Westeros

NY Mag’s Vulture website has a “Number 1: Game of Thrones (and A Song of Ice and Fire) fans!

Is it true? I can’t speak for all the other very worthy fandoms, but ASoIaF certainly has a terrific fanbase. There’s shout-outs to Westeros.org, the Brotherhwood without Banners, Winter is Coming, and more—they’ve done their research, to say the least.

(Thanks to levifilm for pointing this list out!)

While exterior filming in Belfast seems largely to be wrapping up—though a major event isn’t quite done filming, suggesting that what remains is interior shooting—filming has begun in Essaouira, Morocco where a significant part of Daenerys Targaryen’s story for the third season will be take place. Essaouira will stand in for the region of Essos known as Slaver’s Bay.

And, just like Dubrovnik, the fact that they’re filming in a city means that photographs of sets, props, and actors are starting to crop up. What follows are definitely a bit spoilerish, so be aware of that:

Charlie Jane Anders over at io9 contacted me the other day to ask some questions related to a piece she was working on related to Game of Thrones. Namely, she was curious as to what storylines I thought were likeliest to disappear from the third season of Game of Thrones which, in good part, will be adapting the third novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Storm of Swords. I shared some speculation with her (and, to emphasize, it’s just speculation, based on various remarks and reports published over the last months) and the article including some of those speculations, as well as her own, can now be found over at io9. It’s a spoilery article, by its very nature

A couple of clarifications, based on remarks I’ve seen since. Spoilers below:

Courtesy of Bantam, we have a very first glimpse of The Lands of Ice and Fire, a collection of poster maps that we know many fans are anticipating.

The posters are due October 30th in the US (Amazon US)  and November 8th in the UK (Amazon UK).

With art by freelance cartographer Jonathan Roberts, this map collection doesn’t just feature places we have all seen mapped before, though for our first (yes, first) preview we figured a familiar image was the best start. These poster maps also include the first, almost-complete series of maps featuring the eastern continent of Essos, maps of Braavos and King’s Landing, a map focused on the Wall, and more.

We’ve placed that new image as our Twitter cover image, for everyone to see when they wander by, but a higher resolution version can be found in our Gallery.

Keep an eye out next Tuesday when we release another snippet of the map, this one featuring something quite new…

So, Extras NI—the main casting agency for extras for the production—just put out this urgent call:

At the end of last week, the Game of Thrones production wrapped up its time in Dubrovnik, but the media there got quite a lot of video and pictures which may be of interest.  Here’s a sampling:

The video below is particularly interesting because we glimpse a scene being shot, featuring Sibel Kekilli, Sophie Turner, Aidan Gillen, and Esme Bianco, which we think must be a scene from episode 1 given an interview with David and Dan that seems to be done the same day.

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:

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