HBO Greenlights Martin's A Game of Thrones

[MarauderX]

About time. Since Martin is writing only one episode per season, it should be the last to give him enough time.

How about Kiera Knightly for Sansa? Too big of a star, but still a decent fit.

 

[Trickstergod]

Jaime was 15 when he joined the Kingsguard and it was 2 years later when he killed Aerys. As I recall, the series takes place 14 years after Robert's victory - that'd put Jaime and Cersei at around 31 come the series start.

And, so far, most of the actors mentioned thus far are too old or otherwise inappropriate to the series - while I don't imagine the kids will be quite as young in the show as they are the books, Keira Knightley's still 23. 16-17 or so would be a better age for the actress - I don't recall anything overly sexual happening with Sansa in the first book, so she'd be just about old enough that the series potentially could do more with her as the series progressed and she grew up a bit.

Meanwhile, Stone, Kidman, and Crowe are all at least a decade older than they should be - and Crowe's ruggedly handsome. Jaime's a bit of a pretty boy.

Besides, whoever winds up working on the series won't be a big name actor. I might be forgetting someone, but I think Clancy Brown is about the biggest actor an HBO series has had. Maybe Adrienne Barbeau. In other words, no one particularly all that big at all.

 

[Orius]

At least it will have a lot of sex in it!

And the violence.

Honestly, it's probably best cast with relative unknowns.

Yup, most big actors probaby won't want to play a role in a world were pretty much everyone gets killed, you'll need unknowns that need to build a filmography (uh is that the right term?).

 

[Packrat]

I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the books, I should hope that HBO would do the anthology justice.

I'm gonna have to set my tivo/slingbox for this when it comes available.

 

[Steel_Wind]

To be clear, they have greenlit the pilot, not the series itself. They have not put the greenlight on a whole season.

George RR Martin has a blog entry up on it now as well:

HBO has given the production order.

They will be filming the pilot episode of A GAME OF THRONES.

It's just the pilot so far. They'll need to see that before they decide whether to proceed with a full season's episodes. So let's all hope the pilot will kick serious ass.

It should. David Benioff and Dan Weiss did a terrific job with the script. And yes, all of you can relax, it's very faithful. Dan and David will be the executive producers for the pilot and (we hope) the eventual series.

More details when I have 'em. The news is very fresh. HBO just issued their own press release, which should be up on their website soon, if it's not there already.

Winter is coming to HBO. Hot damn.

Not A Blog - Huge, Huge News

As for "further distractions" for GRRM, at least this is a distraction closer to home that should propell him to get his ass in gear on the series, and stop editing Jack Vance tributes or more Wild Cards anthologies.

*sigh*

 

[catsclaw227]

Besides, whoever winds up working on the series won't be a big name actor. I might be forgetting someone, but I think Clancy Brown is about the biggest actor an HBO series has had. Maybe Adrienne Barbeau. In other words, no one particularly all that big at all.

Even though I threw out the Kidman thing, I would agree with this. Though, not sure about the biggest actor thing. Big Love had a couple of major actors in it from the start.

And, in general, even though their series have had newer actors, they have mostly been very talented. Rome was really awesome, so was Oz, Deadwood, The Wire... and the list goes on.

 

[Trickstergod]

Even though I threw out the Kidman thing, I would agree with this. Though, not sure about the biggest actor thing. Big Love had a couple of major actors in it from the start.

And, in general, even though their series have had newer actors, they have mostly been very talented. Rome was really awesome, so was Oz, Deadwood, The Wire... and the list goes on.

Right! Forgot Big Love. Bill Paxton easily outdoes the two I mentioned.

And, yeah - agreed on the talent. I especially like seeing them pop up elsewhere. Though I had to hang my head and sigh a bit when I saw Marlo in the Max Payne ads. Step down, that. Though I suppose most anything is a step down from The Wire.

 

[RigaMortus2]

OK, who do you cast in the lead roles?

Wallace Shawn is probably too old to play Tyrion Lannister... Paul Giamatti maybe?

Sharon Stone for Cersei Lannister?
How about Jaime Lannister? Russell Crowe is probably too big for HBO.
Eddard Stark?

HBO likes to recycle their actors, so expect to see some people from The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood and Rome in this series. Ian McShane? Kevin McKidd?

 

[RigaMortus2]

Great.

Yet another distraction for Martin.

By now, I wouldn't be surprised if A Dance with Dragons was published in 2011. Martin's already woefully late with that book, he might as well go for the record and make us wait longer than he did with A Feast for Crows (which took him five years to write).

Look at the bright side. At least we'll know the absolute latest the book will be done by. Each season of this series is supposed to be 1 book. So by the time the (current) last book is done in this TV series, A Dance with Dragons has to be out in order for that season to be filmed. If that makes any sense...