Game of Thrones

Until I read the last post on the Winter is Coming I was about to write up a short piece called ‘Game on !’ as every other press cutting, cast hint, and piece of behind the scenes evidence is pointing towards the Game of thrones series going into production soon after March.

However unknown one source (Michael) is claiming that  he had sources saying some people in HBO didn’t like the initial cut of the Pilot, has sent worries round the community. There has been some back tracking saying that it was only first cut and itwas more a muted response than a dislike. Also no one else with any sources has picked up a hint of this speculation.

I still think were safe to assume unless we get more substantive source or evidence its incredibly likely that game of Thrones will be green lit sometime towards the start of march.

Reasons for think so have been

• Positive comments from Harry Lloyd
• Mysterious comments from Esme (Would we have her any other way?)
• The booking of the paint hall by HBO
• Belfast agency prepping up for fantasy extras
• Named and reliable Michael Lombardo quotes about dallies looking fantastic

Nah im still confident it will be Game on !

OK maybe im a little late on the news but im excited about Jason Momoa being cast in the remake of Conan. For a number of reasons

1. I am excited that Conan is being remade at all, its may not be the best film ever but it had a very special place in my adolescence so I have found memories of it.
2. Jason Momoa has been cast as Conan, which is a great piece of casting, and far enough away from Arnie to be interesting.
3. Every report I have read on it says Game of Thrones ‘Jason Momoa’ which has amazed me he spent a number of years as one of the lead cast members on Stargate Atlantis, but he now being defined as belonging to a series which has not even been greenlit yet. A truly remarkable level of anticipation.

Anyone on interesting it bit picked up from one of the articles read is that filming for Conan starts in Bulgaria on March the 15th, looking at schedules this may impact on out perceptions of timings for the films shooting once things get green lit.

However I would imagine Jason will be required for a second film shoot in Morocco and timing for that will probably be later again,a nd the shoot for Conon may be brief due to the limited dialogue.

A recent piece about Harry Lloyd sees him talking as if it the series is a sure thing in a quote recently about the show he talks about it in a emphatic way..

OK it may be a lazy piece of journalism, but im getting the impression things are almost a done deal.

Anyway apologies to the Americans for the quote, but is true yank accents just seem out of place in fantasy.

Currently baring his buttocks nightly in The Little Dog Laughed in the West End, Harry Lloyd’s next assignment will be Game of Thrones, an HBO medieval fantasy with Sean Bean and Iain Glen.

An American accent will not required. “It’s an unspoken rule that if you’re American, you can’t hold a sword,” the amiable actor tells me. “It’ll be like Lord of the Rings. Everyone will do a non-accent. It will be great fun.”

I can’t claim credit for this but I discovered a competition many of you may be interested in here on BSC.  To quote the site it is a chance to win

….a very sweet print of the cover art to the Meisha Merlin edition of George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones (one of the nicest editions to have in my opinion). The cover was painted by one of my favorite artists/painters in the business, one Jeffrey Jones. It’s often quoted, but the legendary Frazetta himself once called Jones the “greatest living painter”. This print is a part of a limited run of 375 copies….

For full details on the competition and how to enter visit BSC Game of Thrones competition, enjoy and I hope you win.

New Year has seen the Buzz and anticipation continue about Game of Thrones from some of the biggest publications round, James Poniewozik of Time, when listing his 11^th most awaited items of 2010 says

“Game of Thrones. OK, we don’t know if this show will exist, and if it ever does, it may not see air until 2011. But the new year should at least finally bring word as to whether the much-buzzed-about HBO pilot for George R. R. Martin’s grown-up fantasy saga will become a series.”

He knows its going to be out in 2011, but it still makes his 2010 list J.

Game of Thrones also makes the list of Ken Tucker, TV critic for Entertainment Weekly who in his list for 2010, asks for

HBO commits to its adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones.

What is of interest here is these guys are mainstream critics for mainstream publications not genre writers, who are excited about Game of Thrones 3 months before the pilot gets seen by HBO, let alone the series heading into production.

Canadas MSN also got in on the act with the following quote from Kim LineKin

Series pick-up to be confirmed by HBO in March
There are already two blogs devoted to following the casting and Northern Ireland location shoot of this series’ pilot episode, which HBO hasn’t yet confirmed will air. The reason for the feverish fan interest? The series is an adaptation of the first novel in George R.R. Martin’s beloved fantasy series that uses knights, tournaments, creatures and icy locations in the service of telling human stories where villains aren’t always the bad guys and where the honourable solution isn’t always the best one in the long run. (Thanks to Time Magazine and the Chicago Tribune for these observations.) Lena Headey from “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” will play a royal woman who’s as cunning as the men around her. Peter Dinklage, Sean Bean, Jennifer Ehle and Mark Addy costar. With any luck, HBO will green light enough games to take us through all the novels in Martin’s saga.

Another piece that I have picked up is from Alex Werpin from Broadcast and Cable

Post-True Blood, the premium cable networks suddenly have a thirst for geek-friendly fare, exploring genres that otherwise may have been left to Syfy. HBO is producing a 60-minute pilot for Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels of George R.R. Martin. The expensive pilot garnered buzz at Comic-Con and online, with many industry observers expecting a series pickup shortly after the pilot gets delivered early this year.

This is all good news as far as the series is concerned, and I am currently thinking that the pilot must really flop, for the series not to get the green light with this kind of anticipation.

Our Harry just can’t seem to stop talking about Game of Thrones at the moment, in this quiet season of Game of Thrones news between the filming and the decision in March, when websites such of this are looking round for Game of Thrones related news items. Harry Lloyd has popped uop with two comments the week before Christmas.

The first in the Gay times

Refreshingly down to Earth for a 26-year-old in his position, he refers to himself as ‘a worrier’. Which makes it all the more gratifying to see him talk about his current other project, a pilot for a new HBO fantasy series, Game of Thrones, based on a range of books. He likens it to a less-magical Lord of the Rings (‘big battles, political and quite dark’) and gleefully describes his role as ‘a brilliant fucking character, a really nice nasty part’.

It’s something he returns to throughout our interview, each time becoming so animated that I actually want to put in a call to the television network and demand they commission a full series as it clearly means that much to him.

and the second in an interesting piece in observer whihc can be found on the guarduian website.

Lloyd, meanwhile, is used to playing around with the dark side. His most talked-about part to date has been a scene-stealing role as a Doctor Who villain (in The Family of Blood episode), and he has just recorded a pilot for HBO’s Game of Thrones, a major ensemble piece crammed with British luminaries which Lloyd describes with relish as a “dark, political intrigue set in a fantasy world… with incest”.

First, though, there’s the stage-run of The Little Dog Laughed, with Tamsin Greig and Rupert Friend in January. Still, for this former Eton schoolboy, the stage can hold no new fears. “When I first started doing drama I had to play the girls because my voice hadn’t broken,” he remembers. “I hated it.

I say the article is interesting as Harry is noted as one of the two up and coming Brtitish actors to watch this year. If this is true it must mean that Game of Thrones must be seen as a project to watch this year.  Its also really encouraging to see Harry’s enthusaism for the project.

News coming out of Morocoo is that the  filming process for Game of Thrones is over. The last shoot finished in the early hours of Wednesday morning, which was the last in a number of night time shoots. Which meant the Morocco shoot at approximatley a week in length as was intially suggested on this site.

The pilot moves into post production now, with a Modern VideoFilm a respected post production company with an impressive lits of previous work including Battlestar Galatica (the one that caught my eye.), friends and a number of HBO shows.

The next stage firm date we have is March when HBO are expected to make the decision on the Pilot. Some are suggesting this will be moved forward , but I think this is boredom and frustration lenidng to thsi speculation. As the end of filming date was well  known when Geroge RR Martin let slip that March was the date at which HBO would make a decision.

Anyway any further siginificant news we will post here.

Ok here is the latest news from filming in Morcco there isnt as much of it for numerous reasons

1. It so far away from anywhere, it takes a while, for news to get out
2. I am guessing they are not using western fan boys (and girls) for extras, so various forums members are not on set and posting news.
3. Interent access seems to be sparse and requiring use of arabic/french keyboards.

Anyway the main source that we have is a post from George Martins ‘not a blog’  which can be found here GRRM not a blog , I  quote all of his post word for word but some salient details which come out.

• Filming is taking palce at Ouarzazate which is the heart of the Morocan film industry and some 4 hours from Marakesh.
• Filming has taken place on a modified internal jerusalem set used in Ridley scotts Kingdom of Heaven.
• they have filmed the “Illyrio’s manse where Dany first meets Khal Drogo” scene alreday.

I would not expect the same flow of information from Morocco, and this may be the only piece of news we get from the Morocco shoot. Anyway if anything else worth posting gets released, I will make sure it is covered here.

After 18th days of filming in the UK the vast majority of filming of the Game of Thrones has ended in the UK, locations included Doune Castle in Scotland, Ward Castle in Ireland, but the majority of filming was done at the Paint Hall in belfast.

Filming now moves to Morocco for all the location material with characters Daenerys Targaryen and Khal drogo. It has been suggested a one day turn round and filming to start tommorrow, but I suggest it is more realsitic to expect filming to take a few days break whilst they relocate countries.

No timings have been suggested for the filming in Morocco, but I would envisage a weeks worth of filming would enable them to shoot the required material, this is dependent on what percentage of the scenes with Daenerys  are being shot in location in Morocoo and if they did any in the studio in Belfast.

As stated in a previous posts filming on the 4th was inside the paint hall, but was not as stated elsewhere and blindly ( copied by me ) the Arrival of the King, but a sparing scene between some of the youngster characters.

Reports from extras talk about great costuming and excellent qualityin production values, but they are generally being good and giving very litttle away.

Also the numbers  of extras is interesting with over 100 being needed for thursdays filming. That is a big crowd.

Also coming from both extars reports and CRRMs blog is the fact there is a 2nd castle being used for filming in Ireland as well. Pure speculation from me is that they will be using the two castles to create the look and feel of the larger fictional castle of winterfell, but we will see.

Another peice of gossip to come out of the Dublin meet is that Sean Bean was both difficult and expensive to get into the Pilot, no suprises really as he is one of the bigger names with Hollywood pedeigree in the cast, and this is still currently just a TV pilot.