Westeros

We expect yet more to trickle out today, but here’s a few more write-ups from journalists who were at the Winter TCA:

A lot happened today that should be of interest to any expectant Game of Thrones fanatic, and we’re going to try and recap all the highlights for you, culled from Twitter. Many, many thanks to the journalists, bloggers, and other media types who made this possible with their tweets. There was something of a carnival atmosphere which made everything that much more exciting:

Via James Hibberd, we now have a firm date on the premiere for Game of Thrones: April 17th! We knew it was going to be April, we knew it was going Sunday ... but now we know just what day in April it is.

If my math’s right, that means ... 100 days to go. Mark your calendars!

Tor.com is running a poll of its members, asking them to nominate works as being among the best science fiction and fantasy novels of the past decade (well, 2000 to 2010, but they make the rules!) Hundreds have already contributed, and more contributions would be welcome!

It goes without saying that A Storm of Swords is doing quite well in the polling and a very quick glance suggests it’s certainly in the top 10, and perhaps the top 5, so far.

We’ve been waiting quite eagerly to hear more about the 15 minute extended trailer, which we reported on last night. Now there’s not just one, but two quite detailed reports. Naturally, the first came from Winter is Coming, and includes commentary from Fire and Blood. Some interesting details in there, from the minor things—the change to the maester’s chain from a close-fitting collar to a long, broad loop (I’ve known about this since my visit to the Castle Black set, as Peter Vaughan [Maester Aemon] was wearing in the scene I witnessed filming)—to more substantial matter such as several brand-new scenes.

And now from critic (and fellow ASoIaF-enthusiast) Maureen Ryan has posted a thorough recap, breaking it down into general categories and going some of her likes and dislikes. For ourselves, the most notable bit was that Mo’s initial concerns about what she saw with the eastern scenes seem to have been assuaged a fair bit by Emilia Clarke, Harry Lloyd, and company. Excellent to hear! We expect to be hearing from quite a few more critics today, as there’s to be additional screenings.

Once all the madness is over, perhaps we’ll discuss some of the little details that have been changed in relation to the books, based on all these various reports, from the maester’s chain of office to the stained glass in the throne room and even the eyeliner that graces Khal Drogo. If anyone has any additional questions about some of these details, feel free to comment and I’ll see if I can address them in relation to the text.

At the Winter TCA tour, HBO has now screened the 15 minute extended trailer of Game of Thrones for journalists in the run-up to Friday’s thirty-minute presentation and various interviews with GRRM, the executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and actors Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, and Emilia Clarke. Thanks to WiCnet, who’s fortunate enough to be on the scene, here’s a quick preliminary run-down of the scenes shown, in the order that they were shown:

Looks like Canal+ Sweden is aiming for a Spring 2011 air date for Game of Thrones, according to their article covering the show. Headlined, “The most longed-for TV series ever” and claiming that “Not since The Lord of the Rings has there been so much interest in a book adaptation”, they go to discuss the massive fan following, the blogs and forums, and the like. We hope to eventually get a hold of a more precise air date.

At Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin explains his long silence over this holiday season having been due to an acute infection from E. coli. This led to an extended hospital stay from Christmas morning to just about New Year’s Eve, but antibiotics and other treatment have helped beat the illness. He is still recovering, and remains somewhat tired, but he confirms that he will follow through on his commitment to appear at the media-only TCA event this Friday, and will carry out his signing at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena on Sunday (he does ask fans who attend to go easy on him, however, and only bring a book or two for him to sign).

He also indicates that one of the announcements he hoped to make won’t be happening due to this, but he hopes to be fully recovered by the end of the month, and back to work before that. This does suggest he had hoped to spend the holidays finishing up A Dance with Dragons, but it appears he’ll need to get his health back on track.

Our best wishes to him as he recovers!

Over on Twitter, Sky Atlantic’s has confirmed that Game of Thrones will begin airing in the UK in April—the very same month it premires in the U.S. While it’s too much to hope that they’ll air the exact same day, we expect, it seems certain that it won’t be delayed more than a week or perhaps two.

Sky Atlantic will begin airing February 1st, and will be available to all current Sky customer free of charge through August 31st. After that time, it will remain available to customers who have subscribed to the Variety Pack. There’s also a Sky HD package upgrade which will provide Sky Atlantic in HD for those who subscribe to it.

The New York Times seems to show that fans have been ringing in the New Year with a healthy dose of A Game of Thrones. Their January 2nd list of mass market paperbacks shows George R.R. Martin’s novel—first published in that format in 1996—has entered the list at 25, while their following list places it up a spot to 24.

This resurgence of the series can be put down to the burgeoning awareness thanks to Game of Thrones, the HBO series, and fits the anecdotal evidence we’ve seen via Twitter, with every day seemingly bringing more people reading and tweeting about the series. We expect that Bantam’s planned reissue of the first novel with a cover featuring imagery from the series will likely land even higher as we get closer to the April premiere of the much-anticipated fantasy TV series.

A visit to the US Patent and Trademarks Office website has led to an interesting discovery: HBO has trademarked three new categories of Game of Thrones related products. We’ll discuss the three new categories, and what implications these new trademarks might have. Our first trademark story can be found here, from just over a year ago.

The holidays have eaten a lot of our spare time, and are set to eat a bit more for a couple of days yet, but I’ve sat down to get the latest Artisans video screencapped. There’s a focus on the armor, of course, but we do pick out one or two new pieces of heraldry among the banners on display on the Hand’s tourney, plus some thoughts on this and that.

The first screencap begins here, while you can get the gallery view of the Behind the Scenes gallery here.

The Malmö branch of SF Bokhandeln—Sweden’s (and perhaps Scandinavia’s) best SF/F bookstore—has a web poll up wondering what genre shows their visitors are most looking forward to. It’s just started, but HBO’s Game of Thrones has a comfortable lead… and for some reason we expect that lead to grow over time. ;)

While Canal+ in Sweden has not yet set a firm date for airing, we’ve heard that Canal+ in Finland has stated that they’re aiming for August 2011, and we wouldn’t be surprised in Canal+ Sweden ended up settling on the same date.

As we approach the New Year, quite a few TV-focused sites are releasing lists, either looking back at the year that was or the year that will be. Here’s three who make special mention of Game of Thrones:

TV.com looks back to the highpoints of 2010. In their 100 item list, their announcement of Game of Thrones rates #42, and they promise that they’ve, “already reserved a Top 5 spot for it on next year’s Top 100 list.”

Over at TV Squad, we have TV critic and ASoIaF-fan Maureen Ryan places Game of Thrones as the first item on the staff’s list of next year’s anticipated TV programs.

Via WiCnet, IMDB‘s editors also list the series as one of the things they’re excited for in 2011.

James Poniewozik, TV critic for TIME, joins fellow critic Ryan in listing Game of Thrones as his most anticipated show of 2011.

The Guardian chimes in, mentioning the show as one example of 2011’s “unmissable” television programs and noting the positive vibe from U.S. critics.

Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Feinberg included the show on Hitfix.com’s 2011 Gallery, while Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker lists the show as his most anticipated new show of 2011.

Spotted any other top lists for 2010 or 2011 that feature HBO’s Game of Thrones? Feel free to note it in a comment!

Via Bleeding Cool, we’ve learned of a video interview with Natalia Tena (who plays Osha) which covers a range of topics related to her acting, with a particular focus on the Harry Potter films. However, she is asked about HBO’s Game of Thrones, which she speaks of in very enthusiastic terms. In fact, she indicates that she loved working on it so much that she’s been reading the first book. She mentions that after the mini-wrap party on the 11th, she was due to film a brand new scene written for her which seems to be her last scene for the production. The Game of Thrones discussion starts at the 5:10 mark:

The first part of the interview, and some details about it, can be found at Bleeding Cool. In discussing her plans for the coming year, she mentions that Game of Thrones would resume filming in the spring, so far as she knows; presumably she means, in spring if the show is given the greenlight. So an April or May start date seems quite possible.