Westeros

Would you like to pay a visit to Westeros and take part in a pivotal historical event?

This weekend (Saturday 20th at 11 Central Time & Sunday 21st at 10 Central Time) the climax of king Daeron’s Conquest of Dorne will play out on Blood of Dragons MUSH. If you would like to join in, there is still time, as we have a selection of ready-made characters to get new players started almost instantly.

According to this interview with Jason Momoa, Momoa expects that he’ll be returning to Morocco as well as Northern Ireland to shoot the Game of Thrones series in late June. Despite the way it’s written—as if it’s a foregone conclusion—we suspect that in fact Momoa was speaking speculatively. The actors have been informed of the prospective schedule if the show goes forward, so that they can plan their professional engagements accordingly with that possibility in mind.

(Thanks to Maxlongstreet at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum for pointing this one out.)

Over at the SFF Chronicles Network forum, a user by the name of the Imp shares an e-mail his nephew sent to GRRM regaling him with the sad, sad (and improbable) tale of his many illnesses and mishaps before asking for the manuscript for A Dance with Dragons due to his circumstances. A funny e-mail in and of itself, but the response it inspires in GRRM is of the same order.

Green Ronin has announced a pre-order special for their A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplay Campaign Guide, the table of contents of which have been previewed recently. Those who pre-order the hardcover guide via the Green Ronin store will automatically get a free PDF document of the guide. The PDF seems to be available for direct order as well, for $20.

According to reports on Green Ronin’s own forums, the Campaign Guide does not seem to contain any notable new information on the setting, but it does contain significant amounts of statted characters from the novels.

George R.R. Martin provides a brief update at “Not a Blog”, sharing this views on the new The Wolfman film (he gives it a C) and then mentions that a new producer has come on board Mike the Pike Production’s Skin Trade adaption as reported in this press release.

As to A Dance with Dragons, Meereen still presents problems despite the progress GRRM has been making: “Can I just drop a hydrogen bomb on the damn place?” It seems the Meereenese Knot remains a concern.

We’ve been covering HBO’s series of trademark applications for Game of Thrones pretty closely, and decided to follow-up on two points.

First, as we noted in our earlier articles, initially HBO applied for trademarks using the title A Game of Thrones. Last week, however, the A Game of Thrones mark applications have been officially amended to just Game of Thrones, without the article.

Second, the question has come up on occasion regarding just how HBO exercises these marks, as they’re not a manufacturer. The answer is that these trademarks are licensed to those who do produce such content. Case in point, the smash-hit True Blood, which has led the licensing charge at HBO. At Toy Fair 2010, DC Direct exhibited character busts and a neon bar sign for the show. Of course, DC Direct and HBO are both under the Time Warner umbrella, so it’s no great surprise DC Direct would land these particular licenses.

If Game of Thrones goes forward and proves to be a success for HBO, fans can expect the same sort of licensing treatment.

It’s been around for awhile, but we just had to share these hilarious webpage mockups for various houses, organizations, and individuals in the A Song of Ice and Fire series:

Thanks to Daena the Defiant at the forum for pointing out guad’s clever, amusing creations.

George R.R. Martin’s recent series of small updates concerning progress on A Dance with Dragons has caught the eye of the Guardian’s book blog, discussing the level of anticipation there is for the fifth novel in the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series. The lead image is a spoof political advertisment created by regular forum contributor and moderator, Adam Whitehead of The Wertzone.

The Brotherhood without Banners, an unofficial (or maybe semi-official) fan club for George R.R. Martin, is running a survey regarding a t-shirt they’re proposing to produce to raise funds for the BwB’s general fund. The survey detailing the shirt idea can be found

at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum. Registration is required to post.

George R.R. Martin has made an enlightening A Dance with Dragons update while stating he now has left behind the Isle of Cedars (in Slaver’s Bay near Meereen) and that the manuscript is at 1261 pages.

That alone is notable: that’s up 56 MS from last week, leading one to assume that at least some of the chapters he completed he already had in rough or partial form. However, GRRM goes on to discuss the matter of timelines and how difficult it would be to fit A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons in a single book. Besides that, he reveals that he caught up to the timeline of A Feast for Crows at 800 MS in Dance, and everything since then has been post-Feast which is allowing him to wrap some of the cliffhangers from the previous book and continue the story further. He admits its a rather awkward structure, and that Dance directly paralleling Feast would be more elegant, but so far it’s the direction he’s taking the novel.

George R.R. Martin shares the news that he’s finished another chapter in a productive day of work. The only downside? It’ll require writing some minor parts of a chapter he finished last week, but he supposes he can get that done today.

HBO is keeping the U.S. trademark office busy, as we’ve previously reported. Now four new trademark classes have been applied for and entered into the USPTO database for February 9th, which theoretically cover things such as non-alcoholic beverages, jewelery, replica weapons, toys, and games.

Speaking of replica weapons, note that on January 16, GRRM noted in a response to questions that the production’s weapons would be designed specifically for the show, and that Valyrian Steel’s designs would not be used as previously proposed. However, as GRRM has previously noted, part of the negotiations with HBO involved negotiating which rights could not be used by them because of other licensing; only Valyrian Steel can create steel replicas, so HBO’s license extends only to cheaper, plastic toy replicas at this time.

Many thanks for Ninepenny at the A Song of Ice and Fire forum for keeping on top of the trademarking activities.

At the Guardian, Danny Leigh opines that Thomas McCarthy—whose work on the Game of Thrones pilot will help set the visual style for the series to follow if HBO greenlights it—is a “Hollywood Renaissance Man” whose “triple threat” of skillful direction, acting, and scriptwriting makes him a rare talent in this day and age. It’s a well-written opinion piece, and discusses some of the thematic touchstones of McCarthy’s previous directorial efforts.

This clip from an award-winning short independent film features Jack Gleeson, cast in the role of Joffrey in HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot. We’ve seen very little in the way of recent film or publicity stills for Gleeson, so this is a particularly useful video for those wanting a better idea of what the young actor:

(Thanks to The Rabbit and @WiC_Blog for pointing this one out!)

At least, the return of the first Tyrion chapter in the official A Dance with Dragons samples. Read only if you want to be spoiled, as it’s the complete first chapter and answers the question of just where Tyrion goes after the end of A Storm of Swords.