A member of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum has poured an incredible amount of work to create an animated timeline map for the series. Ser Mountain Goat’s map is not anywhere near done, as of yet, but there’s enough there to see the possibilities that the map will offer, once it tracks multiple characters as they criss-cross Westeros. His FAQ goes into great detail about the origins of the map, his sources, and his methodology. We’re very much looking forward to see it develop.
If you’d like to comment on the map, there’s a thread dedicated to it.
Harry Lloyd is once again loquacious about his work in an interview in Re-Bel on pages 7 and 8. At the bottom of page 7, he directly discusses his role in the Game of Thrones pilot, and the following question discusses the possibility that being involved in such a major, American production could open doors to Hollywood. Nothing really new here, but it’s good to see actors involved in the show taking time to make sure people are aware of it.
Thanks to firestar267 for the tip!
Suvudu.com’s Cage Match 2010—reported on in the New York Times, among other places—enters the final round when voting opens tomorrow to determine who’s the most dangerous of them all. Jaime Lannister, surging with the help of his supporters, has prevailed to face Rand al’Thor… but at the advice of Tyrion, he issued a challenge. Rand’s response? A confident refusal to take advantage of the offer of having six companions join him.
But perhaps it was too confiden. He allowed Jaime his six, and Tyrion is liking the odds. We’ll soon see what George thinks will happen, some time after voting opens tomorrow.
Over the past months, traffic to Westeros—both to the various website sections and the forums—has grown steadily, in no small part due to the buzz surrounding HBO’s Game of Thrones project. Given this, we thought it might be fun to take a little look at the various sections that make up the site and introduce them to both new and old visitors.
First up, Blood of Dragons MUSH, the reason that this site exists at all as all of Westeros was originally envisioned as a website with information for players of the MUSH. As it happened, the website grew so that the pages associated with the game became one section among several and the MUSH itself took longer than expected to complete. But in November 2006 it finally opened and the story has been unfolding ever since. Perhaps you want to be a part of it?
George R.R. Martin has shared that Valyrian Resin, creators of licensed resin sculptures, are having a clearance sale and are moving on to other projects. The figures on sale are the Sandor Clegane, Eddard Stark, and Daenerys Targaryen minibusts and their variants. The full details and pictures can be found at GRRM’s “Not a Blog”.
Linda and I own the three regular versions of the sculpts, courtesy of Jed and Justice at Valyrian Resin, and we must say, they are excellent pieces of work: sizable, solid, and well-crafted. It’s a shame we won’t see any more of their versions of characters (we were hoping to see Tyrion at some point), but what they did create was very admirable. If you check out their website, you’ll see that there’s a lot of exciting work afoot for them as they focus on prototyping figures for major names such as Sideshow and Diamond.
The So Spake Martin collection has been updated with a new audio interview with George R.R. Martin, carried out by Gamer’s Haven. As the name of the site might suggest, there’s a special focus on gaming in the interview, discussing GRRM’s history with games and their influence on his work.
While this may be old news for some, we haven’t reported it up until now because we’ve had no official confirmation of any kind regarding it. We had contacted HBO about this immediately after the rumors based on Showfax’s new casting sides (pages of dialogue for use in auditions) had gone up. From our discussion with HBO, all we can say is that officially, HBO’s policy is to never discuss recasting or even rumors of recasting, and they’re unable to offer any information either confirming or denying recasting.
However, as we saw on Twitter, more than one actress has allegedly confirmed via Twitter that they are pursuing the role of Daenerys. So, we’ll take this as its being highly likely that casting is taking place for the role. However, we caution that we know nothing yet as to the reasons or the end results. Having read around a bit, there are possibilities that suggest that Tamzin Merchant remains the primary choice for the role, but additional casting is taking place as insurance against her departure for reasons unknown. While we agree that the likeliest supposition is that Merchant is no longer in the role, we’ll caution against taking this as an absolute certainty.
But if Merchant is out of the role, what does this mean? Well, it seems they’ll be forced to go back to Morocco—or build fresh sets in Belfast to represent it—to reshoot all the scenes there. As some may recall, GRRM indicated that a return to Morocco was a possibility but not a certainty. Starting the renewed production with major reshoots—on top of any new reshoots needed now that Michelle Fairley is in the role of Catelyn Stark—is not the greatest way to start a production, and may lead to a tight shooting schedule to begin with, but should be entirely manageable. Recasting is more the rule than the exception when it comes to pilots, and consequent reshooting goes hand in hand with that.
We’ll provide more information when we can.
Thanks to the fans who voted in droves, George R.R. Martin’s Jaime Lannister rallied and came from behind to defeat Patrick Rothfuss’s Kvothe. A tremendous battle! Now Jaime’s on to face the final challenge: the Dragon Reborn, Rand al’Thor, from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. Rand is incredibly powerful, and the general opinion is that all he needs to do is use balefire. . .
But GRRM wants to even the field. Jaime has demanded home-turf advantage and that the final showdown be a trial of seven, as is his right as a knight under ancient Westerosi custom. What would this mean? If Suvudu’s editors agree, this means Rand will gain six companions—any characters drawn from the works of both Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (who has continued the series following Jordan’s untimely death)—against Jaime’s six allies, drawn from Martin’s works and settings. This would mean that Rand could have Conan on his side (Jordan wrote a number of authorized Conan novels), or Lan Mandragoran, or even Moridin ... while Jaime could potentially have Haviland Tuf, Ser Arthur Dayne, or even the Ice Dragon on his side.
Will Suvudu’s editors go for it? We shall see! We’ll update when a decision is rendered and the polls open.
A small update, as production preparations on HBO’s Game of Thrones begins to pick up pace as the late June start date draws nearer. Over at Extras NI, they’re again recommending that extras avoid cutting or dying their hair, and that male extras consider frowing out their beards and getting a “timeless look”. One funny bit of trivia in the recent past was that for the pilot, members of an Irish heavy metal fan forum were recruited to play extras because they had the requisite look. Seems like Extras NI doesn’t want to be in that position again.
Most notably, they’re recommending that extras stay with this look until January 2011. This fits pretty well with our previous information concerning the many weeks of shooting, beginning in late June and apparently running through the end of the year.
Hat-tip to Winter is Coming for bringing this update from Extras NI to light.
Suvudu’s Cagematch 2010 is in its penultimate round and Ser Jaime Lannister needs your help! Though Suvudu’s editors have rated him the underdog three times in a row, he’s managed to defeat Hermione Granger, Cthulhu, and the dragon Temeraire. But now it’s his toughest match yet: Kvothe, Patrick Rothfuss’s creation in The Name of the Wind. This time, Suvudu’s editors placed Jaime as the victor… but that seems to have jinxed him, because Jaime’s trailing by the narrowest of margins.
Who’ll Jaime face if he manages to pull off the win? Looks like Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn. Who can resist seeing two such titans clash? Besides Kvothe’s fans, that is. ;)
If you want to tip the scale in the Kingslayer’s favor, there’s just one day left: voting ends on Friday at Noon, Eastern Time.
Go to Suvudu.com and vote now!
Green Ronin is proud to announce that A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying: Adventures in the Seven Kingdoms has been nominated for prestigious Origins Awards in the Roleplaying Game category. This is not the first time their work on the RPG and its supplements has drawn attention from gaming awards, and we’re sure it won’t be the last.
At his “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has shared the cover and table of contents for the anthology he and Gardner Dozois co-edited, Songs of Love and Death: Tales of Star-Crossed Love. The title provides the thematic link that connects all the stories together. Contributors include Jim Butcher, Jacqueline Carey, Diana Gabaldon, Neil Gaiman, Robin Hobb, Tanith Lee, and nearly a dozen other authors. The anthology is due out in November of this year.
Variety has a brief report on television success for literary adaptions turning into publishing success. The obvious example is Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series which, boosted by the massive smash hit True Blood, have increased her sales across all her books. The article doesn’t mention the fact that all her Sookie novels were holding on to places on the New York Times Bestseller List (paperbacks) for weeks on end as the series surged in popularity week over week. We’ve had it at secondhand that sales of Harris’s books increased twenty-fold thanks to True Blood:
True Blood isn’t the only example, however. The Dexter series on Showtime has given the original novels (especially the first, which most closely formed the basis for the series) a significant boost, with sales having “have doubled every year since the series debut”. Another genre show, The Vampire Diaries, has helped sell a million additional copies of the series on which it’s based.
Random House is indicated as certainly being hopeful that HBO’s series will prove a success and will help fuel the growing fanbase for A Song of Ice and Fire. However, they do acknowledge that the significant length of the novels of the series—especially compared to the much shorter, lighter, self-contained Harris novels—mean that a greater commitment is needed from readers, and that this commitment may reduce the size of the boost in a series which is already very popular by any standard.
Suvudu.com’s Cagematch 2010, pitting fictional characters in battles to the death, has now reachd the penultimate round before the final. And still standing strong? Jaime Lannister, against Patrick Rothfuss’s Kvothe, the protagonist of the much-lauded The Name of the Wind. It’s Kingslayer versus Kingkiller, and it’s up to you to see who’ll win. The winner—and, being partisan, we hope it’s Jaime—will then face Rand al’Thor or Drizzt do’Urden in the final match to decide who’ll be the last man standing.
Go here to vote now!
Via her blog, visual effects producer Julia Frey has indicated that her professional involvement in HBO’s Game of Thrones has ended. As she notes, chances of her being involved for a full season were slim, so this was no surprise for her, though of course many fans assumed she’d be part a continuing part of the series. Having first come to our attention back in October, Frey has proved very approachable via Twitter and was among the members of the project who joined fans for drinks at McHugh’s in Belfast (where she revealed an impressive poker face).
Where does this leave Game of Thrones? Our guess that the almost exclusively U.K.-based shooting will lead to much of the permanent crew being from the region. If we had to speculate, visual effects supervisor Robert Stromberg is also unlikely to return, given his recent successes (Avatar, Alice in Wonderland) which likely leave him much in demand for other big-budget film work.
Besides Twitter, those who’d like to continue following Julia Frey’s doings are recommended to follow her blog, and also her separate blogging site, Safety Graphic Fun, devoted to weird and amusing safety signs from around the world. Best wishes, Julia.