Westeros

The Making Game of Thrones site from HBO has a brand new entry in the Artisans series, revisiting production designer Gemma Jackson as she discusses the functional winch built for scenes shot in Castle Black. This makes a nice companion piece to Bryan Cogman’s earlier post. You can watch the video below:

It’s interesting that the lift is basically a repurposed industrial building site lift, with much of the machinery tucked away and some work done to make it seem like a primitive medieval contraption of wood and iron.

Via the Rabbit, we have what may be the very first image from Game of Thrones filming in Malta:

Posted by Flickr member bertiebears, he describes it as the set for another film, The Devil’s Double, being filmed in Mdina. He appears to be in error as that film has wrapped production and is, in any case, a story about Saddam Hussein’s double. This morning, a Game of Thrones extra said he was 100% certain that was an exterior shot being filmed for King’s Landing and added “yes gold cloaks on horseback. Girl to right in foreground wearing exactly same costume as female Tourney peasants.”

Compare the costuming of the horsemen to the gold cloak in the background of this screencap, and the costuming of the extras on foot to what’s seen here and here. Note in particular the white-bearded man in red and white robes—possibly a septon—in the Sandor tourney screencap, and the white-bearded man in the background of the Malta photo wearing what seems to be the same garment.

We have to say, the costuming of the people on foot is a little baffling to us, as our first thought was that these may be Pentoshi. The clothing depicted here is extremely similar to Graeco-Roman costume of the ancient world, and seems markedly different from the glimpses had from the In Production behind the scenes video. But given that the extra in question has taken part in filming over a number of days, including the tourney that featured so many extras, we’ll take it as a given that commoners in King’s Landing wear some notably different costumes from the nobility.

In what appears to be a confirmation that Game of Thrones will use Malta for at least some King’s Landing exterior scenes, musician Wilko Johnson—cast as Ser Ilyn Payne, the royal executioner—will be filming there, according the Essex Echo and their discussion with his manager. It’s indicated that he had filmed for a week in September in the Belfast area, and there’ll be more shooting later this month in Malta. The article provides a great quote:

“He pulled his usual scary face on the set, but the director told him ‘you don’t need to do scary, you are scary’.”

Timothy van Patten, one of HBO’s most well-known and well-regarded directors with credits including The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Pacific, Deadwood, Rome, The Wire, and nearly half the episodes of Boardwalk Empire, has come on board to direct at least one episode of HBO’s new fantasy drama series. He joins previously announced directors Brian Kirk, Daniel Minahan, and Alan Taylor.

Although this information has unofficially been floating around for a week or two (a hat-tip to The Rabbit for first noting it to us), HBO asked us to hold off on reporting it as GRRM had been intending to do it. However, with his busy schedule and departure for Ireland for awhile, they gave us the go ahead. We can certainly understand that, given his profile among A-list television directors.

Amy of Shiny Cooking has posted a fantastic write-up of an A Song of Ice and Fire-theme dinner party she put together for the Project Food Blog challenge, which is currently being voted on. She includes a photo of the menu for the day, which features quotes and references for many of the dishes.

It sounds like a delicious set of dishes, with a Dornish-themed starter all the way through dessert which were—what else?—lemon cakes. Definitely worth a vote!

There’s a new post on HBO’s Making Game of Thrones site from writer and production right-hand man Bryan Cogman. Dating somewhere from mid-August, we think, he discusses filming scenes for episode III and IV at the site of the Castle Black set in Magheramorne Quarry. He notes that the set contains both exterior and interior locations, and lists a few of them as well as well as the functioning winch elevator.

George R.R. Martin, in Ireland in advance of Octocon, has posted an update on several fronts, noting the io9 interview, the award nominations for Songs of the Dying Earth, and Pat’s Wild Cards contest.

The other piece of information in his post is something of a landmark, and we’ll leave it in his own words:

Congratulations to GRRM and Bantam! And bear in mind, that’s just the U.S. mass market paperbacks—many tens of thousands more have been published in the U.K., Australia, and other foreign territories.

David Barr Kirkley and John Joseph Adams of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast have moved from Tor.com to io9, and their first new episode in their new digs  features George R.R. Martin. A very wide ranging discussion over about 50 minutes and it sounds like it’ll be a terrific listen.

Yesterday and this morning have seen a number of small items of note, many via Twitter (and some of those thanks to fellow fan Nymeria_Wic) which we tweeted about, plus a new item or two which leads this post off:

• It seems like filming next week—likely in Malta—will involve scenes at the Western Market in Vaes Dothrak, according to this tweet from Simon Lowe, who was cast as the wineseller Dany meets. He mentions that he’s practicing his Dothraki.


• Gary Lowry, horse wrangler for HBO’s Game of Thrones, is briefly interviewed about his work in providing horses for this and other productions. He mention’s that he’s working with the Devil’s Horsemen, who we’ve previously discussed. Lowry is mentioned as having been the demonstration horseman for the renowned horse trainer Monty Roberts during his Join Up demonstrations.


• Scottish actor Emun Elliot, who plays Marillion, was also interviewed in connection to a new series he is part of. He briefly discusses Game of Thrones, talking up how large a production it is by noting the very large cast, which he numbers at 250.


• Extras NI is in desperate search for a qualified butcher for filming on the 7th and possibly the 8th. Our expectation is that this butcher may be the one Mycah (a young friend of Arya’s) is apprenticed to. Why a genuine butcher would be needed, we’re uncertain but we’re supposing that it may have to do with health and safety regulations regarding the handling of raw meat products.


• It sounds like Saintfield is host to more than one filming location, with a fan on Twitter indicating that she saw the production was filming at the Rowallane Garden. She noticed two men with birds of prey in the vicinity, making us wonder if she didn’t spot the production’s trained ravens? She also noted that the Rowallane grounds features the remains of an old ráth, an Irish ringfort. The Rowallane Garden location is not the same location, a private estate, which we previously reported on.


• We’ve been told by HBO that the focus for promoting the series currently is on the Making Game of Thrones site. Specifically, this means that New York Comic Con—at which HBO’s corporate parent Time Warner has an exhibit—will feature little or even no new information, promotional materials, etc. in connection to the seres.


• Actress Sibel Kekilli, cast as Shae, is the lead of Die Fremde, an award-winning, critically-praised film that is now Germany’s selection for consideration as a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Sixty countries have submitted entries this year, and only five will be selected, but Die Fremde is probably one of the most internationally known of the films and so stands a good chance.


• Luke McEwan, cast as Rast, went horseriding for the production.


• Finally, with word that the actor cast as Ser Meryn Trant will shortly be announced, it’s interesting to note that Miltos Yerolemou—the actor cast as the fan-favorite “dancing master” Syrio Forel—will be back to filming on the production around the end of the month. The two characters interact (to put it mildly) in the books, so it looks as if we have a sense as to what will be filming at that time.

Via Mundoplus.tv, we learn that Spain’s Canal+ has secured the rights to HBO’s Game of Thrones. This follows our previous reports that Canal+ Scandinavia (originally, but no longer, part of the same company) has secured similar rights in the Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Mundoplus does not provide any information regarding an air date besides 2011. They do claim that the pilot episode cost 10 million Euros, but the source of this information is unclear.

The Inish Times has a cute profile of young Art Parkinson, recently revealed to be cast in the role of Rickon Stark, the youngest of the Stark children. Art, 8 years old, was apparently chosen after a massive (and unsuccessful) effort across Ireland, England, and Scotland to find just the right actor for Rickon. According to his mother, actress and drama school teacher Movania Parkinson:

Win a copy of Tor’s reissue of Wild Cards I, the first entry in one of the longest-running and most successful shared-world settings publishing today, via Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist. This reissue includes the original stories by noted authors such as George R.R. Martin, Melinda Snodgrass, Walter Jon Williams, Roger Zelazny, Howard Waldrop, and many more, as well as brand new stories from Michael Cassut, Carrie Vaughn, and David Levine.

What a gorgeous cover by Michael Komarck.

In his latest “Not a Blog” post, GRRM reveals two new members of the cast of HBO’s Game of Thrones: young actors Eros Vlahos in the role of Lommy Greenhands and Ben Hawkey, a newcomer to acting (at least on screen). As George is the first to point out, these characters don’t appear until the second book, but it seems the production has decided to bring them in a bit earlier. We previously reported on the news that Lommy was going to be cast, including the intriguing suggestion he’d be rehearsing scenes in Malta. From Eros’s tweet on September 30th, it sounds like he’ll actually be filming in Belfast (his reference to Dublin must be a slip) somewhere later in October, though it’s always possible he’ll be moving on from there to join filming in Malta where principal filming should be under way at the moment.

George shares some other interesting information about forthcoming casting: the roles of Stiv (a wildling) ad Ser Meryn Trant (one of the Kingsguard) are cast and will soon be announced, and (most notably) Ser Kevan Lannister (Lord Tywin’s brother and advisor) will very shortly be cast. It’s great to see that more of the Kingsguard will be played by actors rather than extras, and it’s certainly good news to know that Kevan—one of the more notable secondary characters who had previously gone unmentioned when it came to casting—is set to appear. Perhaps the most notable role as yet unannounced as being cast is Lord Walder Frey, but we suspect it’s not long before we’ll have word on him.

Finally, it looks like there’ll be filming happening on Malta in the first week of November, because GRRM indicates he’ll be flying there after his trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland for Octocon in Dublin and to visit the production in Belfast (as well as hang out with fans).

Eros Vlahos, who’s a talented young comedian, is briefly featured in this Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang trailer at the 1:40 mark:
Vlahos

Thanks to the efforts of LordMountainGoat, it looks like the Brotherhoods without Banners will be organizing a second moot in Belfast which George R.R. Martin and his partner Parris will attend, to hang out with fans while GRRM is in the area to drop by the production. The event is scheduled for October 28th, the only day in which GRRM would be available. For more details, check out this thread over at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. Some excerpts:

LMG is referring to last year’s moot, in which actors Richard Madden, Kit Harrington, Alfie Allen, Ron Donachie, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams attended George’s signing (and some of them went on to the post-signing get together to hang out). As he says, this year it’s anyone’s guess as to who will be around, available, and willing to participate, but at the very least George and Parris will be there, and a good time will certainly be had.

(For those who sign up to the forum to post your interest in taking part, please allow up to 24 hours before being able to post. We use a manual validation system to weed out spammers, and sometimes we are overwhelmed a bit.)

The Irish Times has published a profile of Aidan Gillen, the Irish actor cast in the role of Lord Petyr Baelish, better known to fans as Littlefinger. Gillen was a popular fan choice for the role, after his stellar work in such series as the original Queer as Folk and The Wire. The interview is largely focused on another project, Love/Hate, but Game of Thrones is referred to when his current facial hair is brought to the reader’s attention:

For those not familiar with U.K. Politics, Peter Mandelson was a television producer who rose to prominence with his involvement in the Labour party. He was one of the first individuals described as a “spin doctor” in the U.K., and earned the sobriquet of “the Prince of Darkness.” He did indeed wear a mustache in the 80’s and early 90’s.

Gillen’s remark suggests that the specific look for Petyr is his interpretation, which is interesting.