First REAL trailer for HBO's A Game of Thrones

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Man, the sets and the costumes all look fantastic. Are we sure this didn't cost as much as Rome? Because I really want this to last more than two seasons.

Rome had a budget of $100-120 million for its first season (which ran for 12 episodes). The 10-episode first season of Game of Thrones was first reported as carrying a budget of $45 million and the latest reports are that it ended up as $60 million, although whether that's before or after the Northern Ireland tax breaks I don't know. Still, big budget shows on the broadcast networks have budgets in the range of $3-4 million per episode, so Game of Thrones has plenty of spending power for production values, even though it's thankfully well below the cost of Rome. The budget for Boardwalk Empire is in about the same ballpark as that of Game of Thrones.

 

[Skywalker]

Excellent. Hopefully the show's a hit, and the producers are able to keep the costs manageable.

 

[FreezeC77]

Man, the sets and the costumes all look fantastic. Are we sure this didn't cost as much as Rome? Because I really want this to last more than two seasons.

What I read before the season was filmed is that the budget was around $4.5 mil per episode spread out over the pilot and the rest of the season. A sizable amount of that would be in production/creation costs that would seem to be a one-time thing. I.E. building a set, costumes, etc... Stuff like that with infrastructure should mean the S2 costs would be less.

How does that compare to Deadwood/Carnivale/Rome... Well Carnivale cost around $4mil an episode, Deadwood was around $5mil, and Rome was close to $9m.

So how does it look so good with half the budget of Rome? Well from what I've read they've gotten a HUGE amount of tax breaks from Ireland and the Government has been criticized a bit for it (since they've done it with some other movies or shows like the Tudors). Estimates are around a 20% to 30% in tax breaks. So while they may spend $4.5m per episode over the season they're actually spending closer to say $6mil and getting tax refunds.

Also the costs of having costumes/materials/etc... created are less in Ireland. It's similar to how Peter Jackson filmed LOTR in New Zealand. Metalworkers/Weavers/whatever were so much less than if he had it created in the US.

Of course ultimately what will need to be seen is if the show attracts enough viewers through the run for HBO to think it can make money based on the projected S2 costs.

 

[Hyperspace05]

BTW, for those who missed it, here is the HBO version of the "Westeros + western Essos (free cities)" map that was snagged by someone before the link was taken down:

http://7kingdoms.ru/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/westeros-essos-map.jpg
(warning, 2800 x 3076)

 

[ProwlAlpha]

I always thought that the distance between Westeros and the Free Cities were larger.

 

[Hyperspace05]

It ain't called the 'Narrow Sea' for nothing. It certainly looks similar in size/width as the Mediterranean.

 

[JD]

Just watched the 25 min. BTS, and it really makes me want to go grab AGT. The hell with it, I'm going to start it again after I'm done here.

 

[Hyperspace05]

HBO has released yet another trailer, this one titled "Poison", and it plays up the mystery angle of the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T84d-lRNLs&feature=player_embedded

The trailer is not my cup of tea, but there are a lot of new footage in the quick cuts.

 

[Rulius]

Looks very good, I was some what wondering about the Others being out in daylight, as they only are seen at night. And how they looked..didn't see any armor. Minor things really I suppose.

 

[Venardhi]

If you watch closely the sky turns black during the course of the 'prologue'. While the snow may still be glistening white, I can only assume they intended it to be night.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Some information imparted by Martin on a conference call was revealed on the Westeros site:

According to GRRM, a character is killed in this 1st season of the series who does not die until the 3rd novel. Because of spoilers, he chose not to discuss it further (I tried!), but he did indicate it was a male character.

Benioff and Weiss deliberately made the change, which has interesting implications all of its own… such as already looking to find ways to trim down a potential third season by closing out or greatly compressing elements of A Storm of Swords.

 

[Scout101]

Spoiler: Guesses

Robb, or Joffrey? Those are the two real options, right? From a story telling standpoint, I'd guess Robb is the more likely choice, as you could do a little more of that up front, and not really miss it later. It does make things go to shit a lot faster for the Starks, though, as Caitlin run into a little trouble of her own there...

Joffrey has more potential as a story you could work with longer, although I guess you can just play into the Tommen story earlier?

Only other guess I've got could be the Lord Commander of the Night Watch, promoting Jon Snow earlier than intended. That would condense a lot of his story, but if you gave a little more for him earlier, it would solidify the situation in the North earlier than in the novels...

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

^^^
I don't think it'll be anyone as major as your first two guesses. In particular, I don't think they'll derail You Know What for the third season.

Your third guess may be right.

 

[Venardhi]

Lord Hoster Tully seems the most likely to not effect the story greatly while allowing them to skip a good chunk of material from season three.

 

[FreezeC77]

Hmm, well these were some of the male characters who died in book 3

Spoiler: some of the suspects

The big 2
Robb (Red Wedding betrayal at the Twins)
Joffrey


I doubt either one of them are killed off in S1 just because Robb's storyline is interesting.

If Joffrey dies in S1 it would really take away a lot of time from Sansa (Which may not be a bad thing) and she has often been one of the most criticized characters so I suppose it's possible after hearing all of it for years GRRM and the writers decided to take Sansa in a different direction much earlier in the series.

Other possibilites:
Beric Dondarrion - He had already died a few times before we're shown another of his resurrections in book 3. They could have him die during the jousting tournament in King's Landing (instead he was injured I believe) and then have Thoros bring him back to life. It would jump-start that part of the supernatural aspect of the series much earlier.

Oberyn Martell - Would be a significant reworking of the story since his death is tied into Joffrey dying and then Tyrion using Oberyn to fight and win Tyrion his innocence by combat.

Jeor Mormont - In order to keep Jon's storyline moving the events in the Night Watch may happen more quickly so we could see the vote to make him Commander happen as the season finale.

 

[Shurik]

^^^
I don't think it'll be anyone as major as your first two guesses. In particular, I don't think they'll derail You Know What for the third season.

Your third guess may be right.

The good folks at Westeros.org and Winter Is Coming reported that the character in question is minor, so I don't think it'll be

Spoiler: spoiler, what else might be here?

Joffrey or Robb or Old Bear. It's probably Hoster Tully or Rast or Beric

.

 

[Scout101]

To be fair. the old Lord Commander IS a minor character. Told he's important (by other characters), but from a story standpoint, he doesn't really DO anything in the story, other than bring Jon along and then die, which lets Jon take over. Could kill him earlier without a lot of loss to the story...

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Some good news for the show's prospects: according to The Hollywood Reporter it's already HBO's best-selling series abroad, fetching more than $2.5 million per episode, 50% above the international rate of The Sopranos.

 

[Shurik]

To be fair. the old Lord Commander IS a minor character. Told he's important (by other characters), but from a story standpoint, he doesn't really DO anything in the story, other than bring Jon along and then die, which lets Jon take over. Could kill him earlier without a lot of loss to the story...

Jon taking over at the end of the first season doesn't make much sense - he's still a rookie without any distinction other than being a Stark bastard. There are much better men than him at this point.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

HBO has a viewer's guide here with an interactive map (that can be scaled up and down) and a guide to the royal houses. Very cool, not to mention handy for those who need help in keeping everything straight.