At “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin continues his somewhat mysterious posts about progress on A Dance with Dragons. Having written that he had finished a chapter for a POV he dubbed “Fred”, he now notes he’s left off finishing “Fred’s” last chapter and has switched to writing ... “Barney”, and has finished their final chapter for the book. Can we expect Bamm-Bamm or Wilma next?
Actor Conan Stevens, cast in the role of Gregor Clegane, has posted on his site that he is now flying to Belfast to begin preparations for his scenes. He writes that these include, “... armour fittings, swordtraining and horse riding lessons (it’s been a long time since I rode last) to do before my filming starts.” Given earlier reports, we’re guessing the Hand’s tourney may be scheduled for late August, giving Stevens two-three weeks of intensive training ahead of him.
In other news, a poster by the name of DrNick at Winter is Coming has stated that a friend who was involved in the pilot was asked if he’d be available to shoot in Malta sometime in September. It seems likely that there may be some overlap with Winterfell exterior shoots, which seem likely to also take place in September. However, it’s probable that Malta may be used only for the initial Daenaerys scenes and perhaps the final scenes, whereas the Dothraki sea sequences between will be filmed in Northern Ireland given all the horse-riding extras the production has picked up in Ireland.
Last but not least, today is a new day of filming, and unlike last month (which was very rainy and kept the first week’s shooting to the Paint Hall) we seem to have a cold but sunny outlook in Belfast. The photo is from Paul McAnearney, a member of the crew. If I’m not mistaken, the photo is taken in the vicinity of the Paint Hall, but if the weather holds we may well hear of location shoots finally beginning.
George has posted a new set of clues for the role of Grenn (“aurochs stew”):
“You’re too dumb to make this soup the way they’re making it in Belfast. Start with Becky, Tom, and Boss. Take away two fathoms. Now you want the second course. In the dark the breaker of rocks seeks the living stone. But take away the fat guy with six wives, and the babe with the bumbershoot as well, that salty wench. Out, out. What’s left tastes good, but just remember, there is no gamecock in aurochs stew. IMDB? What’s that? I’m Dumb Boy? Won’t help you here, no way, no how.”
This clue attempts to obscure things by splitting up the actor’s name, but we believe we’ve solved it: Yorkshire-born actor Mark Stanley, who is/was a third year student at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Becky, Tom, and Boss are Mark Twain characters. Breaker of Rocks was the African nickname given to Henry Morton Stanley. Take away the Twain (the measurement from which Samuel Clemens picked his penname), take away Henry and Morton (by removing Henry VIII and the Morton Umbrella Girl), and you’re left with Mark Stanley. Another person of the same name happens to be a baseball player for the Univesity of South Carolina, whose team is named the Gamecocks.
ETA: GRRM confirms that Mark Stanley has been cast as Grenn.
As to IMDB being no help? The actor Mark Stanley has no apparent TV or film credits, and so does not appear in IMDB.
Tor’s reissuing of the original Wild Cards anthology, which kicked off the shared-world superhero setting that’s still going strong after 25 years, now has its cover by acclaimed artist Michael Komarck. Komarck provided the covers for the three latest Wild Cards books from Tor, and it looks like he’ll be providing art chores on the rest of the reprints.
George R.R. Martin provided more details on the reissue, which is officially set for a November 23 publication date. As previously announced, the reissue will include three brand new stories: Michael Cassut‘s 50’s-era “Captain Cathode v. the Secret Ace”, David Levine’s 1960-set “Powers”, and Carrie Vaughn 80’s-era “Ghost Girl Takes Manhattan”. In comments, GRRM adds that Aces High and Jokers Wild are tentatively scheduled for late 2011 and mid-2012 releases, but that only Wild Cards will feature new stories.
In November, another Martin-edited anthology (co-edited with the esteemed editor Gardner Dozois) will also see publication, Songs of Love and Death, whose table of contents we’ve previously shared.
George has followed up his previous “Not a Blog” post with another providing some insight into progress on A Dance with Dragons. He reveals that he’s removed a character—who had only one chapter—from the novel, having decided that their chapter would work better early in The Winds of Winter than late in A Dance with Dragons. He states that he now has 100 pages set for the next novel.
He names the removed POV in the post, but as it might imply certain spoilers, you’ll have to click through to read it.
After having been out of commission due to a nasty computer virus that was making a mess of his Windows machine, GRRM posts an update on “Not a Blog”. He touches on a number of topics, from the recent news that Charles Dance has joined the cast of HBO’s Game of Thrones in the role of Tywin Lannister to the availability of the amazing 2011 A Song of Ice and Fire Calendar with art by the renowned Ted Nasmith. He also makes note of the novelette of his that Lightspeed Magazine has reprinted.
At the end, he touches on progress on A Dance with Dragons, stating that he’s finished a chapter for a character that he dubs “Fred” (suggesting giving his identity may be semi-spoilerish). As he writes:
“Finally, might mention that I finished a chapter of the DANCE today. I had one last chapter about this particular character—I will call him Fred—to finish, and then I am done with him for the book. Of course, in the writing, it turned into three chapters. So I finished a Fred chapter a week ago, and a Fred chapter an hour ago, and yet I STILL have one Fred chapter to finish. Sigh. The horizon recedes continuously before me.”
The last really major casting announcement has been made, thanks to Maureen Ryan at the Chicago Tribune: British actor Charles Dance has been cast as Tywin Lannister, Lord of Casterly Rock and patriarch of the Lannister family. Though his character appears late in the series, his presence is felt throughout the series. He is a Machiavellian figure, commanding, ambitious, and powerful.
Charles Dance was a fan favorite from early on, thanks to his performance in the BBC’s Bleak House and other productions. But Westeros.org can exclusively reveal that a source close to the production told us months ago that he was already a favorite of the executive producers, who had had an opportunity to meet with him (or so we’re told) as he was filming Your Highness in the Paint Hall in Belfast just before Game of Thrones began production there. We’re not sure why it took quite so long for negotiations to sort out, but suffice it to say, now it’s signed, sealed, and delivered.
Below, is an interview with Dance about his role in Sky’s Going Postal, an adaption from Terry Prachett’s Discworld oeuvre.
And here is Dance in his famous role of the unfeeling, grasping lawyer Tulkinghorn in Bleak House:
Dance recently appeared in actor James Franco’s short film, The Clerk’s Tale, which was promoted online with some high res stills that feature the actor in his role as a suit salesman.
Lightspeed magazine, edited by John Joseph Adams, has reprinted online George R.R. Martin’s science fiction novelette, “... For a Single Yesterday”. First published in 1975, at the time when some critics say GRRM was entering the height of his short form prowess, it features the melancholic and bittersweet atmosphere that was a hallmark of much of his writing at that time.
A tweet from an individual involved in the production reveals that HBO’s production plans seem to have scenes set in Winterfell waiting until September to start rolling, and they’ll last through the rest of the shoot it seems. We wonder if this might mean that the pilot reshoots—at least those parts set in and around the North—will be waiting until then?
After a second round of clues, all three roles GRRM shared clues for have been discovered: Amrita Acharia as Irri, Roxanne McKee as Doreah, and Sibel Kekilli as Shae. We’ll discuss each below.
Via the Guardian, we learn that Rupert Murdoch’s BskyB has bought exclusive U.K. broadcasting rights to HBO’s programming, including their archives and all forthcoming programming. According to the report, this is a 5 year agreement worth £150 million.
We can note that HBO has confirmed to us some weeks ago that the early word that the BBC was likely to co-fund Game of Thrones never came to fruition. This seems to settle the matter fully, as there were many question marks on the state of the BBC’s involvement given no mention of them in official press material.
Thanks to paddyolaughlin for the head’s up.
The bad news: for medical reasons, Roy Dotrice has had to leave the production of Game of Thrones, which is very unfortunate. The good news is that he just needs 3-4 months of treatment and he’ll be fine. Our best wishes to Mr. Dotrice, and our hope that—as GRRM says—they’ll find a place for him in the production!
In his place, thespian Julian Glover—an old friend of Dotrice’s from the Royal Shakespeare Company, and an actor with a long, long list of credits stretching back 50 years—has been cast in the role.
And we’ve a new set of clues, a confusing set, but they seem to regard the actresses cast as Doreah and either Irri or Jhiqui (“big brother’s gift”, with GRRM clarifying in comments that his clue is for three roles only) and Shae (“sellsword’s gift”).
Tom Maringer of the Shire Post—official license holder for creating coins based on the coinage of A Song of Ice and Fire—has posted a comment on our post earlier in the month noting that the shop doors have reopened after a long hiatus.
He informs us that he’s struck new examples of the Dothraki puli and denga coins—a great decision in light of the interest in learning Dothraki—and is, interestingly, working on conceptualizing the Bravossi iron coin given to Arya. Beyond that, he’s moved into creating buttons and trinkets, which could come to include ornamental pins or tacks featuring small replicas of weapons. Last but not least, Tom’s kicking around the idea of producing links for a maester’s chains, some of the metals of which would be quite straighforward to get and work with, others ... rather less so.
If you find any of the above interesting, check out the Shire Post’s online store.
The Dothraki language created by David J. Peterson, a member of the Language Creation Society, now has a dedicated fan site. Learn Dothraki (who can be found on Twitter) is the brain child of Richard Littauer and Sebastian Wolff, the latter of which is the orignal founder of the very popular Learn Na’vi website for fans of the Na’vi language in the movie Avatar.
Littauer has already contacted Peterson to discuss some points of the Dothraki language, and is sharing what he learns via a fan wiki and the very first (unofficial) dictionary (PDF file). To add to the usefulness for learning the language, Littauer’s gone a step further and actually begun to create Youtube videos to discuss the finer points of the language. The inaugural video is embedded below:
Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin has added a couple of comments in reply to fan queries about HBO’s adaption of his work.
First, in response to a question about the change of Robert Arryn’s name to Robin Arryn, he writes about how he deliberately broke traditional convention by having characters with similar or even the same names, and cites the historical fact that in Europe many of the noble families would simply reuse the same few names (he specifically notes all the Edwards and Henrys in England, and how heirs named Arthur or Eustace never managed to survive).
Then in another response to a remark about how much involvement he has in the production compared to other authors who sell the adaption rights to their works, George cites that his previous Hollywood experience certainly proves helpful in his being involved in a meaningful basis. On top of that, he notes that many SF/F authors don’t make much money from their books, so are just happy to have someone interested in the rights and willing to cut a check. His personal preference, however, is to meet the would-be producers and see what they have to say, rather than just accepting an offer without deliberation.