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.

[NewChief]

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.

HBO will probably run with the hints of her being a lesbian.

[TrickyNicky]

Heh. I was just looking at the comments on there. Gwendolyn Christie with a few months of muscle building and some fugly makeup could be a perfect "Hollywood" Brienne.

[Red Brooklyn]

Originally Posted by TrickyNicky

Heh. I was just looking at the comments on there. Gwendolyn Christie with a few months of muscle building and some fugly makeup could be a perfect "Hollywood" Brienne.

Of the ones listed on that site, I think she's the easy front runner. I could totally see her in the role with a little help from the make-up department.

Evan Damen looks right though. No idea if she can act but she's got the look.

[keg in kc]

As far as Wheel of Time versus Ice and Fire, it's sort of apples and oranges, and I think preference comes down to taste more than anything else. WoT is light, more traditional epic fantasy, heavy on magic and and there really aren't much in the way of stakes for individual characters. That is to say nobody important ever dies. Bad things happen to them, but not fatal things, and the cast in Book 1 is the cast at the start of Book 15, at least as far as the main characters go (people may die in the final book, who knows...). Whereas SoIaF is the polar opposite of that, it's dark fantasy, much lighter on the magical elements, and it's much more based in what we would see as 'reality'. The fantasy elements are still there, but people are primarily just people and can and do actually die. And it's gritty, dank, dark and dirty, the entire thing filled with shades of gray (whereas the entire run of WoT is basically sheer black versus white) and not much about the story is romanticized (Sansa herself is evidence of this, the princess who slowly wakes up to the real world).

I love both series, I've read both series multiple times and I couldn't tell you that I like one more than the other. So that's not what I'm trying to say here. Just that they're very, very different creatures, and while I think there are lots of crossover fans, I think that you'd also find that the things some folks love about Wheel of Time would make them hate Ice and Fire, and vice-versa.

[vailpass]

Moraine's Blue Ajah ass would have stayed dead as old dad's hat in IaF.

[Braincase]

Just finished up the last episode of GoT. I'm all in. Have come into all of the audiobooks for the rest of the books in the series. Starting on them soon. Working through the Legacy of the Aldenata series right now.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Braincase

Just finished up the last episode of GoT. I'm all in. Have come into all of the audiobooks for the rest of the books in the series. Starting on them soon. Working through the Legacy of the Aldenata series right now.

Do they still play?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by vailpass

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.

Cool. My guess is that he had to cover a lot of background stuff off the bat to set up for the rest of the action. Once he got into the action, it really started to fly for me as it sounds like it did for you. I think he's just trying to finish the damn thing, so he's rushing through all of the major plot points. Certainly different than RJ, but at least we can be reasonably confident that he'll actually finish the damn thing!

[Fishpicker]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

As far as Wheel of Time versus Ice and Fire, it's sort of apples and oranges, and I think preference comes down to taste more than anything else. WoT is light, more traditional epic fantasy, heavy on magic and and there really aren't much in the way of stakes for individual characters. That is to say nobody important ever dies. Bad things happen to them, but not fatal things, and the cast in Book 1 is the cast at the start of Book 15, at least as far as the main characters go (people may die in the final book, who knows...). Whereas SoIaF is the polar opposite of that, it's dark fantasy, much lighter on the magical elements, and it's much more based in what we would see as 'reality'. The fantasy elements are still there, but people are primarily just people and can and do actually die. And it's gritty, dank, dark and dirty, the entire thing filled with shades of gray (whereas the entire run of WoT is basically sheer black versus white) and not much about the story is romanticized (Sansa herself is evidence of this, the princess who slowly wakes up to the real world).

I love both series, I've read both series multiple times and I couldn't tell you that I like one more than the other. So that's not what I'm trying to say here. Just that they're very, very different creatures, and while I think there are lots of crossover fans, I think that you'd also find that the things some folks love about Wheel of Time would make them hate Ice and Fire, and vice-versa.

Ice and Fire is the first High fantasy series I could get into. I prefer Low fantasy like Robert E. Howard's Conan. Then again, Ice and fire has some Low aspects to it. GRRM writes the political angles of fantasy so very well.

[Hammock Parties]

Wasn't Renly supposed to be gay?

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Fishpicker

Ice and Fire is the first High fantasy series I could get into. I prefer Low fantasy like Robert E. Howard's Conan. Then again, Ice and fire has some Low aspects to it. GRRM writes the political angles of fantasy so very well.

Isn't Conan technically Sword and Sorcery, like Lieber's Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser stories?

I know people have pigeonholed it there, but I don't think I'd ever depict Ice and Fire as High Fantasy. It's very much reality-based although it happens to take place in a completely fictional world, and as we've oft discussed in this thread, it doesn't have the black and white moral polarity that usually personifies the Epic genre. The magical elements of the story are extremely limited, to boot.

I'm not sure I wouldn't say Conan isn't closer to High Fantasy than Ice and Fire, but that's just my own opinion.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Red 5

Wasn't Renly supposed to be gay?

If you're referring to yesterday's casting, it's an entirely political marriage, and, although it's been a while since I read the second book, as I recall their betrothal is the point in the books where his homosexuality is most evident (generally due to comments by other characters).

[Hammock Parties]

That should be interesting.

[Fishpicker]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Isn't Conan technically Sword and Sorcery, like Lieber's Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser stories?

yes, but I regard it as low fantasy. I call it that because it resembles the low period of the dark ages. maybe even lower.

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I know people have pigeonholed it there, but I don't think I'd ever depict Ice and Fire as High Fantasy. It's very much reality-based although it happens to take place in a completely fictional world, and as we've oft discussed in this thread, it doesn't have the black and white moral polarity that usually personifies the Epic genre. The magical elements of the story are extremely limited, to boot.

Ice and Fire lacks the prose of high fantasy but the fictitious setting can be fanciful in places. my rule of thumb: if anyone uses the phrases mi'lord or mi'lady, it is partly high fantasy.

Also i would argue that some characters do express black/white morality. The shades of gray are the average but not the mean.

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I'm not sure I wouldn't say Conan isn't closer to High Fantasy than Ice and Fire, but that's just my own opinion.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Fishpicker

yes, but I regard it as low fantasy. I call it that because it resembles the low period of the dark ages. maybe even lower.

As I understand it, the term 'low fantasy' has to do with the amount of fantastical elements there are in the story. Basically it's like fantasy light, fantasy without much in the way of magic, without anything but humans, set either in our world or a world similar to ours. As I mentioned, Conan's sword and sorcery, or heroic fantasy. In fact Howard's generally credited for creating the entire subgenre. It's not low fantasy.

Ice and Fire lacks the prose of high fantasy but the fictitious setting can be fanciful in places. my rule of thumb: if anyone uses the phrases mi'lord or mi'lady, it is partly high fantasy.

Yeah, that's not what makes high fantasy high fantasy. It's not about prose or languarge. That's a misperception.

Basically, Ice and Fire started out as low fantasy but with epic or high fantasy scale (multiple characters), despite opening with the wights in the prologue, but as Dany's subplot progressed to the point the season ended with, the appearance of dragons, and then Stannis and Melisandre were introduced in the second novel and the things they do (I won't spoil that...), it began to shift more and more towards high fantasy.

Actually, it's really difficult to pin down what Ice and Fire is because it has so many elements of both High and Low Fantasy...

And in fact, I've kind of always hated the whole concept of High and Low Fantasy, because the definitions are so vague and often subjective. But that's an argument for another time.

I gotta get some sleep. You know it's bad when you're arguing a position that you really don't like in the first place.