Westeros

Fans have flocked the world-over to past Game of Thrones exhibitions put together by HBO—we reported on one such exhibition—but there was a bit of a pause this last couple of years… until now, that is, as HBO has just announced that they are mounting a touring exhibition that will travel the world.

No specific dates or locations announced as of yet, but it will kick off in Europe starting Fall 2017. Read the full press release below:

The official 2018 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar will be hitting shelves in just two weeks. Our understanding is that they’ll be available as well at the Penguin Random House booth at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, as previous calendars have been.

This year’s calendar is illustrated by noted genre artist Eric Velhagen, who recently met George R.R. Martin in Santa Fe as Martin’s Jean Cocteau Cinema is showcasing some of Velhagen’s artwork. Only a couple of pieces have been publicly revealed so far, including the cover above, but make sure to take advantage of Amazon’s Look Inside feature to see a two more piece of art featuring an Other and everyone’s favorite pint-sized assassin.

For residents of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, HBO Nordic is offering the opportunity to win tickets to their premiere screenings of episode 1 of season 7. Make sure to read the details for each country carefully and keep in mind that you can only enter the competition for the country you are a resident of.

To enter on Twitter, simply follow us at @westerosorg and reply to our competition announcement tweet saying which premiere you’d like to attend. To enter on Facebook, like the Westeros page and reply to the competition announcement post there saying which premiere you’d like to attend. You can enter once on Twitter and once on Facebook; additional entry attempts will disqualify you.

The competition ends on the 10th of July at 12PM CET. Once we’ve drawn winners, we’ll get in touch if you’re chosen as a winner, so keep an eye on your messages in Facebook or replies or DMs on Twitter. Each winner will be able to bring a friend along with them.

Read below for full details of the screening locations, and good luck!

As has become annual tradition, HBO’s Game of Thrones will be appearing with a splash and a bevy of stars at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, taking the giant Hall H for a panel with many of the shows presently-surviving cast members. Here’s the full details straight from HBO:

Special guest from Westeros, eh? Wonder who that could be…

Last week we shared reports that an adaptation of Nightflyers—based on the rights to the film made in the 1980s based on George R.R. Martin’s award-winning SF horror novella—was in the works. Now The Wrap reports that SyFy has gone ahead and ordered a pilot to produced based on the script by Jeff Buhler.

As Martin has noted, his overall deal with HBO means he has no involvement in this adaptation, but it’s clear that Martin’s work is a hot property in Hollywood right now. In his most recent “Not a Blog” post, Martin provided an update on progress on a number of adaptations:

HBO has released a dramatic new trailer for the forthcoming second season of Game of Thrones. Very portentous. You can see it below:

Game of Thrones season 7 premieres in less than a month, on July 16th in the US.

Over at EW, James Hibberd spoke with the executive producers of Game of Thrones, who provided more details on the overall length of the season’s 7 episodes. The big news is that the final episode will be nearly 90 minutes long, with online leaks claiming an as-yet-unconfirmed 81 minute running length. The key quotes can be found below:

James Hibberd at EW has an intersting interview with Casey Bloys, HBO’s President of Programming, regarding the final seasons of Game of Thrones, the potential successor shows, and the involvement (or lack of same) of David Benioff and Dan Weiss in those last. Definitely read the full article, but below are a couple of choice quotes:

The highly-anticipated trailer for season 7 of Game of Thrones has landed after HBO and EW teased with new photos and the release of the official poster.

There are dragons. And maps. And spoilers, of course.

Season 7 premieres on July 16.

HBO has released the official poster for the forthcoming Season 7, revealing the rather diabolical image of the Night’s King:

HBO also took the additional step of releasing the image in video form, transitoning from a close-up of his ice-blue eye. You can see that below:

EW has seven brand-new photos from the forthcoming Game of Thrones Season 7, including the first look at just how enormous Drogon has gotten this season. (Fair warning: there are spoilers among the images.)

Back in March, one of the new directors to the show, Matt Shankman, remarked to James Hibberd that the dragons are the size of Boeing 747s, and the accompanying picture seems to bear that out.

May 17th is a significant day to our friends in Norway, but it also has a more global importance: World Baking Day! As fans of cakes, tarts, pastries, and all manner of other doughy treats, we’ve enjoyed our share of Game of Thrones-themed baked goods from home-made lemon cakes to Choccyoccydoodah‘s glorious Red Wedding cake.

Now, the HBO Store has fans covered if wanting a quick, easy way to make a Game of Thrones themed cake thanks to two silicon baking moulds featuring the Targaryen dragon and the Stark direwolf. The only question is, what sort of cake to make with each? We’ve always thought a red velvet cake would work very well for the Targaryens, but besides the obvious lemon cake we’re at a loss.

(Whatever you bake for World Baking Day, by the by, you’ll look pretty expert at it rocking one of these mitten and apron sets while you’re at it!)

Over at the “Not a Blog”—which will soon be retired in preference to a new blog, we’re told—George R.R. Martin has taken the time to discuss the recent news that HBO has four pilot scripts in development for a potential successor to Game of Thrones. George’s post is very illuminating, clarifying some details and providing a few hints, as well as a couple of clear and categorical responses.

It’s worth reading, but below are some key points:

The Hollywood Reporter has reported that SyFy, the SF/F genre television specialist which has had a rather colorful repetoire of original programming over the years (B-movies such as Sharknado, paranormal “reality” series such as Ghost Hunters, dramas such as Battlestar Galactica and The Magicians), has moved to adapt George R.R. Martin’s award-winning horror-tinged science fiction novella, “Nightflyers”, into a television series.

Martin’s overall development deal with HBO means that he will not be involved in developing or producing the series. Instead, Jeff Buhler (writer for the remake of Jacob’s Ladder currently in post-production) will write the initial script and act as executive producer. Buhler will be joined by a number of others noted in the article from THR, including Robert Jaffe—who wrote the adaption for the 1987 film based on GRRM’s novella—as a producer.

As usual, James Hibberd at EW gets the big scoop. We’ve talked before about HBO’s executives confirming that they’re interested in exploring the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones universe after the series is done, but this is the very first concrete news regarding it. Per Hibberd,

Also, Hibberd confirms Benioff and Weiss will be executive producers on any eventual show(s). It’s not exactly a surprise, however, given that they brought the property to HBO in the first place, so they would retain a stake. It’s pretty clear they will not be showrunners, however.

Some further thoughts below.