HBO Greenlights “A Song of Ice and Fire” Pilot
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Several places are reporting that HBO has (finally) given the “A Song of Ice and Fire” television pilot a greenlight. HBO had picked up the option to make the series a long while back. But there were talks that the series was facing competition for a try at a slot. However, the series will now get a pilot episode, with the chance of a full season pickup. The first season of the show will be based on the first novel, “A Game of Thrones“. Following that, every season is planned to take on one novel. Should the series hold onto author George R.R. Martin’s projections, and not get any larger or smaller (The series is famous for growing from three planned novels into four current novels, with three more on the way. George also swears that if he dies, the series will not go on), this would give HBO a potential 7 season series.
Personally, I’ve always cheered for the series to make it. It makes a very intricate story, which would be be played out visually. A movie would cut out far too much, so television would be the best way to go. The series is quite violent at times, with a healthy dose of sexual material, and political intrigue. So really, HBO is the best that the series can hope for. George tells the fans on his “Not a Blog” that the script for the pilot is “very faithful”.
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I kind of like the 1 season per novel idea. However, they will likely catch up to the books before George is done writing them. I’d almost rather they pick a couple books to make into 2 seasons each. Still, I can’t wait for these to be made into a TV series. I think a lot more people would be able to see the brilliance of the setting in show format.
Violent at times? I think there are a few things that they would have a tough time showing on TV, even HBO.
I can’t wait to see this. I hope they do it justice. I think it will rely heavily on the script being good, and the casting has to be right. I don’t envy the casting director’s task, as there are a ton of characters in this story.
This is awesome news. I can’t wait to see this. But honestly, the chances of the show actually lasting for a full 7 seasons seems incredibly slim. If The Sopranoes, HBO’s most popular show ever, only goes 6, I don’t see this going 7. But I’ll take any I can get.
Now if GRRM could just finish ADWD by the end of the year, this would be the best news ever.
Now Randy can finally be sated!
@ The Watcher: Unfortunately, the latest estimates I’ve seen for A Dance With Dragons has it being released in April of 2009. That’s not even a firm date as Martin has yet to finish the book. I hope the final two books don’t take as long to finish as the last couple books have. I’d like him to actually be able to finish the series. It would really suck if things were left hanging.
I’ve been meaning to send a thank you mail to you guys for getting me into this series, i’ve finished reading the fourth book a few weeks ago. Extremely looking forward to this pilot, hope they really do the books justice.
Thanks for encouraging us to read this!
@Polygon: Yeah, April’s what I’ve heard. But to make that release date, he would have to finish the book by the end of the year at the latest.
That’s definitely true…unless someone has invented InstantPrint technology where you can print thousands of books per second, it takes a bit of time to print all those books. I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed.
My first thought when reading the headline of this post was “wow, Randy must be so excited”
I haven’t read these books yet, but I want to. This sounds very cool.
WOO-HOO! YES, YES, YESYESYES, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
I’ve been waiting for progress on this since the news broke back in ‘06. Hell, every couple of weeks I’ve looked it up on imdb.com just to see that it was still devoid of activity.
Ok, so, casting time! I have multiple ideas for each, but still I’ll pick just one for here.
Something to consider, age; women marry early on in puberty and start having kids, a female character with a teenage kid could still be just shy of 30 and her husband may not be all that much older.
I’m not gonna bother trying to cast the kids.
Ned Stark: Jaime Bamber (Apollo from BSG),
Caetlyn Stark: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor)
Jaime Lannister: Kevin McKidd (Lucius Vorenus of Rome)
Cersei Lannister: Sarah Michelle Gellar (duh)
Robert Baratheon: clueless
Tyreon Lannister: ditto
Tywin Lannister: Patrick Stewart
Meh, I need to get back to work, actually.
Now see, you’re going to make me have to do up my own cast. Which is always very hard for me, because the children have to be done right, and I almost say that they all will have to be completely new actors. Give me a day, then I’ll have something for you
The youngest characters we can really cast are Rob, Theon, & Jon then again it may be worth attempting to cast Danerys and Sansa just because they’re so important and at about 12-13 there are some known actresses for us to chose from.
Now that I’m not at work and am in fact drinking, here goes;
Varyss the Spider: Ian McShane (Al Swearengen of Deadwood)
Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish: James Callis, (Dr. Gaius Baltar of BSG)
Vysaris Targareon, Dany’s older brother, the beggar king: Max Pirkis (Octavian the younger of Rome)
Kahl Drogo: Jason Scott Lee (Bruce Lee in the biopic)
Sandor Clegane, The Hound: Ray Stevenson (Titus Pulo of Rome)
Barriston Selmy, Barriston the Bold of the Kingsguard: Michael Ironside (The 80’s)
Brynden Tully, the Blackfish: Timothy Dalton (Bond)
Maester Luwin: Malcom McDowell (WING COMMANDER!)
Grand Maester Pycell: David Bamber (Cicero of Rome)
Lord Mormont, the Old Bear, commander of the watch: Rutger Hauer (The 80’s)
Lyssa Arryn: Amber Benson (Tara of Buffy)
Jorah Mormont: Sean Bean (Sharpe)
Jaqen H’ghar: James Marsters (Spike)
Theon Greyjoy: Kyle Gallner (Cassidy “Beaver” Casablancas from Veronica Mars)
Doran Martel: Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama, so there)
Asha Greyjoy: Kristen Bell (you heard me)
Oberyn Martel, The Red Viper: Lou Diamond Phillips (All he has to do is fight well and die horribly)
Melissandre, The Red Woman: Gillian Anderson (Scully)
Maester Aemon Targareon of the Night’s Watch: assuming he lives long enough, Peter O’Toole
Thoros of Myr, The Red Priest: Michael Chiklis (Vic Mackey of The Shield)
Beric Dondarion, The Lightning Lord: Sean Maher (Simon from Firefly)
Bronn: Adam “Animal Mother” Baldwin
Well, I think Arya is one of the most important casting decisions they will make. She can’t be too pretty, and she’s got to be an incredibly good actress. One thing to remember is that they were at least at one point working with BBC on the series. So we can probably look forward to a lot of relatively unknown British actors (And I would think British locales being the filming locations).
Britain is absolutly not going to be the location for filming, no where near varied enough or cheap enough.
Word from Martin is that they were looking at New Zealand- hello, Middle Earth- and I think Romania- somewhere in Eastern Europe, anyways.
Not Romania!!! I have heard form good sources who have made movies there. The reason for their “cheap” prices is their lack of infrastructure as far as filming goes.
I did hear it will be done in Britain, using mostly british actors, though it is was very early on when I heard this.
I think this could be an amazing production. I think it could compare to the popularity of the HBO series “Rome”, which was a hit (hearing they might make a Big Screen Movie on Rome).
I have read the first 3 books 4 times, the fourth book only once. (admittingly, I did not like the fourth book, though I think I could like the fifth, if it can EVER be finished). It is a story of characters, many in fact. I read somewhere that, because of the “lifespan” of the characters, they may opt for some big names to play them (though I doubt it)
I wish we could be a part of the casting decisions. I do think there are a number of great actors, both new and from the 80’s & 90’s who could fit well into this elaborate cast. I would love to see names like Adrian Paul and Peter Wingfield mentioned in these casting calls, as I think actors such as these would have alot to offer to this series.
I can’t wait. It’s been a long time waiting for this decision. I’m also waiting for the new book (whats taking so long George R.R. Martin?
He keeps saying that he has a knot in the story that he is trying to work out. And considering he keeps mentioning it, I assume he keeps failing. Hopefully it won’t be a big wait after that is worked out.