HBO orders "A Song of Ice and Fire" pilot

[Brendan Moody]

There's a blog for discussion and news about the project.

Also, producers Benioff and Weiss have made a couple posts to the fan message board asoiaf.westeros.org, noting that the series will probably film in the UK with a primarily UK-native cast, and that as speculated some of the kids will have to be aged up, for practical (child labor laws) as well as dramatic reasons.

 

[Shurik]

There's a blog for discussion and news about the project.

Also, producers Benioff and Weiss have made a couple posts to the fan message board asoiaf.westeros.org, noting that the series will probably film in the UK with a primarily UK-native cast, and that as speculated some of the kids will have to be aged up, for practical (child labor laws) as well as dramatic reasons.

A very interesting entry from this message board:
http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=32275&st=80&p=1607351&#entry1607351

So, the pilot will start at the prologue (cool) and will end with a killer cliffhanger (even cooler). Sounds good.

 

[Venardhi]

The producers have said the age changes will be minimal. 2-3 years tops, mostly so that they can convincingly cast of-age actors for roles that may require nudity and/or sex scenes and to avoid having as many actors who will be limited in their time on set each day. The characters will still be as close to their book ages as possible though.

They've also said the script for the first episode starts with:

Spoiler: First Line

"We should go back."

and ends with:

Spoiler: Last Line

"The things I do for love."

 

[Hugo Rune]

Hehe... awesome


Hugo - predictive wunderkint

 

[Skywalker]

They've also said the script for the first episode starts with:

Spoiler: First Line

"We should go back."

and ends with:

Spoiler: Last Line

"The things I do for love."

Nice. That's exactly how I pictured it ending.

 

[Wouter2]

Yeah, that was to be expected. Good choice to end the episode with.

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

The producers have said the age changes will be minimal. 2-3 years tops, mostly so that they can convincingly cast of-age actors for roles that may require nudity and/or sex scenes and to avoid having as many actors who will be limited in their time on set each day. The characters will still be as close to their book ages as possible though.

They've also said the script for the first episode starts with:

Spoiler: First Line

"We should go back."

and ends with:

Spoiler: Last Line

"The things I do for love."

Anyone here with a book who would like to tell what happens in book on those lines? Its been some time since I read them last time and I dont have book here now..

 

[Roger Wilco]

Anyone here with a book who would like to tell what happens in book on those lines? Its been some time since I read them last time and I dont have book here now..

I haven't read the book in years, but if I'm not mistaken, that sentence is said by

Spoiler: .

Jaime Lannister after pushing Bran out of the window...

 

[Skywalker]

Anyone here with a book who would like to tell what happens in book on those lines? Its been some time since I read them last time and I dont have book here now..

I haven't read the book in years, but if I'm not mistaken, that sentence is said by

Spoiler: .

Jaime Lannister after pushing Bran out of the window...

Yup.

Spoiler: A Game of Thrones

Bran was fond of climbing all over Winterfell, and was climbing one of the towers when he accidentally spotted Jaime and Cersei Lannister making love, although he didn't recognize either of them. Jaime manages to catch Bran, and is holding him at the window. Cersei orders Jaime to dispose of the boy to protect their secret, and Jaime answers, "The things I do for love," before letting Bran fall to the ground far below, crippling him.

If all goes well, it should make for an excellent cliffhanger.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Yeah, it's a great scene; one of the really big "shockers" in "A Song of Ice and Fire"...
I remember having to lay the book down after that and thinking "WTF?".

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

I haven't read the book in years, but if I'm not mistaken, that sentence is said by

Spoiler: .

Jaime Lannister after pushing Bran out of the window...

Thanks. That's what I thought it was, but wasnt sure. That's a great scene to end an episode.

 

[Venardhi]

Yeah, it's a great scene; one of the really big "shockers" in "A Song of Ice and Fire"...
I remember having to lay the book down after that and thinking "WTF?".

There are conveniently placed cliffhangers throughout all the books, should help a lot with scripting them into episodes.

 

[Shurik]

A review of the pilot script:
http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/2008/12/winter-is-comings-exclusive-pilot.html

Sounds great!

 

[Roger Wilco]

^^^
Thanks for the link - positive reviews like that make me happy, I can't wait for it to air.

 

[JD]

Wow, the timing for this is pretty ironic for me. I actually just found out about this series while looking for some fantasy books to check out. I do have one quick question though, just how "fantasy" are these books? From what I've read it doesn't sound like there's much in these that people usually associate with fantasy.

 

[Skywalker]

They actually get more "fantasy" with each successive book, except for the fourth one, which kind of goes back to the first book's slightly more grounded feel. But there's definitely a very strong fantasy undertone to the series.

 

[JD]

Cool. From what I read, it sounds like it should be a really cool show, although it's definitely sounds like something only HBO or Showtime could do properly.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Wow, the timing for this is pretty ironic for me. I actually just found out about this series while looking for some fantasy books to check out. I do have one quick question though, just how "fantasy" are these books? From what I've read it doesn't sound like there's much in these that people usually associate with fantasy.

Well, there is fantasy in these books, it's just not as obvious and cliché as in other books of that genre; initially it's more like a medieval world from an alternate dimension or so. And the "magic" in A Song of Ice and Fire is more supernatural than wizards with pointy hats throwing fireballs around.

 

[Venardhi]

The fantasy aspects of ASOIF are generally things like extinct megafauna from our world still existing in some parts of theirs, a few fantastic creatures or slightly different versions of earth creatures roaming around, at least two other sentient humanoid species(and possibly three, though at least one of the former appear to be entirely magical in origin), dragons have existed in the past and were quite prominant in history, seemingly unpredictably long summers and winters, etc.

The classical wizard/warlock magic is pretty scarce until the third book, but even then it isn't an everyday occurance.

 

[FreezeC77]

The casting choice for Tyrion may well be what makes or breaks this series because of the significant role that he plays. You don't want people just laughing or not buying into a dwarf actor, you need this guy to be taken seriously.