HBO has greenlighted A Game Of Thrones

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Some information that's come to light about the show:

- The first season, consisting of 10 episodes, will mostly be written by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Jane Espenson will write the sixth episode on a freelance basis. George R.R. Martin and Bryan Cogman, the show's script coordinator, will also write an episode apiece.

- The first season is budgeted at £30 million ($45 million), making it the third most expensive ongoing series in HBO's history to date (after Boardwalk Empire and Rome). With all of the tax breaks and subsidies they're getting to film in Northern Ireland the show will actually have about $55 million at its disposal for the first season, so the production values should be top-notch all around.

- HBO has released the first promo image:

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ Whoa...

Cheers,
-CM-

Edit to add: Battle of the Whispering Wood, perhaps?

 

[sidious618]

Jane Espensen? Fuck.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Edit to add: Battle of the Whispering Wood, perhaps?

No, the image would be from the pilot since that's all they've shot so far.

In other news one of the major parts has been recast. Jennifer Ehle will no longer be playing Catelyn Stark and has been replaced by Michelle Fairley. This is said to be because of behind the scenes considerations rather than any problem with Ehle's performance.

 

[FreezeC77]

So will they have to refilm all scenes with Catelyn that they shot in the pilot?

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

So will they have to refilm all scenes with Catelyn that they shot in the pilot?

Yep, or at least the shots that Catelyn is in.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Edit to add: Battle of the Whispering Wood, perhaps?

No, the image would be from the pilot since that's all they've shot so far.

In other news one of the major parts has been recast. Jennifer Ehle will no longer be playing Catelyn Stark and has been replaced by Michelle Fairley. This is said to be because of behind the scenes considerations rather than any problem with Ehle's performance.

Danke -- That's what I get for going back and re-reading the series from the beginning prior to either the mini-series or, eventually the release of A Dance with Dragons in the next year or three. (Hopefully sooner on the latter!)

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Either way, this is very exciting and thus far the casting has been fantastic in my opinion. The worry will be Jon, Dany, Jaime and Joffrey. Jon because he's the heroic young lead and needs some charisma as well as weight; Dany because she needs an actress with an astonishing range to pull off everything she goes through (the most significant character arc outside of Jaime in my opinion);

I hold out hopes that the fourth season of The Tudors will give us a better idea of Tamzin Merchant's range. The final episode of the third season didn't ask much of her except to 1) act bubbleheaded and 2) take her clothes off. Given the arc of Katherine Howard's history, however, Merchant should have some challenging material.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

A casting site has an entry up for the role of Dany in A Game of Thrones (which you can see here) leading to speculation that the role is also being recast. It has a different casting director named than the casting director who handled the previous casting for the pilot, though, so it's not clear whether the entry is valid or what's going on.

 

[Roshi]

Shouldn't it be "greenlit"?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Shouldn't it be "greenlit"?

No.

"HBO greenlit..." or "HBO has greenlighted..." but not "HBO has greenlit..." The subject line is proper and correct.

 

[Roshi]

O I C !
Thanks!

 

[Shurik]

Shouldn't it be "greenlit"?

No.

"HBO greenlit..." or "HBO has greenlighted..." but not "HBO has greenlit..." The subject line is proper and correct.

I know that my English is far from perfect, but not that far

 

[Colonel Midnight]

Given that GRRM uses the word(?) 'shat' as a verb in at least one of the books... I think you're okay.

Cheers,
-CM-

 

[JD]

I just wanted to pop in and say I'm really excited for the series even though I've only read a little bit of the first book (I stopped a few months ago, but I plan on starting over in the new future). Everything I've read about the books sounds really cool, and I'm a big fan of Sean Bean, Lena Heady, Nicolaj Colster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, and Jason Mamoa, so I really couldn't be more exited for this series.

A casting site has an entry up for the role of Dany in A Game of Thrones (which you can see here) leading to speculation that the role is also being recast. It has a different casting director named than the casting director who handled the previous casting for the pilot, though, so it's not clear whether the entry is valid or what's going on.

Could they have possibly gotten a different casting director for the series who decided to recast those roles?

 

[ATimson]

Could they have possibly gotten a different casting director for the series who decided to recast those roles?

The casting director wouldn't have just decided to recast anybody, especially when it would mean throwing out parts of the pilot; they'd be doing it in response to commands from above.

But yes, changing the casting director for the series is not an unusual step.

 

[Venardhi]

I personally wasn't particularly thrilled with a good bit of the casting in the pilot (all the adults aged up considerably, but inconsistently, when that complicates or outright contradicts the fairly important back-story and actors who have almost no resemblance to their characters were chosen: notably Mark Addy) so I could easily live with a fresh set of eyes.

 

[JD]

Would it be to spoiler to ask why the characters ages are so important to the story? Couldn't they just move the backstory events around to match the new ages?
Before anyone gets to worried, though, I think it's worth pointing out that GRRM is a writer/exec producer, so he is/was involved with the way things did/will develop.

 

[FreezeC77]

Would it be to spoiler to ask why the characters ages are so important to the story? Couldn't they just move the backstory events around to match the new ages?
Before anyone gets to worried, though, I think it's worth pointing out that GRRM is a writer/exec producer, so he is/was involved with the way things did/will develop.

It's not that important. GRRM himself has said he thought he should have had the characters a bit older in the books anyway. As for TV it makes no real difference, we have 18-20+ year olds playing teenagers on TV all the time so much that it's almost MORE unusual to have an actual teenager playing their age on TV.

 

[Venardhi]

Well, the most important part of the backstory is the war which requires a definite set date and can't just be a vague 'back then'. Many of the ages are dependent on that war. Dany needs to have been born very recently after the end, Jon and Robb sometime near the end, etc. When you have the teenage wedding of two characters being an accepted and even expected thing, the fact that Robert and Ned (and their wives) were in their late 20s-mid 30s before wedding (and purely for political reasons due to the war) strains credibility. The Hound shouldn't have been in the war due to being too young, and Gregor should have been a teenager. Tyrion should have been born only a few years before the war, since his birth (causing the death of his mother) is one of the major reasons his father walks away from being the hand of the king which is one of the triggers of the war since he wasn't there to 'handle' the old king. etc. etc. etc.

Martin's comments regarding the children is specifically about Bran and Arya, who I have no problem with aging up a couple years as long as the timeline is consistent.