An interview with actor Harry Lloyd, cast as Viserys Targaryen, in the Gay Times mentions his enthusiasm for the project and the role. The relevant paragraphs can be found on the third page of the feature, transcribed below:
Adam Whitehead, aka Werthead, of the Wertzone and the A Song of Ice and Fire forum has posted a lengthy and detailed FAQ for the forum’s Game of Thrones series section providing answers to common questions regarding the production. You can find it at the forum.
Tamzin Merchant, cast as Daenerys Targaryen in HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones, is featured in her role as Catherine Howard in the course of this promo for Showtime’s The Tudors, entering its fourth and final season this April. Some choice (and rather racy) imagery in the course of the trailer, and one quite beautiful one of Merchant on the floor with a mask.
Due to a tip shared over at Winter is Coming, it seems HBO filed for merchandise-related trademarks for Game of Thrones back in June, and most recently renewed an application on December 9. The text of that filing can be found here, and the rest of the filings can be found here.
Following on our previous report, it’s been pointed out to us that Marc Simonetti’s Deviant Gallery also includes a fourth cover painting for A Feast for Crows. The artist seems to have gone to town with these, focusing on strong, evocative color choices. The image, and more information about the “A Song of Ice and Fire” publishing situation in France as well as Marc Simonetti, can be found below:
Hard on the heels of their latest release, Fantasy Flight Games has the next chapter pack expansion for their popular Game of Thrones card game. A Sword in the Darkness is a 40-card set including 20 brand new cards (3 each of 10 of the cards, according to commentator Will—thanks!), drawing thematic inspiration from the Night’s Watch.
Halfhand of Winter is Coming points that the original source for our post about Peter O’Meara expressing interest in Game of Thrones, this fuller release from PRWeb, makes things seem more like a hope of the actor’s rather than any sign of a clear commitment for a role should the production goes forward. It also reveals that he did in fact audition, as speculated, but was passed over for the part of Jaime Lannister (a fate dealt to Jamie Bamber, and according to rumor Garret Dillahunt as well) in favor of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. O’Meara is quoted as saying:
“Well, I did read for HBO Game of Thrones but the role went to Nikolaj Coster Waldau. That hurt like hell because I love the David Benioff script. He’s a genius writer. His ‘City of Thieves’ is my favourite novel of the last ten years. If I have any new years career wish its to join the world of fire and ice he’s creating with HBO. Fingers crossed. Failing that I’ll happily play a Vampire in the next Twilight saga. I’ll bring my own teeth.”
Fantasy Flight Games reports that their latest expansion for their popular Game of Thrones Living Card Game, Princes of the Sun, is now available for purchase at gaming stores and their webstore. With a thematic focus on Dorne and House Martell, the expansion includes sixty brand new cards (with accompanying art from a host of artists) to introduce into the card game.
Via the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, we learn that Irish actor Peter O’Meara seems to hope that he’ll be involved in Game of Thrones next year via this press release that’s making the rounds.
Over at Winter is Coming, speculation runs that O’Meara auditioned for a role in the pilot and was passed over, but has been told by the casting director and/or producers they have in mind for another role if HBO greenlights the series. O’Meara, a veteran of film and television productions, has been associated with HBO producitons before—he had a role in the acclaimed miniseries, Band of Brothers, as 1st Lieutenant Norman Dike.
Dark Sword Miniatures now has four new miniatures on sale from the George R.R. Martin Masterworks series. Ser Gregor Clegane, Prince Oberyn Martell, Victarion Greyjoy, and Aeron Greyjoy have all been previewed before, but they’re now available for purchase. Dark Sword has also updated their galleries with pictures of the completed miniatures painted by some of their award-winning artists.
Thanks to our friends at La Garde de Nuit, we’ve learned that GRRM’s French publishers, J’ai Lu, are republishing the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series in integral paperback editions. The French standard up to now has been to split each book into three volumes, so these new integral editions should be welcome to French readers. Besides standardizing the novels into single volumes, they come equipped with brand-new cover art by artist Marc Simonetti, who has provided art for Fantasy Flight Games in the past.
Simonetti has shared the covers for the first two books, which will be published at the same time in January 2010, as well as the cover for the third at his Deviant Art page in a gallery with his other “A Song of Ice and Fire” pieces for Fantasy Flight Games. The integral edition of A Storm of Swords is set for a June release, and the integral edition of A Feast for Crows is set for a September release.
Westeros has finally undergone a long-planned redesign, which brings a new, unified look to all of the various subsites. We hope our visitors will find it easier to navigate between the subsites as well as within the subsites. There’s still some polishing and finetuning left to do, so expect to see little changes here and there over the coming weeks, but most everything should work as intended.
Thanks to Narwen at Chronarda.ru, the Wiki of Ice and Fire, devoted to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, is now interwiki linked to Chronarda’s own wiki. As editors of both sites go through the pages, they can add a simple tag to easily link to English or Russian language versions of the webpages.
This increases the global fan community cooperation already present in the wikified “Ice and Fire” fan project, as the Wiki of Ice and Fire also shares interwiki linking with La Garde de Nuit, the French-language Ice and Fire fansite and associated wiki.
At Time.com’s new Techland group blog, Lev Grossman—the critic who dubbed George R.R. Martin “America’s Tolkien” and a recently published fantasy novelist in his own right—presents a list of his picks for the ten best SF/F novels of the decade. At #2? A Storm of Swords, of which Grossman writes:
“The third and (so far) best novel in Martin’s bloody marvelous Song of Ice and Fire epic, which depicts the collapse of Westeros into civil war following the death of the king. Martin delivers blow after stunning blow to his characters—the “Red Wedding” is one of the most devastating scenes in contemporary fantasy.”
A brief article from the Coventry Telegraph features an image of Sophie Turner—cast in the role of Sansa Stark—and another young actress, both alumni of the Warwickshire-based Playbox Theatre. Mentioning the various professional jobs three of the theatre’s young members are partaking in, the article mentions Ms. Turner’s role in HBO’s pilot adaption of Game of Thrones.
