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The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain
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Posting this later than originally intended, but Midsummer and Euro 2012 suggest that it’s in fact a fine time to share a rather long (and rambling, in some cases—future videos will try and be a bit more organized!) video discussing the Kingsguard knights in the reign of Aerys II Targaryen, also known as the Mad King. This and many other videos can be found at our Youtube channel!
Note that if you’ve not read the books, there are spoilers—namely concerning the third novel, A Storm of Swords, but also touching on A Dance with Dragons.
As we reported last week, we now know that director David Nutter is set to direct the final two episodes of season 3 with the help of cinematographer Robert McLachlan. The article in which this news was revealed indicated that Morocco was going to be a filming location for the third season. We cast some doubts on it, but couldn’t rule it out…
But now this lengthy piece about McLachlan and his involvement in the series goes a step further and provides us a direct quote:
So, there you go. Season 3 seems set to use Morocco for exterior locations, and perhaps some interiors as well, according to McLachlan. That’s almost certainly all for Daenerys’s storyline in that season and, presumably, the prospective season 4. As to no Iceland in those last two episodes, this tells us that they’ll be done using Iceland before that once things have shifted back to the area around the Wall.
Read the whole article while you’re at it, as it discusses the scope of the production and many other aspects of the film and television industry.
No, no, not any more of that Bush beheading business. This is much funnier: political attack ads from the Seven Kingdoms, courtesy of Mother Jones. Funny stuff!
We heard this news first awhile ago from Eastercon, but now Gollancz has sent out a press release describing their plan to republish the first three Wild Cards books in the UK, as well as the five “new generation” novels. Wild Cards is the longest-running shared world book, featuring more realistic, grounded depictions of heroes within a single continuity. It’s something of an alternate history of the world, if a virus that wiped out tens of thousands, left many thousands more as “jokers” with useless powers and/or terrible deformations, and left a few (a lucky few) with superhuman abilities right after the end of WWII. Wild Cards, the first novel, was recently re-released with a couple of new stories added in, and it’s definitely well worth the read.
Here’s the press release:
Via HBO, we’ve learned that there’ll be a Game of Thrones panel this year at San Diego Comic-Con International, just like last year… but unlike last year, it’ll be in the huge Hall H which has a capacity of some 6,500. As James Hibberd notes, Hall H has generally been reserved for big movies or huge TV shows (ala Lost), so the presence of Game of Thrones as one of three TV shows featured in Hall H this year (Fringe and The Big Bang Theory are the other two) shows that the organizers believe that the show has a great deal of interest (as it does). Even True Blood doesn’t get that level of interest from SDCC—it’s in the spacious-but-no-as-large Ballroom 20.
The panel is scheduled for July 13th, the second day of the convention. No details yet on who’ll be part of the panel, other than a remark from GRRM that he’s adjusting his schedule to be able to make an appearance at HBO’s request. We expect we’ll be hearing more details soon.
June 26th will see the release of Beyond the Wall: Exploring George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Pre-order: US, UK), a collection of essays from a wide range of writers (including Linda and I!) on all sorts of aspects of the series.
Some really great essays from Alyssa Rosenberg, Gary Westfahl, Jesse Scoble, Adam Whitehead, Myke Cole, and more, and there’s also a foreword from R.A. Salvatore.
The first couple of paragraphs from all the contributors essays are available at the official site for the book. If you want more of an excerpt, a free PDF excerpt will be made available if you sign up for the Smart Pop Newsletter via the above site. The editor, James Lowder, also has an read on >>
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The very popular SF/F web video series, Sword and Laser, will have a kind of “A Song of Ice and Fire” double-header this Friday. They’ll be talking to Professor Henry O. Jacoby, editor of Game of Thrones and Philosophy (Order: US Paperback, US Kindle, UK) . And then, of course, they’ll also be speaking with George R.R. Martin about the Game of Thrones, “A Song of Ice and Fire”, and more.
You can find the episode some time this Friday, posted at the official Sword and Laser site, as well as Sword and Laser‘s page at Geek and Sundry or the Sword and Laser Youtube Channel. Note that presently they feature an interview and extended interview with James S.A. Corey—aka Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck (who may be better known to fans as George R.R. Martin’s assistant)—regarding his/their book, Leviathan Wakes.
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Although the number of “A Song of Ice and Fire” and Game of Thrones-related songs and videos have increased ten fold over the last year, we haven’t had too much time to share any of them… but this one, sent our way by Adam Whitehead, caught our attention. Based on Wiz Khalifa’s hit “Black and Yellow”, this one rather amusingly spins it as a song about the Baratheon brothers. It’s charming and, hey, lots of references to details in the books (“Lightbringer!” “Rainbow Guard!):
Good fun!
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We’ve just learned that A Dance with Dragons—the fifth novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series—has been announced as the winner of the 2012 Locus Award for Best Novel. Presented each year, the Locus Awards are administered by Locus Magazine, the foremost SF/F publishing trade magazine. The yearly Locus Poll—open to everyone, although submissions by current subscribers are weighted—has been very kind to the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, with every novel taking first place with the exception of A Feast for Crows (which was #2 in the poll, just behind that year’s winner, Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys).
Congratulations to GRRM and, indeed, all the winners of this year’s Locus Awards! For those who are curious, China Mieville’s Embassytown took Best SF Novel, while Catherine Valente scored wins in three separate categories (YA, novelette, and novella). The full list of finalists can be found at here, while we’ll update when the official and complete results are available online.
UPDATE: The full list of winners and finalists can be found here.
... sort of.
Following up the late evening mea culpa over a shockingly controversial non-story that took the entirety of three months to crack wide open (it’s hard being a journalist, you know, when you’ve got to make the stories yourself), HBO seems to have decided to go even further: according to the AV Club, HBO is apparently having the head removed or replaced on the DVD and Bluray ... but they’re also pulling the episode from HBO On Demand, HBO Go, and even iTunes. So, yeah, it’s going to be really hard to find it soon enough.
But, you know? That also means that the unadulterated, as-meant-to-be-aired final episode will never be seen again on HBO. That includes future Blurays and DVDs…. but there’s still the current run available at fine retailers the world over. Best get these before they go the way of the original Star Wars trilogy. You can order them at Amazon.com while supplies last: US DVD, US Bluray, UK DVD, and UK Bluray.
We’ve now posted our even-longer second half of our overview of Game of Thrones, sharing our views on what we liked, what we disliked, and our hopes for the next season or two. You can find it over at the Features page or, alternatively, view it (and many other videos besides) at our Youtube channel.
A sudden and perhaps not unexpected flurry of media interest in a passing DVD commentary remark made by executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss—that’d be for the Bluray and DVD released back in March—has led to a response from both HBO and Benioff & Weiss.
We’ve been posting various video reviews of the series (plus other, A Song of Ice and Fire-related stuff) this year, and now that season 2 is done, Linda and I decided to look back over the season, perhaps re-evaluating some of our early thoughts, and basically explaining in more detail our views on it, pointing out the bits we loved and (sadly) the bits we didn’t. There’s more, including some thoughts regarding the structure of the series, appreciation for some of the tremendous acting and directing, and our hopes for the next season.
It turned out quite long, so we’ve recorded it in two parts. Second part should be up tomorrow or Friday.
You can watch the video at our Feature page, or go directly to our channel. Enjoy!
A little bit of season 3 news is dribbling out in fits and starts, and this time we’ve a bit of news regarding directors for season 3. Contrary to an earlier interview, director and co-executive producer Alan Taylor—who directed “The Prince of Winterfell” and “Valar Morghulis” this season—will not be returning to direct for season 3.
Before “Valar Morghulis” aired, I had the chance to interview Alfie Allen about his role as Theon Greyjoy, his character’s arc, the pranks that a certain pair of executive producers love to pull, and more.
Alfie’s story this season has been one of the highlihghts of season 2, something which I told him and which, as you’ll see, he was quite pleased to hear!