Westeros

We’ve previously interviewed Daniel Abraham, the writer and frequent collaborator with George R.R. Martin who’s scripting Dynamite’s George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones comic, but we had to point out Comic Book Resource’s new interview. Some good stuff… and one particular bit that stood out for us, and will doubtless send fans scrambling to speculate.

The comic book adaptation of the bestselling first novel in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, A Game of Thrones, is finally hitting shelves today! Dynamite will be publishing single issues, beginning with today’s arrival of issue #1.

Featuring variant covers by Mike S. Miller (of The Hedge Knight) and the famed Alex Ross (Kingdom Come), writing by Daniel Abraham (whom we’ve interviewed about the project when it was first announced), and art by Tommy Patterson, this is the first of a planned 24 issues that would adapt the first novel. Bantam—publisher of the novels in the U.S:—will step up to publish the collected editions as they become available; we’d expect six issues per collection.

Where to find it? You have some options, thankfully! There’s always your friendly local comic shop, which you can find via the Comic Shop Locator if you’re not sure. Other than that, it may take ordering it from a comic shop online, waiting for the collection, or seeing if digital distribution (via ComiXology or Graphic.ly) will become an option, as it presently doesn’t seem to be.

For a preview, make sure to visit Dynamite’s Game of Thrones #1 page.

On this day 63 years ago, one George Martin was born in Bayonne, New Jersey—and that, I’m sure we’d all agree, was a great thing! Many felicitations and well-wishes, not just from Linda and I, but from fans around the world are going out to GRRM on this special occasion.

With Game of Thrones now having made its mark at the Emmys, with A Dance with Dragons still flying high on the bestseller lists, with “A Song of Ice and Fire” propelling Martin into rare company, with the Game of Thrones comic book from Dynamite Entertainment about to hit shelves tomorrow, and A Game of Thrones: Genesis soon to be on sale (even as an RPG is in development, too), and Martin included on the TIME 100, and his having married the love of his life, and…

Well, lets just say that George has been having a very good year, and deservedly, and we can only wish him many more!

Interest in Game of Thrones is high in Croatia, thanks to the production currently filming there, and that’s led to some interesting reports (both official, via news media, and unofficial by interested fans and maybe the occasional extra). One of the former can be seen below, a short piece depicting extras in costume as Kingslanders and gold cloaks, filming at the Minčeta Tower. Perhaps of greatest interest, however, are the two actors interviewed: Dominic Carter (mistakingly identified as ‘Jonatan Cohen’), who plays Janos Slynt, and Andrew Wilde who plays Tobho Mott.

The video, and some comments on what the actors said (since it’s over-dubbed into Croatian) below:

A press release has just gone out from Amazon.com, announcing that George R.R. Martin is the latest author to move over a million copies of his books via the Kindle Store. The release includes a quote from Martin, and notes that so far only ten other authors (including fellow HBO-adapted writer, Charlaine Harris) have earned that distinction.

You can find the relevant portion of the release below:

About a month ago, John Hodgman tweeted that it looked like he’d be filling in on The Sound of Young America radio show/podcast, and it turns out that this is the week in which the interview airs. Hodgman is a terrific interviewer, and there’s some great discussion about science fiction fandom, the fans of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, some spoilery material regarding death in the series (skip that part if you haven’t read through A Storm of Swords!), and more. The interview appears to have been recorded some time after the end of Worldcon.

Listen in to the interview!

(Thanks to Ed for pointing out that the interview has aired.)

In what has to be considered an upset, Peter Dinklage has won the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama category, beating out stiff competition from John Slattery, Walton Goggins, Andre Braugher, Alan Cumming, and Josh Charles. There was a clear trend among critics on-line liking Dinklage and often selecting him for their “should win” hedges, but still, the money was on someone else winning…

And as it turns out, the oddsmakers were wrong. A well-deserved victory for Dinklage, who brought Tyrion Lannister to vivid life. Congratulations, Peter! And congratulations to all the winners, especially Mad Men for their taking Best Drama Series—it may be a bit of a broken record, but the show’s fourth season was amazing.

Game of Thrones finishes the award season with two wins out of thirteen nominations, for Main Title Design and Best Supporting Actor. Hopefully the first of many to come! Below, we’ve collected a few photos and a brief red-carpet interview with Dinklage.

We’re just a few short hours from the start of the Emmy Awards, for which HBO’s Game of Thrones is up for four categories for the primetime broadcast: Best Writing (David Benioff & Dan Weiss for “Baelor”), Best Direction (Tim Van Patten for “Winter is Coming”), Best Supporting Actor (Peter Dinklage), and Best Series.

Now, after the Creative Arts Emmys lead to one win in nine categories, it seems unlikely that Game of Thrones is going to do very well in the primetime awards. There’s incredibly strong competition in every single category the show is nominated in. Experts and critics did seem to think there’s an outside chance at Peter Dinklage snatching victory from John Slattery (of Mad Men) for a fourth time in a row, and certainly he Dinklage seems a critical darling. But… you know, three straight losses—it’s probably Slattery’s time, isn’t it?

Now, the Red Carpet cover is going out, and as it happens, we know that a number of cast and crew members—the nominated exec producers/writers, Tim van Patten, Peter Dinklage, Kit Harington, and perhaps others—are present… and, as it happens, so is one George R. R. Martin with his wife, Parris McBride. PopSugar is streaming Emmy coverage live, so on the off-chance they’ll speak with some of the GoT attendees, we’re embedding their coverage below.

There’s a lengthy profile of Natalie Dormer, one of the first Season 2 castings we learned about when it was revealed that she was Margaery Tyrell, is profiled by Gerard Gilbet in a lengthy piece at the Independent. A lot of details about her early life and career, including how she wanted to get away from the Anne Boleyn image of The Tudors for awhile… and then some tidbits about Game of Thrones, of course.

The quotes below are spoilerish for those who’ve not read the second book, A Clash of Kings, on which this season is based:

Entertainment Weekly has published the results of its EWwy Awards!

it was a pleasant surprise to learn that Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) has won in the Best Supporting Actress, Drama category. Scoring 25.22% of the vote, she narrowly edged out Sara Ramirez of Grey’s Anatomy.

As for other Game of Thrones actors, Sean Bean was nominated in the Best Actor, Drama category, and made a solid showing at 15% of the vote, but well out of the winner’s circle, where popular actor (and Game of Thrones fanatic!) Nathan Filion crushed the competition with over 37% of the vote.

Thanks to ElaineLua for the note, and congratulations to Emilia and all the other winners!

Over the last couple of weeks, it’s been noted that actor Steven Cole—best-known in the U.K. for his role as Leo Johnsons in the soap Brookside—has been noting that he’s been taking riding lessons, had a costume fitting, and so on, and it was clear he was cast in HBO’s Game of Thrones. Today, newly arrived in Dubrovnik (during which there’ll be 4 weeks of shooting or so), he tweeted the following:

Fans of the novels will, of course, realize that that name doesn’t appear in the books. He is, it seems, a new character—or maybe a renamed one—and we know he’s playing a Dothraki, as Dothraki language creator David J. Peterson responded to a query from us, indicating that Kovarro’s name is based on rules for creating Dothraki names that he provided the production. Bryan Cogman then noted that the name means “to be standing up”. 

It should be interesting to see what his role is, when the show airs or the first interviews start coming out in the run up to the premiere.

Conan Stevens, the 7’ Australian stuntman and actor who played Ser Gregor Clegane for the Hand’s Tourney, will no longer be holding the part.

We got wind of this back in early August (as well as the name of his replacement), but waited to see if all this would be officially confirmed. The production is reticent to discuss recasting (and according to our sources, this isn’t the only recasting, although the roles in question are not major) and so HBO hasn’t provided confirmation from its side; however, Stevens has since publicly stated that he is in fact no longer with the production. Stevens has detailed the steps he took to get the role on his site (and in our interview), going all-out, and it clearly opened doors for him as he’s now busy with The Hobbit (which he specifically remarked was an opportunity that came out of Game of Thrones) and also had a speaking role in the second season of Spartacus: Gods of the Arena.

However, unofficially we can say that another 7’ tall actor and stuntman, Welshman Ian Whyte, is taking over the role. Fans who followed the early production may remember him as one of the actors who appeared to have auditioned for the role of Ser Gregor, and then nothing was heard of him. In October, when I visited the set, I learned that Whyte was playing the part of the lead White Walker in the prologue, which only came to be confirmed when that episode aired and he was listed in the credits. Since then, Whyte’s filmed scenes last week as Ser Gregor for this second season, scenes which started up the rumor mill.

Looking at Whyte, he’s very tall, but he’s also clearly a deal leaner than Stevens. Of course, Stevens as Ser Gregor had his bulk greatly enhanced by the armor—a second suit of which a stunt rider used for the jousting scene, and who could tell the difference?—and we’re sure that Simon Brindle and company will be able to give Whyte that same sense of massiveness as the Mountain that Rides.

We’re certainly looking forward to seeing Whyte’s turn… as well as seeing Stevens in next year’s Spartacus, and (especially) as the orc Azog in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit.

Below you’ll find a clip of Whyte being interviewed at Toronto’s Comic Con, in relation to his role as the lead Predator in Alien vs. Predator

In other casting news, Winter is Coming has received confirmation that Fintan McKeown has been cast in the role of Ser Amory Lorch, one of Lord Tywin’s lead foragers who helps bring fire and steel down on the Riverlands. Among many other roles, McKeown appeared as the antagonistic King Odin in the British Merlin series.

Valyrian Steel has announced that they’re putting their replica Longclaw and Needle on sale for a limited time, knocking $20 off the price. These official, approved replicas are based on the weapons as described in the novels, with George R.R. Martin’s direct input, unlike the weapons for HBO’s television show. The announcement also includes updates on a number of fronts, including the fact that George has signed off on production of a very limited run of a Damascus steel Ice, Robert’s warhammer is being prototyped, and so too is their next replica, a Night’s Watch obsidian dagger, and a Damascus steel Oathkeeper.

The PC strategy game, A Game of Thrones: Genesis, is now available for preorder at the Focus Home shop at the digital download vendor Gamesplanet, which should be available internationally. The game is due to release on September 29th (at exactly one minute after midnight), but digital download preorders are 10% off and if you’re in the States you’ll actually be able to get the game on the evening of the 28th.

I’ve consulted a little bit on the game and had a chance to play with a beta and it is, I think, a pretty unique game. It’s real time, and it’s a strategy game, but it’s not anything like a typical, resource-gathering RTS (at least, none that I’m familiar with,). If I had to compare it to anything, it’d be something like a real-time board game with abstract mechanics that open up some very different approaches to the game than your typical resource-gathering, military-focused RTS. Up to 8 players can be involved in multiplayer games, and I can just imagine a very Diplomacy-like wheeling-and-dealing, with alliances and backstabbing and all that good fun.

The single-player game itself begins with Nymeria landing in Dorne and then covers many significant events in the course of the history of the Seven Kingdoms, including the arrival of Aegon the Conqueror and the unification of the Seven Kingdoms, the Dance of the Dragons, and Robert’s Rebellion. To learn more about the game, check out the official site.

Following the news listing all five directors for this season, George R.R. Martin has followed up with a post focused on the latest director to join the directorial team, Neil Marshall. Martin is clearly a big fan of his work, calling his The Descent possibly the best horror film o the last twenty years.

But it’s not just to praise him that Martin has commented—it’s to reveal that Marshal will be directing the episode titled, “Blackwater”, written by Martin himself. Suffice it to say, this is a big, pivotal effort, and a director of Marshall’s experience may just be the thing to bring it to the screen.

In an unrelated note, after digging around a little, we’ve learned that director Alan Taylor (who directed the well-received final two episodes of the first season) is still set to direct four episodes. With Marshall taking episode nine, that leaves five episodes for three directors.