Tag Archives: George R. R. Martin

Game of Thrones: Season 2 to Remain at 10 Episodes

When I first saw news of this I was a little disappointed. My whole thinking was that if they had at least a twelve episode season 2 of the show then they could have put a little more of book 3/season 3 into the tail end, that way season 3 wouldn’t have to be cut short, but it was not to be. Check out what the show runners had to say from IGN below:

[box_light]The execs said, “If we could do 12 episodes, we would,” but that the creators of the show couldn’t “physically make more than 10” given the show’s scope, size and cost without either having there be more than a year-long delay between seasons or the quality being diluted. Game of Thrones was renewed while Season 1 was airing, long after it had wrapped production. It will be interesting to see if Season 3 (and beyond) get earlier renewals, giving the team more time to work – and perhaps allow for longer seasons.[/box_light]

Apparently to us simpletons there is far more that goes into a one hour episode of A Game of Thrones than we think, which is understandable because I’ll guarantee there is. At this point I’m more worried about season 3, since A Storm of Swords was 1,128 pages long and seemed like there was a lot more going on in the story than there was in book 2. Season 3 will undoubtedly be the best season yet if it’s done right. And by done right I mean they can’t be cutting out a whole bunch of stuff. I hope the show runs to completion on all of the books, even though George R.R. Martin is still writing away at them. They also touched on that at IGN:

[box_light]With Season 1 such a big success, HBO clearly has a lot of enthusiasm about Game of Thrones, and at one point during the Q&A today the execs said, “We told George [R.R. Martin] we’d go as long as he kept writing.” Of course that’s not an official commitment to pick up the series for years, and Lombardo admitted, “It would be wonderful to say ‘this show will go on for ten years and include [every aspect] of the books,” but I don’t know if that will be the case.”

Still, they are clearly hopeful for the show to go the distance, given the fandom so far, noting it was new for them. At one point, the execs remarked, “People have been watching casting on this show in a way we’ve never experienced before.”[/box_light]

I think with more and more fans spreading the word that Game of Thrones will remain the ratings monster that it has been for HBO. Hopefully this means that certain scenes will still look good due to budgeting and we’ll get to see the whole story play out. If not then I suppose we still have George Martin’s excellent books to read.

Comic-Con International ’11 – The Panels!

I have to say, I’ve covered Comic-Con before (by covered I mean read about and reported), and while it was always a great place to get news regarding the various superhero movies out there, I am a little floored by the sheer amount of news already out there. And it’s not even at the halfway point. Well, maybe the halfway point.

So what do I have for you today? Panels. A buttload of panels for movies, comics, TV, everything. We already told you about the Dexter panel and showed you the trailer, but here’s a few more, by few I mean a lot, and by a lot I mean settle in and get comfortable. I’ll try to throw some other stuff in here and there as well. I’ll start off with a show we’ve been following pretty heavily here on Grizzly Bomb.

Continue reading Comic-Con International ’11 – The Panels!

2 Roles Cast For Game of Thrones Season 2

Though there are still a ton of parts in Game of Thrones Season 2 (I hope they start calling it A Clash of Kings) to be cast such as Robert and Renly’s brother Stannis, and his ‘advisor’ Melisandre, two of them are indeed ready to go. The first, which I see as a very limited role for this season, is the sister of Loras Tyrell (The Knight of the Flowers) Margaery.

She will be portrayed by Natalie Dormer, who’s most notable role to date is that of Anne Boleyn in the Showtime series The Tudors. Dormer looks suited to play the role of the prim and proper Margaery… or is she so proper? Wait till season 2 to find out.

What a marvelous photoshop job by Dr. Kronner

The next role filled is by far the more interesting one, and quite a big part to fill at that (Pun intended). According to IGN, 6’3 tall Gwendoline Christie will play the part of ‘Brienne of Tarth’, a noble born woman who seeks to become a knight in Westeros where women aren’t normally accepted in that role.

She’s basically what Arya always wanted to become in a sense. And if you’re growning thinking that this is some sappy tale of woman’s struggle to be accepted then you’re sadly mistaken. Most of the guys in the series don’t agree with her pretending to be a warrior wearing armor, and many aren’t afraid to tell her. I think its best to clear up also that Gwendoline Christie is a model, and before book purists start freaking out may I remind of how unattractive they made Natalia Tena as Osha look in season 1.

I’m sure Brienne will be her normal unattractive self when the time comes. Read what George R.R. Martin had to say about the casting on his blog via IGN:

On his blog, Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin — a co-executive producer on the TV series — wrote about Christie’s casting, using the above photo as accompaniment.

Wrote Martin, “This was another one of those cases where there was hardly any debate. The day the first batch of auditions went up for the role, we looked at a dozen actresses who were reading for Brienne and one actress who WAS Brienne. Gwendoline gave a great reading, and her look was just perfect. No, when she auditioned, she did not look she does in the photo above. She came in looking… well, like Brienne.”

So hopefully we’ll know plenty more of the actors and actresses cast after Game of Thrones panel is unleashed at the San Diego Comic Con later this month. After all filming for season 2 is scheduled to start at the end of July, so definitely expect the floodgates to open!

What do all you GoT fans think of the casting decisions? Perfect or too minor to care?

Game of Thrones Novel ‘A Dance of Dragons’ Leaked – George R.R. Martin Pissed

I would love, love, LOOOOOOOVE to have read A Dance of Dragons early, because it’s been pure torture waiting the last few years for George R.R. Martin’s 5th installment of A Song of Ice and Fire to be released. (That’s the name of the series that the HBO watchers would call a Game of Thrones.) But I have to tell ya, I’m not willing to risk a decapitation for it because that’s what the main man himself has promised to the bastard who sold 180 copies earlier than the July 12th release date of the novel. Check it out below from IGN:

Woe to the Amazon employee who accidentally shipped copies of George R. R. Martin’s 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, early. 180 copies of the book, which was heavily embargoed until its release date on July 12th, were prematurely shipped out to readers by Amazon in Germany and now spoilers have begun to pop up all over the web.

“I am not happy about this. My publishers are furious. If we find out who is responsible, we will mount his head on a spike,” the Game of Thrones author wrote on his blog.

That’s just great. Now I have to tread very carefully until the 12th because there are 180 potential assholes out there who could spoil what happens in the book. I won’t even be reading the comments on my own article for fear of it being blown wide open for me! But be careful viewers of the TV show before you read on, because I’m unleashing a couple spoilers of my own below!

You’ve been warned!

SPOILERS

See what happens Stark! You see what happens when you release a book early!?

After the last book, A Feast for Crows, we are finally back with some of our more favorite characters. It was nice to see Jaime and Cersei Lannisters’ points of view but I’ll take Arya, Tyrion and Jon Snow any day. Daenerys I don’t mind, but I don’t find her as interesting as the others. We’ll be seeing her for sure as she practices at being Queen in Mereen as well as the development of her three dragons who continue to grow. Tyrion is off across the Narrow Sea to escape the vengeance of his sister Cersei due to his “supposed” killing of Joffrey and his bad ass murder of papa Tywin. Arya now in Bravoss continues her training with the assassins known as the Faceless Men and Jon is now trying to secure his position as the 998th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch against those who still bear him ill will.

I can’t wait to finally see what is happening with everyone and will definitely be waiting for July 12th because Mr. Martin looks like he could have the penchant for going medieval on your ass.

Game of Thrones: Most Anticipated Locations PART 1

Winterfell: Cool. The Wall: Impressive. King’s Landing: Breathtaking. The Eyrie: Intimidating. Yes we have seen some of the most important locations from the Song of Ice And Fire series in the HBO series A Game of Thrones. But there are still so many to come and there are some good ones. I’ve compiled a list of some of the coolest ones that HBO will no doubt make look as brilliant as the ones we’ve already seen thus far. There may be some spoilers below, however minor. You’ve been warned!

SPOILERS! (you’ve been warned again)

Harrenhal

-Ruling Lord: (Currently) House Baelish

Harrenhal is the largest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but is for most of the time uninhabited due its cost to maintain and the amount of people needed to run it smoothly. It is widely believed to be cursed since every Lord who has had dominion over it has fallen to an ill fate time and time again. I assure you over the course of the series you’ll see it change hands more than once, starting with Janos Slynt who was made Lord of Harrenhal for betraying Ned Stark in “The Pointy End”. Eventually it falls into the hands of one Petyr Baelish though we have yet to see if anything unbecoming happens to him.

Storm’s End

-Bastard Last Names: Storm

-Ruling Lords: House Baratheon

So who wouldn’t want to see Storm’s End, the home of the Baratheons? The castle itself has never in its history been breached during war or by a siege. The only reason the last ruler lost it to the Baratheons was because he was stupid enough to meet them in open combat. The Baratheon’s would probably have never been the new Storm Lords if he hadn’t done that. After the War of the Usurper, Renly was placed as the lord of Storm’s End while Stannis as the heir to Robert was given the traditional island fortress of Dragonstone.

Dragonstone

-Ruling Lords: (currently) House Lannister

Before conquering the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, House Targaryen made their home at Dragonstone, an island in the Blackwater Bay to the far Northeast of King’s Landing. Everything about the castle of Dragonstone is of course likened to Dragons. Would you expect any less from the Targaryens? From the towers, the walls and even the main kitchen it was dragons, dragons and more dragons. After the Targaryen conquest of Westeros, Dragonstone became the seat of the heir to the present king. So after the Targaryens were forced out of power the island fell under the rule of Stannis Baratheon (brother to Robert) who was none too happy to lose the bountiful lands of Storm’s End for the rocky and poor island of Dragonstone.  Sure it looked cool, but it didn’t have much in means of population besides a fishing village. To add insult to injury his younger brother Renly was given command of Storm’s End. That’s the bummer man. Still, I’d like to see Dragonstone on film because dragons are awesome…

Highgarden

-Bastard Last Names: Flowers

-Ruling Lords: House Tyrell

The family of Loras Tyrell, Knight of the Flowers rules over Highgarden, which is a lush and bountiful land further South of King’s Landing. This one may have a wait in being seen on the HBO series because it has not yet been visited in the book series yet. The Tyrells become very involved in the story but their homeland hasn’t as of yet. Hopefully the picture below can give you an idea of what it might look like until we do in the series.

Dorne

-Bastard Last Name: Sand

-Ruling Lords: House Martell

The Martell family don’t really show up until book 3, and we aren’t treated to the location of Dorne and it’s capital Sunspear until book 4. Dorne is located in the southern most part of Westeros, being the only location with a desert. The most interesting thing about Dorne is that they were the only kingdom that resisted the Targaryen’s during their conquest of Westeros and didn’t actually join the seven kingdoms proper until they married into the Targaryen bloodline. The Targaryens allowed Dorne to join the seven kingdoms after that while still being able to rule themselves under Dornish law, in order to entice them into loyalty.

A Game of Thrones – Top Ten Kills of Season One

I love Game of Thrones. It has a great story, awesome actors along with the characters they play, and the set pieces and production value on the show are staggering. But if you want to get down to the nitty-gritty, and talk about some of the more primitive likings of the show, then look no further than the gory, and most times inventive ways of people getting killed. From beheadings to burnings, and bludgeoning to maulings, Game of Thrones has a pretty impressive list of ways certain characters died a horrible death. Some made us cry, but the majority of them made us go –“AWWW SWEET!” So without further adieu let’s take a look at the top ten…

Continue reading A Game of Thrones – Top Ten Kills of Season One