Tom McCarthy, director of HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones, joins Robert Stromberg in the Oscars race. McCarthy was one of a number of individuals credited for the story of Pixar’s Up, which is a nominee for Best Original Screenplay.
The visual effects supervisor to the Game of Thrones pilot from HBO, Robert Stromberg, has been cleaning up of late in award seasons as previously reported. The streak continues, as he and Rick Carter have been nominated for an Academy Award in Art Direction thanks to their work on James Camerons’ blockbuster Avatar.
Twitter is presently awash with Brazilian fantasy fans excitedly reporting the news that A Game of Thrones will be published in Brazil in the native Brazilian Portuguse dialect. This is a major international sale, with Brazil being a rapidly growing book-buying market. From what I can make of this article, the book will be published by Brazillian publisher Leya, with A Game of Thrones due to be published in translation in the second half of 2010.
It’s not absolutely clear to me, but it’s possible that the Brazilian fantasy author, Raphael Draccon, may have been a key figure in bringing the publisher and GRRM’s representation to the table. Certainly, in the article linked above he is incredibly enthusiastic for the series and its prospects in Brazil.
Ian Tregillis gives us another look into the world of Wild Cards, this time with an account of how he was recruited at the last minute to write a key story in the span of two weeks for Inside Straight (US, UK).
GRRM’s official site has been updated with several new updates on “Not a Blog”. Among them, GRRM clarifies that he had in fact finished a Jon Snow chapter that he was happy with, and that he may be shifting back to the Meereenese point of views. Speaking of snow, he shares an image of a painted Sansa Stark miniature from Dark Sword Miniatures.
Finally, and sadly, he shares the news of the death of fellow writer, Kage Baker, due to cancer. Baker contributed a fine Cugel the Clever story toSongs of the Dying Earth, and wrote a number of award-nominated and otherwise notable short stories and novels besides. She will be missed.
It seemed likely the rough cut screening Michael Lombardo spoke of at TCA two weeks ago has taken place by now, and we have as-yet unconfirmed reports that the rough cut was possibly screened at HBO’s New York offices. One person who saw some parts of the footage in HBO’s editorial offices has stated that it looked very good, and the show seemed to have terrific production values and good acting.
However, we’ve since had suggestions sent our way that the rough cut has not been completed, so that no screening would have taken place.
Following up Thursday’s post, GRRM confirms that the snowy weather was inspiring the next day, and that he’s done some good work on A Dance with Dragons that he’s happy with. It seems likely that he switched to writing Jon Snow, as he hinted in the earlier post. Also, in regards to the earlier post, in comments GRRM declined to provide an estimate of when he’d be done, as he admits that he has been very bad at guessing such things so far.
GRRM has provided an update on his current work on the much-anticipated A Dance with Dragons. The “Meereenese knot” has been a central difficulty, and it seems like Martin is making some serious headway, with a completed chapter (although one which has has completed four times before) and switching to a new POV (meaning the addition of a new POV?) to help provide an insider’s perspective to some of the events that make up the “knot”.
Valyrian Steel wants fans of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire to let them know what replica weapon they should produce next. With Longclaw and Needle already produced and Ice entering production soon, this is a great opportunity for fans to weigh in. Their original plans were to produce a replica of Khal Drogo’s arakh.
What other weapons are possible? Jaime’s gold-plated sword, Robert’s warhammer, the greatsword Dawn, the assassin’s Valyrian steel dagger, or the sword of the Targaryen kings, Blackfyre…. Lots of possibilities, if you think about it.
Daniel Abraham follows up on his previous post discussing collaborating on Wild Cards with a post about his other collaborations, particularly his collaboration with George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois on the SF novella and novel, Shadow Twin.
It’s a busy time for Harry Lloyd, cast as Viserys Targaryen in HBO’s pilot, as he gives interviews to publicize his role in the play, The Little Dog Laughed. In his latest interview, he makes an interesting reference to his audition for the pilot:
‘Lloyd may be seen on screens more often if the American pilot he recently filmed is picked up. Game Of Thrones is based on fantasy author George RR Martin’s series A Song Of Ice And Fire and sees Lloyd play the Beggar King Viserys Targaryen opposite a host of British acting talent.
He describes the process of getting the part as: “One of those auditions which you have every now and again for some big American TV series and you’re like ‘Great, thanks.’ You go in and put yourself on tape and send it off and you’ll never hear about it. So I went in and slightly took the p**s with this character, had a bit of fun with it. They loved it.”’
“Took the p**s”? Certainly interesting. On the one hand, one could be very apprehensive that the casting director and producers loved an over-the-top, camp take on Viserys. On the other, it may just be that what Harry Lloyd considers “slightly [taking] the p**s” amounts to an exciting interpretation of the character. Only time (and HBO) will tell if we get to find out.
Ian Tregillis provides more insight into the work needed to create a new Wild Cards book, following up on Daniel Abraham’s first post on the subject. It’s a further interesting look into the brainchild of George R.R. Martin and the Wild Cards Consortium, who’ve shaped what’s arguably the most successful, original shared-world anthology series around.
The Telegraph has a brief article which features a quote from Harry Lloyd. When mentioning that Game of Thrones is “next” for him, Tim Walker goes on to write:
‘An American accent will not required. “It’s an unspoken rule that if you’re American, you can’t hold a sword,” the amiable actor [Harry Lloyd] tells me. “It’ll be like Lord of the Rings. Everyone will do a non-accent. It will be great fun.’
The L.A. times has an interview with Will Scheffer, co-creator of HBO’s original drama series, Big Love, which started airing its fourth season recently. Reading it, I found that some of the topics discussed have some potential implications for how similar issues will be handled for Game of Thrones if HBO’s orders a season. Salient quotes below:
Dark Sword Miniatures has put up pictures of several of the latest wave of miniatures, painted by their in-house artists. GRRM already shared Brienne of Tarth, but we now also have Robb Stark, Arya Stark, and Ghost painted up. All the figures are painted by the award-winning Marike Reimer, who’s done a fabulous job with Tom Meier‘s and Dave Summers’ sculpts.
The miniatures (unassembled and unpainted) can be purchased via Dark Sword’s online store.