First, Adam Whitehead pulls through with a bunch of new photos from the Belfast signing. Second, for those in the Republic of Ireland, GRRM will be signing at Eason’s in Dublin at 5 PM, and another post-signing moot is planned. For more information, visit the Brotherhood without Banners thread at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum.
Adam’s full gallery of photos can be found here, though without the captions (he’s posted yet more photos in the thread as well). Jackie (JacMac30 on Twitter) has her photos here. Finally, a member of the Ice and Fire forum, Iylliana, has a great report from the event with some great personal touches, and Lady Jane of the Sean Bean Online forums has another great report with additional photos.
A fan, Thoros of Myr, came across an article in Variety which mentions in passing that Tatiana S. Riegel is editing the pilot episode for HBO’s Game of Thrones. Her previous credits include several episodes of House, M.D., Showtime pilot United States of Tara, and the new George Clooney film, The Men Who Stare At Goats.
Something that George R.R. Martin mentioned in September seems to have come to fruition: the rights to “Skin Trade”, his award-winning novella that mixes horror (werewolves, specifically) and detective fiction, has been optioned. The deal was finalized recently, according to the press release from Mike the Pike Productions. The release details possible lines of development for the property, such as a miniseries, a television film, or a feature film.
According to Padraig, a long-time member of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum and the Brotherhood without Banners fan organization, at the Belfast event George R.R. Martin stated the it’s expected that HBO will decide on whether to go forward with a series by March. This fits information we’ve received previously.
Jackie also adds a note on the recent dialogue coach news. She indicated concern that the Starks would speak with bad Scottish accents, but has been assured she won’t be disappointed. She also remarks that Richard Madden, who plays Robb Stark, started the shoot with a brighter shade of auburn hair, but in the course of the shoot the producers decided to darken it down. We previously had reports that Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark was also quite “ginger”, so it may be that she and the rest of her children have all gone through a similar hair coloring process.
A neat little bit of extra news from the post-signing moot, again from Adam Whitehead. The production has hired a dialect coach and a linguistic expert to develop a working Dothraki vocabulary for use in the Pentos scenes (to be filmed in Morocco starting around the middle of the month), and to make sure that pronunciation of names, terms, and places unique to the setting are consistent across characters. Adam also promises quite a few pictures from the signing and the moot.
Silverstar reports about the post-signing moot starting here, and along the way cites the fact that Kit Harington (who was exhausted) and Alfie Allen didn’t attend the event, but that the rest of the cast who had been present at the signing did, as well Esmé Bianco and (briefly) Rory McCann (who plays Sandor Clegane). There was also a marriage proposal at the event, with a bit of assistance from GRRM himself!
We also have a lengthy report from Adam Whitehead, who maintains the excellent Wertzone SF/F review blog, which you can find here. Biggest piece of news there? While George cautions HBO could still pass on it, he also said that there’s the possibility of a two-season advanced order! It’s a remote possibility, but the fact that it’s even on the table is remarkable—HBO generally only commits to shows a season at a time, and it can take several seasons before they’re willing to go further than that.
UPDATE: Silverstar’s shared her terrific collection of photos from the signing and the moot. Many thanks! Some excellent shots of GRRM, Parris, and the cast.
After his signing in Belfast, George R.R. Martin and a number of fans gathered together at a nearby pub to while away the hours into the evening. We’ve links to the reports that followed over at the Game of Thrones site, but there’s a couple of pieces of information of interest to fans more interested in the literary side of things.
First, Starcrossed Lovers is going to be a straightforward anthology of fantasy stories with a romantic bent, unlike Warriors (US, UK), which features a mix of genres; Martin has written a third Dunk & Egg story, titled “The Mystery Knight”, for the latter anthology. Because of this genre mixture, it seems British publishers are more hesitant to sign on to publishing the book, but GRRM is confident something will be worked out for UK publication.
Second, in regards to A Dance with Dragons (US, UK, George reports he’s happy with his progress these last months, and reiterates he has 1100 manuscript pages written but will need some more before he’s done. He also confirms that in part the “Meereenese Knot” has to do with getting various characters where they need to be in a way that fits what we know from the previous novels.
While we expect news to trickle in tomorrow morning from the results of the post-signing moot, we did learn bia Winter is Coming,that the Belfast Telegraph has a brief interview with George R.R. Martin as well as commentary on the turnout at Eason’s book signing. Of note is his mention of the execution scene being filmed at Cairncastle the previous day, and that he has yet to enter the Paint Hall studio.
Below are the other two images Parris sent us from the signing, showing the crowd lined up for the signing as well as a cool photo of Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), and Richard Madden (Robb Stark).
Today, George R.R. Martin held a signing at Eason’s bookstore in Belfast, and a large crowd of fans attended. Also attending were a number of the actors: Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Richard Madden (Robb Stark), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), Ron Donachie (Ser Rodrik Cassel), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), and Maisie Willaims. We have a number of reports from fans over at the forum, one of the more detailed of which is from Adam Whithead and can be found here. A brief summary of details: several of the actors have been reading the series, and Donachie has finished all four and claims he’s hectoring George about the next. Kit Harington was exhausted from several very long days of shooting, and Richard Madden was very personable and took with good humor his recent acclaimation as Scotland’s most stylish man of the year.
Finally, via the incomparable Parris, we have several brilliant photos of George and various actor.
George R.R. Martin is now in Belfast, escaping the very wet Scotland of the last day or two for the equally wet North ireland, and he reports that HBO’s pilot for Game of Thrones is scheduled to shoot an execution scene tomorrow. This scene will involve most of the Starks men and boys, plus the character of Gared, played by actor Richard Ridings. Everything seems to be moving along on schedule.
Rimshot, an extra in North Ireland, had this to say about what he saw during his costuming fitting for his role as a “Stark Servant”:
“You will see what I saw soon enough but I will say this. I have worked on loads of films and worn loads of costumes and those I saw yesterday were some of the highest quality I have ever seen (wait till you see the armour!) I can’t wait to get my servant’s costume back on and to step into the world of GOT.”
Sounds like Michele Clapton has pulled out all the stops.
Over at the A Song of Ice and Fire fourm, a member of Corvus Corax posts a message to fans. Norri (on the right in this image) states that the three days the band was in Scotland for the filming were terrific. A nice thing to post, and it shows that participants in the filming recognize the buzz that the show is getting.
And speaking of the pilot shoot, not too much to update, except for an unconfirmed report over at Winter is Coming that the prologue scene was filmed today at Tollymore Forest Park near Belfast. Some excellent pictures of the park can be found at
North Ireland Photos
.In response to our question, Norri adds that the two songs they played during filming were “Skudrinka” (found on Viator ) and “Ballade de Mercy” (found on Seikilos).
George R.R. Martin will be signing books at the Eason’s booksotre at 20 Donegall Place in Belfast. The signing starts at 1 PM on November 3rd. More information about the event, including a post-signing meetup, can be found at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. The meetup will include GRRM and his partner Parris, and possibly some members of the cast and crew of HBO’s Game of Thrones production.
One additional detail is that there will be a book raffle at the post-signing moot, in support of the Children’s Literacy Charity Teachers & Writers Collaborative. Prizes are listed at the link above, and it’s probable more prizes will be added by the day of the event.
A last little report from Doune, thanks to a fan who managed to glimpse some footage on the monitors while wandering the castle. Ace_Jones’s initial report was to say that he couldn’t imagine the production in better hands after what he had seen.
Over at his “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin reports that filming at Doune has indeed wrapped up—today and tomorrow will just be the crew putting things back how they were, and transferring on to Belfast. He also notes, “so far, so good,” which is a good thing to hear. From there, he discusses his further plans—he’ll be in Belfast several days from now for the shooting there—and then comments on the Belfast signing at Eason’s set for the 3rd. He and Parris believe they’ve convinced several of the cast to attend the event, in part by promising that his fans are “essentially harmless. Hah.”
