Westeros

This is straight from HBO, and recaps all the terrific actors cast… and yes, includes an amazing picture—our first official still—featuring a brother of the Night’s Watch (played by Bronson Webb as Will) in a snowy forest:

Photo caption: Opening scene, Game of Thrones pilot. Shot on location in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Photo Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO

Just got in a direct mailing from HBO on this, with the first official still from the show which, well, you can find elsewhere now. But we’ll have it up shortly once we sort out the uploading issues are sorted out. This is, suffice it to say, brilliant news.

Shooting will commence in June. The most notable detail after the pick up, though? Ten episodes, not twelve as originally planned; if I’m not mistaken, GRRM himself at one point was certain it was twelve that was under discussion, but it seems in the intervening time the plan has changed. Whether it’s for budget purposes or they believe it better suits the pacing of the first novel—or both—is up to speculation. This should set fans to reassessing their fannish breakdowns of the first season of this show.

HBO has ordered a season of Game of Thrones! This news comes via James Hibberd at the Live Feed for THR. Congratulations, to the producers, cast, and crew who were able to make this happen, and many thanks to the executives who made the call. It’s been a long journey for fans, for GRRM, David and Dan, and everyone else—it’s good to see them hit the mark.

Onwards to the next year, and the premiere of Game of Thrones!

It looks like Sean Bean—cast as Eddard Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones adaption which will get word on whether it’ll get a season order this month—has joined the cast of Death Race 2. It sounds like the film is already shooting in South Africa.

Bean can be seen in theatres now in the rule of Zeus in the film Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, which has been performing fairly well in the box office, according to Box Office Mojo.

A member of the A Song of Ice and Fire forum at Westeros.org, Wastrel, put into motion a plan to collate favorite genre book lists from members of the forum. What has resulted is a list of 100 books that members of the forum who participated in the voting esteemed most, plus some additional titles for honorable mentions and a list specific to 21st century novels.

It was quite the task to take on, and Wastrel explains his methodology very thoroughly. It’s fascinating to see Gabriel Garcia Marquez rubbing shoulders with Thomas Mallory,  Douglas Adams, and Alan Moore, to name a few on the list.

Over at the Fantasy Hot List, there’s a contest to win one of three copies of George R.R. Martin’s and Gardner Dozois’s Warriors (US, UK) anthology. Among the many stories to be found within? “The Mystery Knight”, the third Dunk and Egg novella set in the Seven Kingdoms.

At “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin indicates that the “Meereenese Knot” may be “fraying”, suggesting he’s made some forward progress in finally resolving one of the central structural problems that have delayed A Dance with Dragons. He’s rather cautious about it, however, which implies that he doesn’t yet know for sure that this will move things forward once he continues pursuing this.

Over at HBO‘s Facebook fan page, a thread has been started where commenters can show their support for seeing Game of Thrones greenlit. All it takes is an FB account and a minute, so do drop a note to let the powers that be get another sense at how motivated and supportive the fans of the series are.

One of the major events going on in the literary world is the matter of just how Google Books will function with respect to the copyright of authors. A settlement agreement was put forward as a solution, but has sparked more controversy.  The Guardian reports that a major settlement with the Authors Guild of America has now been amended to exclude some 6,500 authors and publishers from it, as they have opted out of being a part of it. This means that Google Books will not be able to simply digitize and offer their works as part of the settlement agreement. Exactly how Google Books will approach these individual authors in the future is a question, but then the fate of the settlement is in itself questionable and may well be rejected by the court as it stands.

Many significant names in literature are among them: Ursula K. LeGuin, Michael Chabon, Graham Swift, Brent Easton Ellis, and Thomas Pychon to name just a few. And, to bring this into the realm of “All Sorts of Weird Stuff”, George R. R. Martin is also on the list of those who’ve opted out of the settlement, as seen on page 54 of the settlement amendment..

The Hopeless Gamer blog, which has provided some excellent scoops on Fantasy Flight Games‘s new “Battles of Westeros” board game, is holding a contest to win an FFG print signed by George R.R. Martin if the blog reaches the 100 follower mark by Sunday, February 28th.

All that’s needed to be entered is to follow the blog and send an e-mail indicating the username you’re following with. They promise to have some other prize available if they do not hit the 100 follower mark by the 28th.

Fantasy Flight Games has launched their official page regarding their new Battles of Westeros tactical board game. As part of the festivities, they’ve set a firm date on the “Days of Ice and Fire” event we’ve previously mentioned: November 12-14, with GRRM promising a Q&A session and several signings, with the possibility of a reading and an interview as well.

Also in time for the site, an interview with Christian Petersen, CEO of Fantasy Flight Games, where he reveals that in fact they’re using a brand new rules system for this game, and that the use of “BattleLore” is purely for branding purposes. This is, to say the least, somewhat controversial for BattleLore fans.

It seems that Fantasy Flight Games‘s new Battles of Westeros board game is a greater departure from the BattleLore system then some suspected, according to this report on the Heroscapers forum.

Over at the Hopeless Gamer, they’ve released some more package images, including depictions of the hero figures for the Lannister and Stark sides.

In honor of George Washington’s birthday, George R.R. Martin is holding a special sale on 24 copies of first edition hardcovers of Inside Straight. These have been signed by Martin, Carrie Vaughn, Melinda M. Snodgrass, John Jos. Miller, Caroline Spector, Daniel Abraham, and Ian Tregillis. Usually sold at $27 a copy, GRRM will sell these books for $22 (book-rate shipping included in the U.S.) while supplies last.

At his Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin announced that he had signed contracts to have the first three Wild Cards volumes translated and published in Italy for the first time. RCS Libri will be the publisher.

Fantasy Flight Games has unveiled a brand new A Song of Ice and Fire board game yesterday at the opening of the grand opening of their new event center. The game, titled Battles of Westeros, is a BattleLore-system based tactical war game using hexagonal grids, plastic miniature army units (these would be unpainted, as far as I know; besides generic units, it will likely have ‘hero’ units representing the likes of Eddard, Catelyn, Edmure, and more), and a card system for orders and special tactics.

The BattleLore system and its publishing history is summarized at Wikipedia. At BoardGameGeek’s entry, my eye was caught by the fact that there are two different ways of playing the game on-line using either Vassal (as seen here) or ZunTzu, which should be a significant boon once players virtualize any new rules, cards, and units for these systems.

The initial news flash came by way of The Hopeless Gamer, who also provided a photo of the contents list on the back of the box. One notable detail that gamers have pointed out: the explicit reference to this being the “Core Set” on the front cover, showing FFG has long-term expansion plans for this game system. In fact, posts at BoardGameGeek note that this appears to focus on House Stark versus House Lannister, certainly leaving room for expansions which introduce the rest of the great houses of the Seven Kingdoms.

Finally, an additional note: it seems that some time in November, FFG will host a “Days of Ice and Fire” event at their Event Center in Roseville, Minessota, in which George R.R. Martin will be a guest. More details when we have them.