here as being listed as a “Squire” in Game of Thrones; thanks to Phoenix Torn and Ninepenny at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum for pointing him out. And raijap finds yet another, pointing out a young actress by the name of Laura C. Knowles who’s first professional acting job was on the pilot. Whether she was an extra, or a named extra (Jeyne Poole seems likely, in that case), is a question; so too whether she’ll continue on in the series.
So, dancers and extras and animals is all we have right now. We’re still digging as to whether there’s more to be discovered yet, such as progress on casting.
Kit Harington, the actor cast as Jon Snow in HBO’s Game of Thrones, is presently playing in Posh, staged by the Royal Court Theatre in London from April 9th to May 22nd. The Royal Court Theatre has release a photo of the young actor in his role as Ed Montgomery. Two more photos, out of costume, can be found here and here.
A notable feature? His long hair, longer than at the Eason’s Signing (see last photo). According to those present, Harington said he wore a wig for filming but if the series recieved the greenlight he’d grow out his hair, and that does seem to be what he’s doing.
For those in the London-area who might want to see the play and report on Harington’s performance, there’s a review with some commentary.
Thanks to The_Rabbit01 for the tip.
At the premiere for his latest film, Peter Dinklage was sporting longer, blonder hair than is his usual wont. Now, we’ll note that he just wrapped filming in New Orleans on Earthbound with Kate Hudson, so the styling may be for that; or, just as easily, it’s his personal choice and has nothing to do with Game of Thrones (I’m told that highlighting your hair months out from a shoot is probably not the most effective approach).
But ... it’s interesting to speculate, because when we saw it, what immediately leapt to mind is the description of Tyrion’s beard as a mix of pale and dark hairs. While in the novel, the hair of his head is supposed to be a platinum blond, might the production find it easier to take Tyrion’s beard for the whole, and mix blonde highlights with Dinklage’s darker natural hair?
Thanks to trio at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum for the tip!
This Is Local London, a conglomerate of local newspapers, has posted a brief article concerning a 26-year-old dancer, Kelechi Nwanokwu, who appears in HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones. It seems likely she is one of a number of dancers who performed in the Dothraki wedding scene, a scene we’re guessing was choreographed by Javier de Frutos. A picture of Ms. Nwanokwu and other dancers can be found at GRRM’s “Not a Blog”, when he posted about the wrap party in Ouarzazate, Morocco.
GRRM has shared a great pair of photos showing Maisie Williams—cast as Arya Stark—posing with Valyrian Steel‘s replica of Arya’s sword, Needle. She looks very Arya-like, if we may say so! Valyrian Steel has two additional photos on their site
GRRM also confirms that filming commences in June in Northern Ireland. Not all actors may be in the area at that time, however, as Jason Momoa and Nikolai Coster-Waldau have both indicated they’re scheduled to start in early July.
Harry Lloyd is once again loquacious about his work in an interview in Re-Bel on pages 7 and 8. At the bottom of page 7, he directly discusses his role in the Game of Thrones pilot, and the following question discusses the possibility that being involved in such a major, American production could open doors to Hollywood. Nothing really new here, but it’s good to see actors involved in the show taking time to make sure people are aware of it.
Thanks to firestar267 for the tip!
While this may be old news for some, we haven’t reported it up until now because we’ve had no official confirmation of any kind regarding it. We had contacted HBO about this immediately after the rumors based on Showfax’s new casting sides (pages of dialogue for use in auditions) had gone up. From our discussion with HBO, all we can say is that officially, HBO’s policy is to never discuss recasting or even rumors of recasting, and they’re unable to offer any information either confirming or denying recasting.
However, as we saw on Twitter, more than one actress has allegedly confirmed via Twitter that they are pursuing the role of Daenerys. So, we’ll take this as its being highly likely that casting is taking place for the role. However, we caution that we know nothing yet as to the reasons or the end results. Having read around a bit, there are possibilities that suggest that Tamzin Merchant remains the primary choice for the role, but additional casting is taking place as insurance against her departure for reasons unknown. While we agree that the likeliest supposition is that Merchant is no longer in the role, we’ll caution against taking this as an absolute certainty.
But if Merchant is out of the role, what does this mean? Well, it seems they’ll be forced to go back to Morocco—or build fresh sets in Belfast to represent it—to reshoot all the scenes there. As some may recall, GRRM indicated that a return to Morocco was a possibility but not a certainty. Starting the renewed production with major reshoots—on top of any new reshoots needed now that Michelle Fairley is in the role of Catelyn Stark—is not the greatest way to start a production, and may lead to a tight shooting schedule to begin with, but should be entirely manageable. Recasting is more the rule than the exception when it comes to pilots, and consequent reshooting goes hand in hand with that.
We’ll provide more information when we can.
Via her blog, visual effects producer Julia Frey has indicated that her professional involvement in HBO’s Game of Thrones has ended. As she notes, chances of her being involved for a full season were slim, so this was no surprise for her, though of course many fans assumed she’d be part a continuing part of the series. Having first come to our attention back in October, Frey has proved very approachable via Twitter and was among the members of the project who joined fans for drinks at McHugh’s in Belfast (where she revealed an impressive poker face).
Where does this leave Game of Thrones? Our guess that the almost exclusively U.K.-based shooting will lead to much of the permanent crew being from the region. If we had to speculate, visual effects supervisor Robert Stromberg is also unlikely to return, given his recent successes (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland) which likely leave him much in demand for other big-budget film work.
Besides Twitter, those who’d like to continue following Julia Frey’s doings are recommended to follow her blog, and also her separate blogging site, Safety Graphic Fun, devoted to weird and amusing safety signs from around the world. Best wishes, Julia.
The new WWII Drama Age of Heroes has cast its leads, and Sean Bean is among them, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Filming is due to take place beginning in early April. If a success, the film could lead to two planned sequels to make a trilogy.
In related news, Death Race 2—in which Bean was cast as the primary antagonist at the beginning of March—has already wrapped shooting and is aiming for a June release. Given the quick turn around on smaller productions such as these, we’ll suppose that Age of Heroes won’t film for more than a month or two, and so will not conflict with Game of Thrones
George R.R. Martin has confirmed that he’ll be writing episode 8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones. This means that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will write episodes 1 (the pilot) through 3, episode 5 and 7, and then the final two episodes. Bryan Cogman will write episode 4 and Jane Espenson will write episode 6, as we’ve previously reported.
Variety reports that Gemma Jackson, an award-winning production designer, is returning to resume those duties on HBO’s Game of Thrones after having done so for the pilot. It seems that her contract with the production did not, strictly speaking, lock the production or Jackson to signing on for the series but now it’s moot, as she’s signed on.
Her previous credits include HBO’s magesterial John Adams (for which she won an Emmy). She appears in is “Making Of” video at the 1:40 mark, discussing the gigantic set and how it was reused to represent several different cities:
(Watch past that mark to see Gemma Jackson later on, when the sets and locations are discussed, and to see Robert Stromberg—visual effect supervisor for Game of Thrones—showing some of what can be done with digital mattes.)
We’ve sprinted about the ‘net to try and learn more about Michelle Fairley, the actress now cast in the role of Catelyn Stark following Jennifer Ehle’s departure. From what we can find, Fairley is a very private person and maintain a low media profile, as noted in this Belfast Telegraph chat.
The Hollywood Reporter notes some very big news, and probably one of the bad pieces of news that GRRM has recently alludedto : Jennifer Ehle is out of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Replacing her is Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley, who played Hermione Granger’s mother in the Harry Potter films.
Update: The Live Feed provides a little more information, stating that the source for this news revealed that Ehle’s departure is a behind-the-scenes issue, and not at all performance-related, apparently to knock down “blogosphere” rumors that claimed that HBO was not entirely happy with the pilot to begin with.
According to Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Thrones), he’s also part of the new Jane Eyre film going into production next week in the U.K., joining Tamzin Merchant. At the 1:26.20 mark of this BBC Radio 1 interview with fellow cast members from “The Little Dog Laughed”, he states he has a small part and that he just came off the read-through for the script.
Thanks to shelikeswaves on Twitter for the heads-up!