The latest economic article in the Belfast Telegraph on the film and television industry in Northern Ireland reveals that HBO’s Game of Thrones is a definite boon to the economy, along with the other productions Northern Ireland Screen has brought to the region. Previously, NI Screen estimated that a single season of Game of Thrones would bring £20 million into the local economy.
Compare this figure to the total of the gain to the economy in the 2009-2010 year, in which the highlights were the pilot for Game of Thrones and the film Your Highness. Northern Ireland Screen’s £3.9 million investment in bringing productions to Northern Ireland is said to have returned approximately £22 million pounds, a 5.5:1 ratio. If the £20 million estimate holds out, Game of Thrones alone will nearly equal the economic impact of all 2009-2010 productions together.
One other figure from the article? It’s said that HBO’s network (including their foreign channels) will bring Game of Thrones to 35 million viewers worldwide. With broadcast rights still being sold to third party channels, that figure is doubtless going to be rather higher.
Back in March, the Well Educated Pony blog wrote a terrific post interpreting what sort of modern fashions that various characters in HBO’s Game of Thrones might wear, if they were placed in modern dress. Well, now she’s back with a follow-up, covering a number of characters she didn’t deal with the first time around. This includes Littlefinger, Sansa, and the rather curious case of Lysa Arryn (whom has been cast as rather less zaftig than the character as described in the books).
A great, fun read. But… when are we going to see what sort of fashions Lord Renly Baratheon or Ser Loras Tyrell would wear… ?
It was recently noted by an extra, known as Rimshot, working on the production that the show was preparing to film a three-episode production block. This has led to a good deal of confusion as to just what that means, but thankfully Adam Whitehead, U.K.-based book blogger, steps in to explain this over at the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum. Here’s the key paragraph:
“The block system sees several episodes combined into one solid block of filming and production lasting many weeks, maybe a month to two months. This block will involve the same behind-the-scenes personnel, and will be designed to maximise efficiency and minimize costs, so episodes set in the same location, using the same guest or recurring actors and so on will be combined, regardless of the actual transmission order of the episodes. Most notably, the same director will be assigned to the entire block. The block will be prepped, read-through, go through pre-production and budget meetings and then filmed and put through post in one long process. Usually whilst one block is filming, the next director will be stepping up and prepping the next block so the actors go from filming one block to the next (sometimes with a short break between them).”
Do check the rest of his post, as Adam compares to the more usual American network production method, and details how Doctor Who has used the production block method.
Sometime in the wee hours of the North Ireland morning, production began on HBO’s Game of Thrones. It doesn’t sound like the first day’s shooting will be taking place at the Paint Hall studio in Belfast, given this tweet from production secretary Paul McAnearney where he realizes that he’ll be standing in the rain come today.
George has updated “Not a Blog”, remarking on how half the editors he knows were in sunny San Diego for Comic-Con while he was still “shovelling Snow”. Clearly, writing continues on a Jon Snow chapter (or chapters) ... and there’s a bit of spoiler about just who doesn’t like all the snow (which may be literal snow, and not just Jon Snow). If you don’t mind (or eare eager) for the spoiler, read GRRM’s post.
George R.R. Martin has followed up on IDW’s announcement at Comic-Con with a detailed post about the comic, noting that it’ll be based on his revised script for the pilot rather than on the pilot itself, so character likenesses and the like will not be based on the rarely-seen pilot. Stefano Martino, an Italian artist who has worked with IDW previously on such things as their licensed Doctor Who comics, was hand-picked by Martin to handle visual chores, while Martin himself will adapt the teleplay to comic book form.
GRRM adds that if the series is a success, there could be more Doorways comics, beginning with his first draft of the pilot script (substantially different from what was produced, due to a setting which was so bleak that the studio asked it to be changed to something more hopeful) and then on through the six unproduced scripts (one of which was written by him), and then possibly on to original stories ... from other writers, handpicked by GRRM, of course, as he reiterates that his primary writing focus remains with A Song of Ice and Fire.
The prospective publication date for their adaption of George R.R. Martin’s pilot of Doorways has been announced by IDW during their big press panel at San Diego Comic-Con. According to Editor-in-Chief, Chris Ryall, the comic book is set to begin publishing in November of this year. GRRM previously revealed that the agreement had been reached during the C2E2 convention in Chicago. The plan for the initial miniseries is to adapt GRRM’s script for the produced pilot, and that if the series is a success it could lead to adaptions of a number of unproduced scripts he had for the proposed series, as well as original stories from other writers within the Doorways setting.
Doorways is a science fiction series, about fugitives on the run from an enemy from another version of Earth. The protagonists are able to travel through doorways which take them to new timelines or realities where history has been subtly—and, often as not, massively—different. If this sounds a bit familiar, yes, Sliders came into development not so long after GRRM sent around his Doorways proposal.
The Wall Street Journal has published an article about the cable studios and their costly productions. HBO’s Game of Thrones is mentioned only in passing, as one example of the high-end epics that are coming, but it’s interesting to look at the figures that have been batted around for other productions in light of what we know of Game of Thrones‘s budget. The one that surprised me most was that was the claim (unsourced, mind you) that Starz’s Camelot was in the region of $7 million an episode. That’s half again the projected per episode budget of Game of Thrones, from a much smaller cable provider.
This leads us to wonder ... Camelot was announced after Game of Thrones went into production and likely had its budget projections made. Is it possible that some of the reshoots—reshoots which GRRM calls, in some cases, an attempt to do things even better—are motivated by HBO opening up the purse strings and increasing the show’s budget to be more in line with the latest crop of costume dramas? Assuming, that is, that Camelot‘s alleged budget isn’t a lot of hype over substance. The figure bandied about in the article is certainly a substantial leap up in production budget for the show compared to Starz’s previous original costume piece, such as Spartacus: Blood and Sand.
In a follow-up to our recent item about the legendary fight choreography William Hobbs being involved in training Miltos Yerolemou for his role as Syrio Forel in HBO’s Game of Thrones, Miltos has commented over at Winter is Coming that while Hobbs is not officially associated with the production, he’s taken a hand in helping Miltos develop the Braavosi waterdancing style. Miltos also confirms that Buster Reeves—who was Christian Bale’s stunt double in the Batman films, and helped develop the superhero’s unique fighting style—is still involved as fight choreographer in Game of Thrones after having arranged the fights in the pilot.
As with many of the actors, Miltos has been in Belfast for read throughs and rehearsal, and apparently has run through some of his fight choreography with Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark.
One other thing mentioned is the fact that Hobbs discussed the Rob Roy fight with Miltos “at length”, which may give a sense of the approach they’ll be taking with Syrio’s superlative waterdancing skills. For your edification (and because we really think it’s the best bit of fencing choreography we’ve ever seen), the climactic fight scene from the film, choreographed by Hobbs:
Over at “Not a Blog”, George R.R. Martin runs through several of the actors cast in roles related to the Vale of Arryn—Lysa Arryn, Robin Arryn, and Ser Vardis Egen. More notably, he touches on the fate of Ser Brynden Tully, the Blackfish. George explains it best, so we’ll quote him:
“... alas, his appearance has been postponed. Even with such a huge project as ours, there are budgetary constraints that require some characters to be cut, combined… or deferred to later seasons. That’s what is happening with the Blackfish. The plan, I am told, is to delay the introduction of the Tullys (Lord Hoster and Ser Edmure as well as Ser Brynden) until the second season. Brynden’s part in the events of A GAME OF THRONES will be filled in part by Ser Vardis Egen, and in part by Ser Rodrik Cassel.”
So, if the show gets a second season, we’ll be seeing the rest of the Tully clan.
Via GRRM, we learn that Green Ronin—producers of A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying—have had an adventure for the system, Peril in King’s Landing, nominated for an eNnie Award. The award, one of the more prestigious in the RPG community, has an open ballot and anyone may vote.
Green Ronin also reports that the pocket version of the SOIF RPG is at the printers, so it should debut in time for GenCon.
Valyrian Steel, official producers of replica weapons based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, have a lengthy update regarding one particular product, the “live steel”, Damascus version of Longclaw. Unfortunately, the manufacturer that they are using has bitten off more than they could chew, according to Valyrian Steel, and have been unable to meet the production schedule. In fact, the manufacturer is swearing off taking any more Damascus steel orders from Valyrian Steel, although it’s suggested this may be nothing more than a negotiating tactic.
The result of all this? The delays for fulfilling Damascus steel Longclaw orders will be partially rectified by a partial order fulfillment for those with the earliest pre-orders, with the rest of the orders filled when they finally receive the rest of the ordered blades. It also means that their plan—to release their replica of Ice in both standard and Damascus versions simultaneously—likely will have to be scrapped, but they are looking into alternatives. Preorders for the regular production run of Ice (and photos of the weapon) should be available in late August, while they also report that they’ve sent their design for their next weapon—King Robert’s famous warhammer—on to GRRM for approval.
With an entry titled, “Snowbound”, GRRM hints that he’s on a writing roll with A Dance with Dragons, writing what seems to be a Jon Snow-centered chapter. He mentions that “Pat” has died a brief but gruesome death, a reference to a character named after blog reviewer, Patrick St-Denis, who won the opportunity to have a character named after him (and promptly die a horrible death) over a football wager.
It looks like some blood will be spilled, late in Jon Snow’s ADwD chapters.
As we recently learned, Castle Black was set to be built at Magheramorne Quarry. Now, a fellow fan by the handle of silverjaime has shared the first photos of the site, taken about a mile away from the building site (the nearest the public can get to it). The first picture is here, while a zoomed and cropped version can be found here. It looks like the quarry wall will serve as the Wall, either colored to look more like ice in CG, or perhaps used as a base on which to lay greenscreen.
Silverjaime also visited the Paint Hall area, and fell into discussion with the dialect coach for the production, Brendan Gunn. Gunn informed her that while the production would us “UK accents”, he did not provide details of whether there’d be regional variations other than to confirm that Aidan Gillen (cast as Littlefinger) would not use his native, Dubin accent. Gunn has previously worked on a very large number of films, including Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, Meet Joe Black, and Snatch (where he helped Brad Pitt develop his Tinker accent). He also happens to have served as the dialogue coach for A Shine of Rainbows, a film which featured Jack Gleeson, cast as Joffrey Baratheon.
A video of Gunn discussing the dialects of A Shine of Rainbows is embedded below:
Avatar Press has just published George R.R. Martin’s Fevre Dream #4 to comic shops. The adaption of Martin’s award-winning horror novel, by novelist Daniel Abraham and artist Rafa Lopez, at present appears to be on a bi-monthly schedule, making it great, brisk read. Below is a preview of the fourth issue: