After a second round of clues, all three roles GRRM shared clues for have been discovered: Amrita Acharia as Irri, Roxanne McKee as Doreah, and Sibel Kekilli as Shae. We’ll discuss each below.
Via the Guardian, we learn that Rupert Murdoch’s BskyB has bought exclusive U.K. broadcasting rights to HBO’s programming, including their archives and all forthcoming programming. According to the report, this is a 5 year agreement worth £150 million.
We can note that HBO has confirmed to us some weeks ago that the early word that the BBC was likely to co-fund Game of Thrones never came to fruition. This seems to settle the matter fully, as there were many question marks on the state of the BBC’s involvement given no mention of them in official press material.
Thanks to paddyolaughlin for the head’s up.
The bad news: for medical reasons, Roy Dotrice has had to leave the production of Game of Thrones, which is very unfortunate. The good news is that he just needs 3-4 months of treatment and he’ll be fine. Our best wishes to Mr. Dotrice, and our hope that—as GRRM says—they’ll find a place for him in the production!
In his place, thespian Julian Glover—an old friend of Dotrice’s from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and an actor with a long, long list of credits stretching back 50 years—has been cast in the role.
And we’ve a new set of clues, a confusing set, but they seem to regard the actresses cast as Doreah and either Irri or Jhiqui (“big brother’s gift”, with GRRM clarifying in comments that his clue is for three roles only) and Shae (“sellsword’s gift”).
Tom Maringer of the Shire Post—official license holder for creating coins based on the coinage of A Song of Ice and Fire—has posted a comment on our post earlier in the month noting that the shop doors have reopened after a long hiatus.
He informs us that he’s struck new examples of the Dothraki puli and denga coins—a great decision in light of the interest in learning Dothraki—and is, interestingly, working on conceptualizing the Bravossi iron coin given to Arya. Beyond that, he’s moved into creating buttons and trinkets, which could come to include ornamental pins or tacks featuring small replicas of weapons. Last but not least, Tom’s kicking around the idea of producing links for a maester’s chains, some of the metals of which would be quite straighforward to get and work with, others ... rather less so.
If you find any of the above interesting, check out the Shire Post’s online store.
The Dothraki language created by David J. Peterson, a member of the Language Creation Society, now has a dedicated fan site. Learn Dothraki (who can be found on Twitter) is the brain child of Richard Littauer and Sebastian Wolff, the latter of which is the orignal founder of the very popular Learn Na’vi website for fans of the Na’vi language in the movie Avatar.
Littauer has already contacted Peterson to discuss some points of the Dothraki language, and is sharing what he learns via a fan wiki and the very first (unofficial) dictionary (PDF file). To add to the usefulness for learning the language, Littauer’s gone a step further and actually begun to create Youtube videos to discuss the finer points of the language. The inaugural video is embedded below:
Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has added a couple of comments in reply to fan queries about HBO’s adaption of his work.
First, in response to a question about the change of Robert Arryn’s name to Robin Arryn, he writes about how he deliberately broke traditional convention by having characters with similar or even the same names, and cites the historical fact that in Europe many of the noble families would simply reuse the same few names (he specifically notes all the Edwards and Henrys in England, and how heirs named Arthur or Eustace never managed to survive).
Then in another response to a remark about how much involvement he has in the production compared to other authors who sell the adaption rights to their works, George cites that his previous Hollywood experience certainly proves helpful in his being involved in a meaningful basis. On top of that, he notes that many SF/F authors don’t make much money from their books, so are just happy to have someone interested in the rights and willing to cut a check. His personal preference, however, is to meet the would-be producers and see what they have to say, rather than just accepting an offer without deliberation.
The latest economic article in the Belfast Telegraph on the film and television industry in Northern Ireland reveals that HBO’s Game of Thrones is a definite boon to the economy, along with the other productions Northern Ireland Screen has brought to the region. Previously, NI Screen estimated that a single season of Game of Thrones would bring £20 million into the local economy.
Compare this figure to the total of the gain to the economy in the 2009-2010 year, in which the highlights were the pilot for Game of Thrones and the film Your Highness. Northern Ireland Screen’s £3.9 million investment in bringing productions to Northern Ireland is said to have returned approximately £22 million pounds, a 5.5:1 ratio. If the £20 million estimate holds out, Game of Thrones alone will nearly equal the economic impact of all 2009-2010 productions together.
One other figure from the article? It’s said that HBO’s network (including their foreign channels) will bring Game of Thrones to 35 million viewers worldwide. With broadcast rights still being sold to third party channels, that figure is doubtless going to be rather higher.
Back in March, the Well Educated Pony blog wrote a terrific post interpreting what sort of modern fashions that various characters in HBO’s Game of Thrones might wear, if they were placed in modern dress. Well, now she’s back with a follow-up, covering a number of characters she didn’t deal with the first time around. This includes Littlefinger, Sansa, and the rather curious case of Lysa Arryn (whom has been cast as rather less zaftig than the character as described in the books).
A great, fun read. But… when are we going to see what sort of fashions Lord Renly Baratheon or Ser Loras Tyrell would wear… ?
It was recently noted by an extra, known as Rimshot, working on the production that the show was preparing to film a three-episode production block. This has led to a good deal of confusion as to just what that means, but thankfully Adam Whitehead, U.K.-based book blogger, steps in to explain this over at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum. Here’s the key paragraph:
“The block system sees several episodes combined into one solid block of filming and production lasting many weeks, maybe a month to two months. This block will involve the same behind-the-scenes personnel, and will be designed to maximise efficiency and minimize costs, so episodes set in the same location, using the same guest or recurring actors and so on will be combined, regardless of the actual transmission order of the episodes. Most notably, the same director will be assigned to the entire block. The block will be prepped, read-through, go through pre-production and budget meetings and then filmed and put through post in one long process. Usually whilst one block is filming, the next director will be stepping up and prepping the next block so the actors go from filming one block to the next (sometimes with a short break between them).”
Do check the rest of his post, as Adam compares to the more usual American network production method, and details how Doctor Who has used the production block method.
Sometime in the wee hours of the North Ireland morning, production began on HBO’s Game of Thrones. It doesn’t sound like the first day’s shooting will be taking place at the Paint Hall studio in Belfast, given this tweet from production secretary Paul McAnearney where he realizes that he’ll be standing in the rain come today.
George has updated “Not a Blog”, remarking on how half the editors he knows were in sunny San Diego for Comic-Con while he was still “shovelling Snow”. Clearly, writing continues on a Jon Snow chapter (or chapters) ... and there’s a bit of spoiler about just who doesn’t like all the snow (which may be literal snow, and not just Jon Snow). If you don’t mind (or eare eager) for the spoiler, read GRRM’s post.
George R.R. Martin has followed up on IDW’s announcement at Comic-Con with a detailed post about the comic, noting that it’ll be based on his revised script for the pilot rather than on the pilot itself, so character likenesses and the like will not be based on the rarely-seen pilot. Stefano Martino, an Italian artist who has worked with IDW previously on such things as their licensed Doctor Who comics, was hand-picked by Martin to handle visual chores, while Martin himself will adapt the teleplay to comic book form.
GRRM adds that if the series is a success, there could be more Doorways comics, beginning with his first draft of the pilot script (substantially different from what was produced, due to a setting which was so bleak that the studio asked it to be changed to something more hopeful) and then on through the six unproduced scripts (one of which was written by him), and then possibly on to original stories ... from other writers, handpicked by GRRM, of course, as he reiterates that his primary writing focus remains with A Song of Ice and Fire.
The prospective publication date for their adaption of George R.R. Martin’s pilot of Doorways has been announced by IDW during their big press panel at San Diego Comic-Con. According to Editor-in-Chief, Chris Ryall, the comic book is set to begin publishing in November of this year. GRRM previously revealed that the agreement had been reached during the C2E2 convention in Chicago. The plan for the initial miniseries is to adapt GRRM’s script for the produced pilot, and that if the series is a success it could lead to adaptions of a number of unproduced scripts he had for the proposed series, as well as original stories from other writers within the Doorways setting.
Doorways is a science fiction series, about fugitives on the run from an enemy from another version of Earth. The protagonists are able to travel through doorways which take them to new timelines or realities where history has been subtly—and, often as not, massively—different. If this sounds a bit familiar, yes, Sliders came into development not so long after GRRM sent around his Doorways proposal.
The Wall Street Journal has published an article about the cable studios and their costly productions. HBO’s Game of Thrones is mentioned only in passing, as one example of the high-end epics that are coming, but it’s interesting to look at the figures that have been batted around for other productions in light of what we know of Game of Thrones‘s budget. The one that surprised me most was that was the claim (unsourced, mind you) that Starz’s Camelot was in the region of $7 million an episode. That’s half again the projected per episode budget of Game of Thrones, from a much smaller cable provider.
This leads us to wonder ... Camelot was announced after Game of Thrones went into production and likely had its budget projections made. Is it possible that some of the reshoots—reshoots which GRRM calls, in some cases, an attempt to do things even better—are motivated by HBO opening up the purse strings and increasing the show’s budget to be more in line with the latest crop of costume dramas? Assuming, that is, that Camelot‘s alleged budget isn’t a lot of hype over substance. The figure bandied about in the article is certainly a substantial leap up in production budget for the show compared to Starz’s previous original costume piece, such as Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
In a follow-up to our recent item about the legendary fight choreography William Hobbs being involved in training Miltos Yerolemou for his role as Syrio Forel in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Miltos has commented over at Winter is Coming that while Hobbs is not officially associated with the production, he’s taken a hand in helping Miltos develop the Braavosi waterdancing style. Miltos also confirms that Buster Reeves—who was Christian Bale’s stunt double in the Batman films, and helped develop the superhero’s unique fighting style—is still involved as fight choreographer in Game of Thrones after having arranged the fights in the pilot.
As with many of the actors, Miltos has been in Belfast for read throughs and rehearsal, and apparently has run through some of his fight choreography with Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark.
One other thing mentioned is the fact that Hobbs discussed the Rob Roy fight with Miltos “at length”, which may give a sense of the approach they’ll be taking with Syrio’s superlative waterdancing skills. For your edification (and because we really think it’s the best bit of fencing choreography we’ve ever seen), the climactic fight scene from the film, choreographed by Hobbs: