Over at the Hopeless Gamer, they’re doing yeoman’s work reporting on Fantasy Flight Game’s upcoming Battles of Westeros, a tactical combat game loosely based on the venerable BattleLore system.
This month, they’ve posted two write-ups of what it was like to play the Stark and Lannister sides in a scenario, revealing some of the mechanics of the system, and some discussion regarding various other details of the game. They’ll be posting an in-depth interview with designer Rob Kouba in the near future, which we suspect will make for interesting reading.
A pleasant surprise: Ted Nasmith‘s gorgeous castle art originally intended for just The World of Ice and Fire world book will be published for Bantam’s A Song of Ice and Fire 2011 Calendar. The calendar will include twelve of Nasmith’s terrific paintings, plus a bonus two-page poster of a thirteenth castle (a very appropriate number, as you’ll see when you get it…) The calendar will be on sale in July
As you may recall, it was previously reported that award-winning artist John Picacio would be illustrating the 2011 calendar. Obviously, this is a change, but one that John explains. The reason for the change, according to him? Bantam wanted the art in earlier than originally planned so they could take advantage of the expected buzz for HBO’s adaption of the series during the usual, summer media blitz at San Diego Comic-Con and other such occasions. John’s art will be seen gracing the 2012 calendar instead.
We recommend visiting both artist’s sites. Ted’s, especially, has several of the calendar pieces posted on his website’s gallery, under Other Work. They’re gorgeous, and we admit, we hope HBO’s production designers take some inspiration from them.
Valyrian Steel, makers of limited edition replicas based on the weapons of A Song of Ice and Fire, have annnounced today that their Damascus steel edition of Jon Snow’s sword, Longclaw, will be delayed until July. They explain that the producer of the weapons (who, at last report, had produced over 40 of them by the start of March) underestimated how long it would take to complete the ordered weapons without taking shortcuts which the company would not allow.
In related news, earlier in the month they reported that they’ve decided the next weapon to tackle after Eddard Stark’s sword Ice: King Robert’s famous warhammer.
The new WWII Drama Age of Heroes has cast its leads, and Sean Bean is among them, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Filming is due to take place beginning in early April. If a success, the film could lead to two planned sequels to make a trilogy.
In related news, Death Race 2—in which Bean was cast as the primary antagonist at the beginning of March—has already wrapped shooting and is aiming for a June release. Given the quick turn around on smaller productions such as these, we’ll suppose that Age of Heroes won’t film for more than a month or two, and so will not conflict with Game of Thrones
GRRM has shared this Newsarama interview with himself and author Daniel Abraham, a novellist and Wild Cards contributor who wrote the original comic book, Wild Cards: The Hard Call. After a long delay due to publishing issues, The Hard Call is back on track due to the efforts of Dynamite Entertainment and their new relationship with the original publishers, the Dabel Brothers.
Quite a few interesting remarks therein, including a frank assessment of Martin’s past relationship with the Dabels as they tried to get their business activities running smoothly with only intermittent success.
Round 3 of Suvudu’s Cagematch 2010 has started, and Jaime Lannister—after surprise defeats of Hermione Granger and Cthulhu—is now facing ... well, a rather polite and charming dragon. Naomi Novik’s creation, Temeraire, is a fine, personable young dragon in an alternate 19th century England, but the story she’s written to explain why she thinks Temeraire will win draws in quite a bit of pop, 21st-century culture (two words: reality television).
Go there and vote now! A final thought: dragons were bred for battle in the Seven Kingdoms, and in battle they died. Time for the Kingslayer to become the Dragonslayer.
George R.R. Martin has confirmed that he’ll be writing episode 8 of HBO’s Game of Thrones. This means that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will write episodes 1 (the pilot) through 3, episode 5 and 7, and then the final two episodes. Bryan Cogman will write episode 4 and Jane Espenson will write episode 6, as we’ve previously reported.
GRRM’s official site has been updated with a new update on “Not a Blog”. There he mentions he’s feeling mostly recovered from his recent illness, although his assistant Ty is now feeling under the weather, and then discusses various irons in the fire. Not only does work on A Dance with Dragons continues, but he’s wrapping up editing of Fort Freak (the 21st Wild Cards book) and will soon be gearing up to write his one script for HBO’s Game of Thrones. He also mentions some other news items—both good and, unfortunately, bad—that he may be able to share soon.
Variety reports that Gemma Jackson, an award-winning production designer, is returning to resume those duties on HBO’s Game of Thrones after having done so for the pilot. It seems that her contract with the production did not, strictly speaking, lock the production or Jackson to signing on for the series but now it’s moot, as she’s signed on.
Her previous credits include HBO’s magesterial John Adams (for which she won an Emmy). She appears in is “Making Of” video at the 1:40 mark, discussing the gigantic set and how it was reused to represent several different cities:
(Watch past that mark to see Gemma Jackson later on, when the sets and locations are discussed, and to see Robert Stromberg—visual effect supervisor for Game of Thrones—showing some of what can be done with digital mattes.)
Via George R.R. Martin, we’ve learned that the British Fantasy Awards have their longlist of nominees—all works recommended by a British Fantasy Society or FantasyCon member—posted, and Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance is included for Best Anthology. Edited by GRRM and Gardner Dozois, the anthology is a tribute to Jack Vance, containing a terrific groups of authors (including Martin) who share stories in Vance’s most famous setting, the Dying Earth.
Also on the long lists are three stories from the anthology, novellas by Matthew Hughes and Walter Jon Williams and the short story by Robert Silverberg. Congratulations to both of the editors and the writers so recognized, and our hopes they find their way onto the shortlists.
An online petition has been started by fans, attempting to bring composer Bear McCreary to the attention of HBO and the Game of Thrones producers. McCreary has extensive credits, having composed the music in part or in full for such series as Eureka, Human Target, Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicle (starring Lena Headey, cast as Cersei Lannister), and most famously Battlestar Galactica and its spin-offs Battle Star Galactica: The Plan and the currently-airing Caprica.
We’ve sprinted about the ‘net to try and learn more about Michelle Fairley, the actress now cast in the role of Catelyn Stark following Jennifer Ehle’s departure. From what we can find, Fairley is a very private person and maintain a low media profile, as noted in this Belfast Telegraph chat.
The Hollywood Reporter notes some very big news, and probably one of the bad pieces of news that GRRM has recently alludedto : Jennifer Ehle is out of HBO’s Game of Thrones. Replacing her is Northern Irish actress Michelle Fairley, who played Hermione Granger’s mother in the Harry Potter films.
Update: The Live Feed provides a little more information, stating that the source for this news revealed that Ehle’s departure is a behind-the-scenes issue, and not at all performance-related, apparently to knock down “blogosphere” rumors that claimed that HBO was not entirely happy with the pilot to begin with.
According to Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Thrones), he’s also part of the new Jane Eyre film going into production next week in the U.K., joining Tamzin Merchant. At the 1:26.20 mark of this BBC Radio 1 interview with fellow cast members from “The Little Dog Laughed”, he states he has a small part and that he just came off the read-through for the script.
Thanks to shelikeswaves on Twitter for the heads-up!
It’s being reported in the media that the new Jane Eyre film, starring Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender (300), will also feature Tamzin Merchant. The project starts filming next week in the U.K., according to the reports. Merchant, who’ll star as Daenerys Targaryen in HBO‘s Game of Thrones, can be seen in Showtime’s The Tudors beginning next month, as the young, doomed queen, Catherine Howard.
Hat-tip to Admiring Tamzin Merchant, a fan site for the actress, for pointing out this news.