Green Ronin’s latest design journal entry touches on magic in the A Song of Ice and Fire roleplaying game, with particular focus on omens and portents, greensight, and skinchanging. The game is still pending approval from GRRM, and so the publication date is as yet uncertain.
According to Valyrian Steel, they plan to begin shipping the replica Longclaw swords on the 16th or 17th of December. Because of the closeness to Christmas, they have added an air shipping option to expedite shipping. Those who have already placed orders and would like to upgrade must contact them to have your order manually adjusted.
Slightly at a tangent from our usual A Song of Ice and Fire-related news, but not really!
Westeros.org extends its felictations to Anne Groell, the editor of the series (and of the in-progress world book), and her husband David Keck, on the birth of their daughter Amy on December 3rd. Congratulations!
David Benioff and Dan Weiss dropped by the A Song of Ice and Fire forum to answer some questions and to offer some information concerning the location, ages of characters, and casting ... and a sneak peek, as well, at the first and last lines of the pilot script.
A new audio interview, conducted by Wisconsin Public Radio, has been entered into the So Spake Martin section. The topic under discussion is whether science fiction is the “literature of ideas”. Ursula K. LeGuin also features, in a separate segment.
On his official site, George R. R. Martin notes that the 2009 calendar from Dabel Brothers Productions (stunningly illustrated by Michael Komarck) is on its way to the printers, and should soon be shipping in time for Christmas. Unfortunately, it will not make it in time to show up at brick-and-mortar calendar resalers, but ordering on-line should be just fine. GRRM also notes that there will be deluxe and limited editions with extra material.
On top of this, Valyrian Resin has announced that their resin busts of Eddard Stark, Sandor Clegane, and Daenerys Targaryen are now in stock and ready to be shipped on order. These fantastic sculpts from Justice Joseph are really something else.
Our e-mail has had some trouble of late, with messages not being delivered. If you’ve attempted to mail us over the last week and a half and haven’t received any kind of reply, it’s possible it was gobbled up in the mail problems. We’re trying to get that sorted out, and will post again when we believe our e-mail is again stable.
In their test post to the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, Dan Weiss and David Benioff mention that the U.K. is presently the likeliest shooting place for the pilot. They also promise to pass on information to the board concerning casting sessions and production hiring once the production is more thoroughly under way for those aspiring actors, set designers, and so on among Ice and Fire fandom.
Valyrian Steelreports two items, namely that wholesale orders of the Longclaw replica are available to retailers, who must order soon if they want to be able to get the swords to customers by Christmas, and that they have decided that Needle will be made of high-carbon steel, the sort of steel used in “live” weapons rather than in decorative replicas.
According to Valyrian Steel, they hope to start shipping the replica Longclaw in the third week of December, meaning that there’s a chance that some who’ve ordered it will get it just in time for the holidays.
David Benioff and Dan Weiss, executive producers of the Game of Thrones series which just received a pilot order from HBO, now have a shared account on the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. They’ve posted a message and are very interested to see casting suggestions from fans. The ASoIaF forum has a number of “official casting threads” for those who want to contribute ideas—just make sure to read the rules for each thread!
As some may have noticed, for the most part the A Song of Ice and Fire forum runs solidly with little downtime. However, downtime does happen, and at present the primary cause of downtime is floods of spam e-mails slamming the mailserver. These waves of spam take time to filter through, and on occasion it gets so bad that it throws the webserver through a loop as well, requiring manual intervention. We ask for your continued patience during these periods.
The A Song of Ice and Fire forum now has a sub-forum dedicated to discussion of the Game of Thrones HBO series, the pilot episode of which has been greenlit for production. A series of official casting threads are a major part of the forum presently, as the executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have expressed an interest in seeing serious casting suggestions from fans.
George R. R. Martin has reported that HBO has greenlit the production of a pilot episode of Games of Thrones. The Hollywood Reporter provides more details. Congratulations to executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and of course to GRRM.
The A Song of Ice and Fire forum will very shortly have a sub-forum dedicated to discussing the series, which will be kicked off by a serious casting thread. Why? GRRM has passed on the fact that Mr. Benioff and Mr. Weiss are aware of past casting threads, and would love to see an updated casting thread which they promise to read. The only stricture we’ll put is the stricture this is generally a serious casting thread, meaning that contributors should think hard about the constraints of television and their budgets. $20 million movie stars don’t do more than one shot cameos.
More when we have it.
Publisher’s Weekly reveals that George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois will be editing another cross-genre anthology (as with Warriors, which will feature the third Dunk & Egg story). This one is called Star Crossed Lovers. PW writes: “George Martin and Gardner Dozois, eds.‘s STAR CROSSED LOVERS, a cross-genre anthology of fantasy and romance, with contributions by New York Times bestselling authors Diana Gabaldon, Jo Beverley, Carrie Vaughn and others, to Jennifer Heddle at Pocket, in a very nice deal, for publication in 2010.”