Westeros

Looks like Canal+ Sweden is aiming for a Spring 2011 air date for Game of Thrones, according to their article covering the show. Headlined, “The most longed-for TV series ever” and claiming that “Not since The Lord of the Rings has there been so much interest in a book adaptation”, they go to discuss the massive fan following, the blogs and forums, and the like. We hope to eventually get a hold of a more precise air date.

At Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin explains his long silence over this holiday season having been due to an acute infection from E. coli. This led to an extended hospital stay from Christmas morning to just about New Year’s Eve, but antibiotics and other treatment have helped beat the illness. He is still recovering, and remains somewhat tired, but he confirms that he will follow through on his commitment to appear at the media-only TCA event this Friday, and will carry out his signing at Vroman’s bookstore in Pasadena on Sunday (he does ask fans who attend to go easy on him, however, and only bring a book or two for him to sign).

He also indicates that one of the announcements he hoped to make won’t be happening due to this, but he hopes to be fully recovered by the end of the month, and back to work before that. This does suggest he had hoped to spend the holidays finishing up A Dance with Dragons, but it appears he’ll need to get his health back on track.

Our best wishes to him as he recovers!

Over on Twitter, Sky Atlantic’s has confirmed that Game of Thrones will begin airing in the UK in April—the very same month it premires in the U.S. While it’s too much to hope that they’ll air the exact same day, we expect, it seems certain that it won’t be delayed more than a week or perhaps two.

Sky Atlantic will begin airing February 1st, and will be available to all current Sky customer free of charge through August 31st. After that time, it will remain available to customers who have subscribed to the Variety Pack. There’s also a Sky HD package upgrade which will provide Sky Atlantic in HD for those who subscribe to it.

The New York Times seems to show that fans have been ringing in the New Year with a healthy dose of A Game of Thrones. Their January 2nd list of mass market paperbacks shows George R.R. Martin’s novel—first published in that format in 1996—has entered the list at 25, while their following list places it up a spot to 24.

This resurgence of the series can be put down to the burgeoning awareness thanks to Game of Thrones, the HBO series, and fits the anecdotal evidence we’ve seen via Twitter, with every day seemingly bringing more people reading and tweeting about the series. We expect that Bantam’s planned reissue of the first novel with a cover featuring imagery from the series will likely land even higher as we get closer to the April premiere of the much-anticipated fantasy TV series.

A visit to the US Patent and Trademarks Office website has led to an interesting discovery: HBO has trademarked three new categories of Game of Thrones related products. We’ll discuss the three new categories, and what implications these new trademarks might have. Our first trademark story can be found here, from just over a year ago.

The holidays have eaten a lot of our spare time, and are set to eat a bit more for a couple of days yet, but I’ve sat down to get the latest Artisans video screencapped. There’s a focus on the armor, of course, but we do pick out one or two new pieces of heraldry among the banners on display on the Hand’s tourney, plus some thoughts on this and that.

The first screencap begins here, while you can get the gallery view of the Behind the Scenes gallery here.

The Malmö branch of SF Bokhandeln—Sweden’s (and perhaps Scandinavia’s) best SF/F bookstore—has a web poll up wondering what genre shows their visitors are most looking forward to. It’s just started, but HBO’s Game of Thrones has a comfortable lead… and for some reason we expect that lead to grow over time. ;)

While Canal+ in Sweden has not yet set a firm date for airing, we’ve heard that Canal+ in Finland has stated that they’re aiming for August 2011, and we wouldn’t be surprised in Canal+ Sweden ended up settling on the same date.

As we approach the New Year, quite a few TV-focused sites are releasing lists, either looking back at the year that was or the year that will be. Here’s three who make special mention of Game of Thrones:

TV.com looks back to the highpoints of 2010. In their 100 item list, their announcement of Game of Thrones rates #42, and they promise that they’ve, “already reserved a Top 5 spot for it on next year’s Top 100 list.”

Over at TV Squad, we have TV critic and ASoIaF-fan Maureen Ryan places Game of Thrones as the first item on the staff’s list of next year’s anticipated TV programs.

Via WiCnet, IMDB‘s editors also list the series as one of the things they’re excited for in 2011.

James Poniewozik, TV critic for TIME, joins fellow critic Ryan in listing Game of Thrones as his most anticipated show of 2011.

The Guardian chimes in, mentioning the show as one example of 2011’s “unmissable” television programs and noting the positive vibe from U.S. critics.

Alan Sepinwall and Daniel Feinberg included the show on Hitfix.com’s 2011 Gallery, while Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker lists the show as his most anticipated new show of 2011.

Spotted any other top lists for 2010 or 2011 that feature HBO’s Game of Thrones? Feel free to note it in a comment!

Via Bleeding Cool, we’ve learned of a video interview with Natalia Tena (who plays Osha) which covers a range of topics related to her acting, with a particular focus on the Harry Potter films. However, she is asked about HBO’s Game of Thrones, which she speaks of in very enthusiastic terms. In fact, she indicates that she loved working on it so much that she’s been reading the first book. She mentions that after the mini-wrap party on the 11th, she was due to film a brand new scene written for her which seems to be her last scene for the production. The Game of Thrones discussion starts at the 5:10 mark:

The first part of the interview, and some details about it, can be found at Bleeding Cool. In discussing her plans for the coming year, she mentions that Game of Thrones would resume filming in the spring, so far as she knows; presumably she means, in spring if the show is given the greenlight. So an April or May start date seems quite possible.

Cyanide Studios, creators of the officially licensed Game of Thrones: Genesis strategy game and an as-yet-untitled-RPG, have a little Christmas post featuring some familiar words, and what may be some concept art for the frozen lands beyond the Wall.

Merry Christmas, Cyanide!

Updated: We’ve mailed George for a comment, and he confirmed that they are indeed going forward with episode titles, Excellent news! Responding to my question about the episode titles, Bryan Cogman replies that HBO has not officially approved the titles as of yet, so we’ll have to wait on their being revealed, but he believes we’ll be liking them.

Thanks to the gentleman at Television Zombies, we have a new interview with George. Some good stuff there, raging over a number of topics, but something George mentions at the end is of particular interest for those keeping track of developments on HBO’s Game of Thrones. He notes again that he’s written episode 8… and gives its title: “The Pointy End”.

This was the title he originally intended when he sent in the draft, but since then we were informed that the producers were leaning to simply numbering episodes, a fact we’ve seen in various Making Game of Thrones posts. But this interview, from less than a week ago, brings up the title again and we’re guessing (tentatively) that the producers have at last started putting proper titles on the episodes.

When we ran a poll at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum, something north of 90% of those polled disliked the idea of simply having numerals for episodes, so this is a great decision if true. We’re looking forward to a full list of episode titles in the future.

As George has mentioned, he’ll be in California to promote HBO’s Game of Thrones. We’ve been informed that the details of the bookstore signing he noted was in the planning have now been finalized, and have now added it to our calendar. It will take place on January 9th at 5 PM Pacific Time, at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena.

Also as noted in George’s post, at some point that day—not sure if it’ll be before or after the signing yet—he’ll be joining fans for a little mini-meet sort of event, just to hang out with them. If you want more details, check out this thread at the Brotherhood without Banners section of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum.

The Atlantic’s Alyssa Rosenberg has previously covered George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series for the magazine’s website, and this time she’s back with a thoughtful piece concerning HBO‘s Game of Thrones TV series. Comparing and contrasting the series to other HBO and cable programs, with particular attention to difference in degree between accepting the reality of The Sopranos and The Wire versus that of a full-on, secondary-world fantasy such as Game of Thrones. Rosenberg finishes with the following:

Here’s hoping!

After having won this year’s Suvudu 2010 Villains’ Cage Match, the Mountain that Rides faces his last obstacle to claiming complete domination: last year’s winner, Rand al’Thor from Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time series. If you’ll recall, last years cage match led to a frenzy of voting with the lead changing back and forth as fans argued the merits of George R.R. Martins’ and Brandon Sanderson’s write-ups for how they thought the match should go.

In the end, the Dragon defeated the Kingslayer… but will al’Thor bite off more than he can chew with Ser Gregor Clegane? You decide with your votes! The poll runs through January 2nd, but don’t delay in voting!

Over at Not a Blog, GRRM posts a reminder that the 2011 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar is available, and can be bought just in time for the holidays. This beautiful calendar features art by the renowned Ted Nasmith, best known for his place as one of the “Big Three” Tolkien artists (along with John Howe and Alan Lee; like them, he was invited to help design Peter Jackson’s LotR films, but wasn’t able to do it). The calendar includes twelve full-sized depictions of famous castles and cities of the Seven Kingdoms, plus a thirteenth, double-sized bonus image. You can get a preview of some of his art here.

And to add on to the festive mood, he features a mock-up cover for next year’s 2012 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar, using one of the gorgeously-rendered art of award-winning painter John Picacio. Featuring Eddard Stark with Ice before the heart tree of Winterfell, it’s an amazing piece of work, though George notes it may not be the final cover. John later tweeted that he was working on the calendar right at that moment ... at 4:48AM. That’s dedication to his art! The calendar is due to ship in July, and is already available for preorder.