HBO greenlights A Game of Thrones pilot!

[keg in kc]

EDIT: Changed the original header to mark this as the thread where spoilers are allowed (but not necessarily recommended...). Created a new, spoiler-free thread for Ice and Fire virgins...


This is awesome...

Huge, Huge News

Nov. 11th, 2008 at 10:29 PM

HBO has given the production order.

They will be filming the pilot episode of A GAME OF THRONES.

It's just the pilot so far. They'll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season's episodes. So let's all hope the pilot will kick serious ass.

It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it's very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.

More details when I have 'em. The news is very fresh. HBO just issued their own press release, which should be up on their website soon, if it's not there already.

Winter is coming to HBO. Hot damn.

[Red Brooklyn]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/06/23/ga...rones-casting/

'Tudors' star joins 'Game of Thrones' cast -- EXCLUSIVE
by James Hibberd
Categories:

* Comments 47
* Add comment



HBO’s Game of Thrones has made its first casting hire for season 2:

Natalie Dormer, who memorably played the seductive and doomed Anne Boleyn on Showtime’s The Tudors, has been added to the fantasy drama’s regular cast.

Dormer will play Margaery Tyrell, a (minor spoiler alert) beautiful and shrewd young woman from the influential House Tyrell. She’s pledged to marry the late King Robert’s brother, Renly Baratheon, as part of House Tyrell’s support for his bid to seize the Iron Throne from King Joffrey.

[TrickyNicky]

Not a bad choice. She kind of looks like the guy playing Loras too.

I'm waiting to see how "ugly" they will go with Brienne.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by TrickyNicky

Not a bad choice. She kind of looks like the guy playing Loras too.

I'm waiting to see how "ugly" they will go with Brienne.

Word.

I'm happy with this casting, and I'm really looking forward to who else they come up with for the other players in S2.

Exciting!

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by TrickyNicky

Not a bad choice. She kind of looks like the guy playing Loras too.

I'm waiting to see how "ugly" they will go with Brienne.

Chaz

[keg in kc]

I'm hoping it's more 'hollywood ugly' than 'real world ugly'. As in more plain than 'oh god put a bag over that'.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Red Brooklyn

http://insidetv.ew.com/2011/06/23/ga...rones-casting/

'Tudors' star joins 'Game of Thrones' cast -- EXCLUSIVE
by James Hibberd
Categories:

* Comments 47
* Add comment



HBO’s Game of Thrones has made its first casting hire for season 2:

Natalie Dormer, who memorably played the seductive and doomed Anne Boleyn on Showtime’s The Tudors, has been added to the fantasy drama’s regular cast.

Dormer will play Margaery Tyrell, a (minor spoiler alert) beautiful and shrewd young woman from the influential House Tyrell. She’s pledged to marry the late King Robert’s brother, Renly Baratheon, as part of House Tyrell’s support for his bid to seize the Iron Throne from King Joffrey.

Damn...why'd they have to cast her as the perpetual maiden?

I hope they figure out some sort of way to get her boned a lot; that girl was blazing in Tudors.

[Hawk]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Spoiler!

Okay, I've finally decided what I think about it.

It's gratuitous. It took me a bit to come up with the word I was looking for, but that just rang true as hell when it came to me.

Look, Martin's philosophy through this series has been to keep you on your toes. I understand killing Ned, I really do. It made perfect sense from a character development standpoint (can't keep the same core characters through 6k pages). It made sense from a 'hook' standpoint - readers truly have no idea what's going to happen. It was a masterstroke, IMO.

But killing Robb and his direworlf, especially in the manner he did it, was just taking out Starks for the sake of doing so. It seemed to me that he was just giving his readers the finger there just to prove he could. He spent so long developing and maturing Robb as a character and his character arc was by no means at a dead end.

He wanted to end the war; I get that. But he could've done that without giving a character that has truly come into his own an unceremonious and ignominious end. Let him walk out of the Twins to a butchered army. Hell, have him captured and endup on Bailon's sept if need be. Hell, give him to Ser Elyan but have him go out with his head high and calling for the armys of the north to rally.

But to have him butchered and stabbed in the back is just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole.

There's a fine line between questioning a characters motives and questioning the author's. I think the former is good, the latter is a problem, IMO.

Spoiler!

I see where you're coming from, on the other hand, in hindsight, it was perfectly predictable given what an ass Lord Frey was from the start. It shows that Robb was not mature enough or ready enough to be king and to lead a war. How he let himself get sucked into the Jeyne deal is beyond me, and it was his undoing. It's a stark (heh) contrast to his father. Ned died because of his honor, Robb dies because he forsakes his honor and ignores the promise he made to wed Frey's daughter.

Even if it was gratuitous, it makes for some of the most compelling reading I've ever experienced and set off more emotions from a book than any other I can recall. So it was effective, if also cruel. Even more cruel to pretend Arya dies too in the very next chapter. Robb and Catelyn were not my favorite characters, so it was bad, but I could live with it. When I thought he also killed off Arya, I almost went ballistic!

It's funny how killing off Ned in book 1 makes all his death feints that much more effective because you truly believe the sick bastard might have killed the next one off too! I fell for it with Bran and Rickon, but on Arya I couldn't wait and had to skip ahead to be sure she lived (so far anyway)!

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I'm hoping it's more 'hollywood ugly' than 'real world ugly'. As in more plain than 'oh god put a bag over that'.

AVClub commenters suggested the chick that played Calamity Jane on Deadwood, but some found her too small of frame.
Prettified

Calamitied

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Damn...why'd they have to cast her as the perpetual maiden?

I hope they figure out some sort of way to get her boned a lot; that girl was blazing in Tudors.

Spoiler!

Come on, now. I know how you feel about anything gratuitous.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by Hawk

Spoiler!

I see where you're coming from, on the other hand, in hindsight, it was perfectly predictable given what an ass Lord Frey was from the start. It shows that Robb was not mature enough or ready enough to be king and to lead a war. How he let himself get sucked into the Jeyne deal is beyond me, and it was his undoing. It's a stark (heh) contrast to his father. Ned died because of his honor, Robb dies because he forsakes his honor and ignores the promise he made to wed Frey's daughter.

Even if it was gratuitous, it makes for some of the most compelling reading I've ever experienced and set off more emotions from a book than any other I can recall. So it was effective, if also cruel. Even more cruel to pretend Arya dies too in the very next chapter. Robb and Catelyn were not my favorite characters, so it was bad, but I could live with it. When I thought he also killed off Arya, I almost went ballistic!

Spoiler!

Exactly. And I have a feeling it will end up being a huge catalyst for what comes in the final three books. We're already feeling the ripples by the end of ASOS and throughout AFOC. Much like Ned's death, I think it'll make more and more sense (in the grand scheme) as the story unfolds further.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

AVClub commenters suggested the chick that played Calamity Jane on Deadwood, but some found her too small of frame.

Actually, that could be a good hint for the direction they may go. Robin Weigert isn't exactly ugly, but they somehow turned her into Calamity Jane with makeup and costume.

Ahh, you added pics as I was posting - helps emphasize the point.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Wheel of Time is much longer series at 14 books (after the last one comes out next year). The books average around 850 pages, so the individual books are similar in length to the ASOIF books. Regardless, it's a big undertaking if you want to try and get through the whole thing from the beginning.

The story itself is much more based around the supernatural and "OMG TEH WORLD COULD DIE!!!!", and it's definitely a tale of good vs. evil, unlike ASOIF which blurs the lines between the two considerably.

I personally think that Robert Jordan does a great job of painting pictures of scenes with his words, which is one of the big selling points of the books for many. It was much easier for me to get wrapped up in the WoT books than it has for the ASOIF books just because there's a lot of cliffhangers and drama and less jumping around. However, critics of Robert Jordan would tell you that he tends to ramble on and on at times, describing things in excruciating detail without really advancing the plot.

I'm about halfway through Book 3 of the ASOIF series at the moment, and so far I'd say that I enjoy the WoT books slightly better just because of how much they grabbed me and held me in that world. However, both series are incredibly compelling in very different ways.

BTW you were right about Sanderson's writing. Once I got past the first couple hundred pages of set-up the action really started to move. Towers of Midnight flew by although it felt like he crammed a lot of things into the end.
I'm looking forward to the last book coming out.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Hawk

Spoiler!

I see where you're coming from, on the other hand, in hindsight, it was perfectly predictable given what an ass Lord Frey was from the start. It shows that Robb was not mature enough or ready enough to be king and to lead a war. How he let himself get sucked into the Jeyne deal is beyond me, and it was his undoing. It's a stark (heh) contrast to his father. Ned died because of his honor, Robb dies because he forsakes his honor and ignores the promise he made to wed Frey's daughter.

Even if it was gratuitous, it makes for some of the most compelling reading I've ever experienced and set off more emotions from a book than any other I can recall. So it was effective, if also cruel. Even more cruel to pretend Arya dies too in the very next chapter. Robb and Catelyn were not my favorite characters, so it was bad, but I could live with it. When I thought he also killed off Arya, I almost went ballistic!

It's funny how killing off Ned in book 1 makes all his death feints that much more effective because you truly believe the sick bastard might have killed the next one off too! I fell for it with Bran and Rickon, but on Arya I couldn't wait and had to skip ahead to be sure she lived (so far anyway)!

Spoiler!

Didn't bite on Bran or Arya, actually. W/ Bran, he kept saying "its better to be feared" and he made some mention about what he'd have to do. I figured for sure he just couldn't find them and found a couple of random heads to put on the wall because he knew he needed to put someone up there. It was the only option he had if they didn't show up. Besides, there was too much development of the 'three eyed crow' to just shut it off.

As for Arya, A) It didn't fit Martin's mode of killing people; there wasn't quite enough detail. B) What sense did it make? The Hound gained nothing by killing her. If he wanted her dead, he could just leave her to the Frey's. I immediately assumed it was a broadside to take her out before she could kill herself

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by Baby Lee

Chaz

As in bono?

[Red Brooklyn]

No news, just interesting speculation.

http://winter-is-coming.net/2011/01/...n-two-brienne/