Westeros

George R.R. Martin will be streaming live from the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland, while he holds a masterclass discussing his work, his inspirations, and more.

The live stream starts at 3PM Central European Time (in other words, in one hour from the time of this post):

For more about NIFFF, visit the festival’s official site.

Our final video for season 4 became our longest ever, needing to be split up into three parts to keep it managable. Linda and I cover the season from start to finish, reviewing both the best and worst moments, as well as speculating regarding how they’ll bring about the adaptation of the novels to season 5. There’s some spoilers along the way—some of them drawn from information about the show’s adaptation choices, specifically, and some just drawing from the novels—so beware if you’re sensitive to either!

You’ll find the videos below:

Yesterday, remarks from James Costos—former HBO executive and now US Ambassador to Spain—were taken out of context (note: in Spanish) suggesting that the ambassador was formally announcing that HBO had settled on Spain as a shooting location; in fact, in full the comments merely said what was already widely known, that Spain’s Andalusian region was in the running as a shooting location. The hysteria in the news media in Spain, and social media, led this to transform into some sort of official announcement.

However, this morning HBO has gone ahead and confirmed wide speculation that an actual announcement was imminent. The key point of the press release:

The rest of the press release can be found below:

Over at EW, James Hibberd had the opportunity to talk with George R.R. Martin and get some exclusive details regarding the forthcoming The Winds of Winter, the sixth volume of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series. According to the report, Martin remarks:

He has a few more things to say about the book in the piece which are significantly more spoiler-filled, so if you want them, go over there to check them out!

A new social reading app for iOs, Booke, is in the works, and an Indiegogo campaign aims to both help promote the app and generate some exclusive content for the George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois edited Rogues, containing Martin’s “The Rogue Prince”, a historical account of the reign of Viserys I and of his troublesome brother Prince Daemon Targaryen.

Rather than being an e-book reader, Booke is an adjunct to the printed word, a way for publishers, creators, and fellow readers to curate content around books and magazine articles. A book may have had the publisher highlighting quotes and linking to images or videos, or it could have fans providing short annotations and commentaries. Booke has received the support of Random House, publisher of Rogues, to use that book as a particular test case—if the Indiegogo goal is met, they’ll bring aboard artists such as Dagmara Matuszak,Ted Nasmith, Marc Fishman and Marc Simonetti so that they can provide exclusive art to illustrate excerpts from the stories contained in the volume; not just Martin’s own contribution, but also works by Patrick Rothfuss, Neil Gaiman, Scott Lynch, Joe Abercrombie, Connie Willis, Daniel Abraham, and more.

See below for a video describing Booke, and what it can do for you, in more detail!

When he was last in LA, we learned that George R.R. Martin was filming something for comedy website Funny or Die, but details were sparse.

Well, now that video has been released—the newest segment of the running “Gay of Thrones” sketch—and GRRM’s appearance is a hilarious homage to nothing less than The Princess Bride:

Didn’t see that coming—brilliant!

As we’ve done for the previous episodes this season, Linda and I have filmed a video of our discussing the episode, focusing on various aspects including providing insights into the history and background of various details, as well as our views on various aspects of the episode. We’ve placed the video in our episode guide, but you can find it below:

For those of you in the UK, you can also see our appearance in the final Thronecast episode of the season—as well as Iwan Rheon (aka Ramsay) and Natalia Tena (Osha) with her band Molotov Jukebox—over at Sky’s website.

The preliminary parts of our episode guide for “The Children”, the season finale of Game of Thrones, are now up. Besides the analysis and the book-to-screen breakdown, we’ve linked the post-episode videos HBO has released.

Unfortunately, the recap may be somewhat delayed this time around due to other commitments! And we’ll see if we can manage to get the video discussion/review out as well.

Concluding our interviews from February, I had the chance to meet and talk with Isaac Hempstead-Wright—the adorable Bran Stark, who I had last met years ago during the first season filming—and Thomas Brodie-Sangster whose portrayal of Jojen Reed has been a study in maturity and understated performance.

When Isaac saw me, his genuine pleasure at meeting again reminded me of the cheerful, enthusiastic child I’d met years earlier. He’s grown up in a lot of ways—I remarked that Kristian Nairn has mentioned how glad he is that he hasn’t had to carry Isaac on his back any longer thanks to that!—and he (and Thomas) both gave some very thoughtful answers to the questions posed.

Interview

So, what can you say of any visions you have this season?

In the books, Jojen knows the date of his death and what happens to him. Is this something present in the show?

This past February, I had the opportunity to interview a number of actors in London. One of the ones I was most eager to meet—because she had been rather difficult to get an interview with previously!—was Sibel Kekilli, who plays Shae. Although given the early date of the interview it was difficult to approach anything discussing her big turn this season, it was a good chance to catch up with the actress.

An award-winner in her native Germany for her powerful work in films such as Head-On and When We Leave, Kekilli proves to be a very enthusiastic interview subject—a lot of exclaimations, a lot of smiles, and not a little laughter.

Interview

What was it like, when you first got involved in Game of Thrones?

Continuing our interview series—this is the first of several we’ll release in the run up to the final episode of season 4—I had the pleasure of speaking to Liam Cunningham (who I’d interviewed back in Season 2) and Carice van Houten (brand new interview subject!) regarding season 4. Both were charming, as expected, and had great fun talking back and forth as they answered questions regarding their fondest memories, their weirdest scenes, and more.

Interview

Carice, we know Liam prefers to learn the story through the scripts and was advised by the producers that he didn’t need to read the books. Do you feel the same about it?

How would you describe the journeys of your character?

(For the rest of the interview, check our Features page!)

Big news for Bryan Cogman, story editor of Game of Thrones and writer of such episodes as “Kissed by Fire” and “The Laws of Gods and Men”. According to Deadline Hollywood, Cogman will be writing the Magic: The Gathering film—the first in a potential franchise of movies—for 20th Century Fox and Hasbro with Simon Kinberg (of X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, among other works) producing.

Congratulations, Bryan!

(Oh, and before anyone worries that this scripting work will pull him away from Game of Thrones, never fear—Cogman’s participation is confirmed at least through season 5!)

The first parts of our episode guide for “The Watchers on the Wall” are now live, including our analysis of the episode (TL;DR: it’s really, really good) and our book-to-screen breakdown. We’ll see if we can get the recap done in the next hours. Also included in the guide are the videos HBO has posted up, including a 2 minute piece focusing on the fight scene. Look at the opening of that one, folks, and you’ll see a lot of why we were so baffled by the duel in “The Mountain and the Viper”.

Neil Marshall delivers, and so do the writers, the production, and more. However, after the cut, a very brief commentary on a controversy that seems to be rearing its head on the forums and online—one that I hope is just a tempest in a tea cup…

HBO has gotten into the act, helping to spread the word of the latest initiative from George R.R. Martin to help support two charities near and dear to him and his wife Parris McBride. The Prizeo website now has fundraiser running with proceeds going to support the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary and the Food Depot. See below for Martin’s personal video describing what it’s all about:

That $200,000 goal is already most of the way to being met, with just $25,000 left to hit its goal. All those who donate are entered into a chance to win an exclusive prize: a trip for two to New Mexico (from anywhere in the world—yes, this is open to people overseas!) to meet George and join him in a helicopter flight to the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. Definitely something to consider if you’ve just a few dollars—a minimum $10 donation will get you two chances to win.

Well, it’s about time! HBO has just made us aware of the fact that October will see the release of Living Language Dothraki, a conversational language-teaching course with a workbook and an audio CD. Amazing, and long overdue.

Now, where’s the Valyrian book?

The full press release can be found below, including details on additional resources that can be purchased along with the entry-level course: