Westeros

It looks like SciFi Now managed a brief interview with editor and writer Bryan Cogman about the third season while it was still filming. He notes he had just watched the filming of one of the “iconic sword fights” in the series, and comments that he knows a few things about the overall story, and suspects David Benioff and Dan Weiss know a bit more.

A very interesting report has come by way of EW’s James Hibberd, revealing that while season 3 is still just 10 episodes—compared to the 12 episodes the other big HBO drama, Boardwalk Empire, gets—these episodes will often run 4-5 minutes longer than they did in the previous season, squeezing in just a bit more content per episode. If the season averages out to 57 minutes an episode, that would practically be equivalent to an 11 episode season at season 2’s run time.

And on top of that, it looks like the season finale is going to run 60 minutes, or perhaps even just beyond that, something that the executive producers Benioff and Weiss note requires special permission from HBO due to scheduling.

Here’s the relevant quotes:

An interesting new post on the Making Game of Thrones production blog, discussing in detail the techniques used to create a fiery sword that will feature prominently in a scene in the third season. The details are mildly spoilerish, so I’d suggest not going there if you really want to have no idea whatsoever as to why a sword might be on fire in season 3. It’s pretty interesting reading, in any case, if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty of production special effects techniques.

New cast member Iwan Rheon, whose casting confirmation we reported on awhile back, and whose role (“BOY”) has been the subject of a lot of well-founded speculation, was interviewed by the always-excellent Red Carpet News regarding his experience filming on the show and just who he worked with.

(Watch the interviewer rather cheekily taking a stab at Rheon’s character’s identity with his opening question):

(Thanks to CoolOff on the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum for bringing the interview to our attention.)

GQ.com has declared “Blackwater”—the George R.R. Martin-pennied, Neil Marshall-directed penultimate episode of season 2—the “Year’s Best Television Episode”.

It’s hard to make an argument against that (though Matt Weiner and Vince Gilligan can surely make them), but the honor does come with a very nice “oral history” of the episode, from its conception to completion, as told by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, as well as GRRM and Marshall. Some interesting details along the way, and it’s well worth reading.

However, we can say that one detail in the article seems to be an error—or, at least, was not sourced from the participants. Writer Brian Rafferty writes toward the end that “Martin is halfway” through the sixth novel. We contacted Martin’s office about this detail, to verify it, and have been informed that GRRM made no such statement. It may have been a misunderstanding or a mistaken assumption, but in any case, GRRM has not stated that he is “halfway” done with The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series.

A brief but interesting update from the Making Game of Thrones production blog, discussing the fact that the introduction of Mance Rayder—played by Ciáran Hinds—was also Hind’s very first day of work, which was unusual. Daniel Minahan returns after his season 2 hiatus, as well, directing the first two epiodes of the season.

And, as a passing note, this confirms the return of Edward Dogliani as Rattleshirt, something which we didn’t really doubt, but hadn’t heard anything specific regarding it.

According to a report from Icelandic news site Visir, it looks like Game of Thrones filming will wrap on the 24th or 25th. That’ll be 138 or 139 days—four and a half months—since production started. And much of it at a dead run, with at least two units, and sometimes three, working in four different locations across that time span.

So, the last few days of the production are happening right now. And according to Cat Talor, today’s a “BIG day”. Hrm… !

And here it is, folks, short but sweet:

Is it what you expected?

Although we’ve known that Game of Thrones season 3 will be premiering on March 31st since Comic-con, it looks like HBO has decided we all need a reminder. It’s plain and to the point:

So, mark your 2013 Calendar, folks: March 31st, 2013, you’ll want to be in front of the TV (or your mobile device if you have HBO Go).