News Analysis India

Tag: George R R Martin

  • ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ renewed for second season

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: HBO has given a second season order for “House of the Dragon”, the prequel series to the popular fantasy drama “Game of Thrones”.

    The show’s early renewal follows its smash-hit debut with the first episode, which dropped on August 21 and drew the largest audience for any new original series in HBO history, the American premium network said in a statement on Friday.

    “The first episode has now been seen by over 20 million viewers across linear, on-demand and HBO Max platforms in the US, based on a combination of Nielsen data and first-party data,” the company said.

    “House of the Dragon” is based on George R R Martin’s book “Fire & Blood”, a history of House Targaryen set 200 years before the events described in “Game of Thrones”, which ended its eight-season run in 2019.

    Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, said the network is beyond proud of the show’s first season.

    “Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two,” she added.

    “House of the Dragon” features an ensemble cast of Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans.

    Ryan Condal is attached as the showrunner and executive producer on the show along with Miguel Sapochnik, who helmed “Game of Thrones” episodes such as ‘The Battle of Bastards’ and ‘The Winds of Winter’. Condal and Martin are credited as co-creators and executive producers.

    LOS ANGELES: HBO has given a second season order for “House of the Dragon”, the prequel series to the popular fantasy drama “Game of Thrones”.

    The show’s early renewal follows its smash-hit debut with the first episode, which dropped on August 21 and drew the largest audience for any new original series in HBO history, the American premium network said in a statement on Friday.

    “The first episode has now been seen by over 20 million viewers across linear, on-demand and HBO Max platforms in the US, based on a combination of Nielsen data and first-party data,” the company said.

    “House of the Dragon” is based on George R R Martin’s book “Fire & Blood”, a history of House Targaryen set 200 years before the events described in “Game of Thrones”, which ended its eight-season run in 2019.

    Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, said the network is beyond proud of the show’s first season.

    “Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two,” she added.

    “House of the Dragon” features an ensemble cast of Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans.

    Ryan Condal is attached as the showrunner and executive producer on the show along with Miguel Sapochnik, who helmed “Game of Thrones” episodes such as ‘The Battle of Bastards’ and ‘The Winds of Winter’. Condal and Martin are credited as co-creators and executive producers.

  • George R.R. Martin wanted ‘GoT’ to run for ’10 Seasons at least’

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: ‘Game of Thrones’ novelist George R.R. Martin has spoken about network HBO’s franchise, which is adapted from his hit book series. He shared that he advocated for many more seasons for the series, giving the storytelling a larger canvas.Although ‘Game of Thrones’ was a superlative hit for HBO, becoming an Emmy darling and garnering a massive fanbase over the years, series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss elected to end the series after eight seasons. He spoke to The Wall Street Journal, reports Variety.”I was saying it needs to be 10 seasons at least and maybe 12, 13. I lost that one,” he said. Ultimately, Martin didn’t have much say in the final stretch of ‘Game of Thrones’, as the events of the series stretched beyond the storyline established by books he has published so far.”I had no contribution to the later seasons except, you know, inventing the world, the story and all the characters,” he said. “I believe I have more influence now (on ‘House of the Dragon’)than I did on the original show.”Martin also spoke about the unconventional process for developing a spinoff of the main series ‘House of The Dragon’, in which five teams developing separate concepts visited Martin in Santa Fe to pitch their respective visions.”It was like we were in the NFL playoffs and I’m coaching all the teams,” he said. “Emotionally, that was a little odd.” Notably, HBO shelved one concept after producing a pilot, which starred Naomi Watts and reportedly cost nearly $30 million.Martin apparently had reservations about the concept before it was shot, given that it was set in “an ancient era only briefly described” in his work.

    LOS ANGELES: ‘Game of Thrones’ novelist George R.R. Martin has spoken about network HBO’s franchise, which is adapted from his hit book series. He shared that he advocated for many more seasons for the series, giving the storytelling a larger canvas.
    Although ‘Game of Thrones’ was a superlative hit for HBO, becoming an Emmy darling and garnering a massive fanbase over the years, series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss elected to end the series after eight seasons. He spoke to The Wall Street Journal, reports Variety.
    “I was saying it needs to be 10 seasons at least and maybe 12, 13. I lost that one,” he said. Ultimately, Martin didn’t have much say in the final stretch of ‘Game of Thrones’, as the events of the series stretched beyond the storyline established by books he has published so far.
    “I had no contribution to the later seasons except, you know, inventing the world, the story and all the characters,” he said. “I believe I have more influence now (on ‘House of the Dragon’)than I did on the original show.”
    Martin also spoke about the unconventional process for developing a spinoff of the main series ‘House of The Dragon’, in which five teams developing separate concepts visited Martin in Santa Fe to pitch their respective visions.
    “It was like we were in the NFL playoffs and I’m coaching all the teams,” he said. “Emotionally, that was a little odd.” Notably, HBO shelved one concept after producing a pilot, which starred Naomi Watts and reportedly cost nearly $30 million.
    Martin apparently had reservations about the concept before it was shot, given that it was set in “an ancient era only briefly described” in his work.

  • ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ to debut in August

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: ‘House of the Dragon’, the first spin-off series of record-breaking juggernaut ‘Game of Thrones’, will premiere on August 21. While announcing the premiere date, HBO Max also revealed a new poster for the series and additional images from the show, reports ‘Variety’.Set two centuries before the events of ‘Game of Thrones’, the ten-episode prequel series will depict how the House of Targaryen fell into a bitter and brutal civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons — presaging the beginning of the end of the ruling family of Westeros. The series was created by author George R. R. Martin and Ryan J. Condal, based on Martin’s novel ‘Fire & Blood’.Condal and director Miguel Sapochnik are executive producers and co-showrunners on the series; Martin and Vince Gerardis are executive producing as well alongside Sara Hess, Jocelyn Diaz, Ron Schmidt, Clare Kilner, Geeta V. Patel and Greg Yaitanes.Much like the original series, ‘House of the Dragon’ boasts a sprawling cast, with a smaller core set of characters including Paddy Considine (as King Viserys I), Emmy D’Arcy (as Princess Rhaenrya, Viserys’ first child and his heir apparent), Matt Smith (as Prince Daemon, Viserys’ younger brother), Rhys Ifans (as Ser Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King), Olivia Cooke (as Lady Alicent Hightower, Otto’s daughter) and Fabien Frankel (as Ser Criston Cole, a knight with eyes for Rhaenrya).The show will also co-star Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Ryan Corr, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Graham McTavish, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson and Gavin Spokes.The premiere date means ‘House of the Dragon’ has a bit of a head start on the year’s other massive fantasy series that serves as a prequel to a widely popular and acclaimed original adaptation: ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’.Amazon Prime Video announced in August 2021 that ‘The Rings of Power’ will debut on the streamer on September 2. In February, Martin announced on his personal blog that shooting on Season 1 of ‘House of the Dragon’ had wrapped.”I have seen rough cuts of a few of them, and I’m loving them,” Martin wrote. “Of course, a lot more work needs to be done. Special effects, colour timing, score, all the post-production work. But the writing, the directing, the acting all look terrific. I hope you will like them as much as I do.”The same month, HBO and HBO Max chief Casey Bloys told Variety that “it’s probably a pretty good bet” that the network will order a second season of the show.”Generally speaking, we usually let something air and see how it does, but obviously, we’ll make preparations ahead of time to make sure we’re ahead of the game,” he said.

  • George R.R. Martin says ‘Winds of Winter’ will be his best work yet

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: American novelist and screenwriter, George R.R. Martin has said that the worldwide lockdown in 2020 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has resulted in his best work to date.

    The popular novelist opened up about how the lockdown was a productive period for him while speaking about his long-awaited novel ‘The Winds of Winter’.

    According to Entertainment Weekly, the ‘Game of Thrones’ creator, while updating his fans on his blog said, “I wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages of THE WINDS OF WINTER in 2020. The best year I’ve had on WOW since I began it. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the isolation. Or maybe I just got on a roll. Sometimes I do get on a roll.”

    He added, “I need to keep rolling, though. I still have hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion. That’s what 2021 is for, I hope.”

    Previously, Martin had told Entertainment Weekly that his writing is not a strictly linear process. The author said that he is aware of fan expectations for Winds and wants the result to meet those expectations.

    The author said, “I will make no predictions on when I will finish. Every time I do, a–holes on the internet take that as a ‘promise,’ and then wait eagerly to crucify me when I miss the deadline. All I will say is that I am hopeful.”

    It should be noted the context of Martin’s thoughts was in a post titled “Reflections on a Bad Year”, which was otherwise devoted to the pandemic tragedy of 2020. The author lamented that it was “the worst year I have ever lived through” in non-writing respects and that he “lost a number of friends, some very near and dear to me.”

    Given the fact that Martin’s previous books ‘A Song of Ice and Fire book’ and ‘A Dance with Dragons’ came out in 2011 and Martin has been working on Winds practically ever since.

    Martin also has other work in the pipeline: HBO is looking to order more ‘Game of Thrones’ prequels, and various writers are pitching ideas. Plus, the green-lit prequel drama ‘House of the Dragon’ should begin production in the first half of 2021.

  • ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel series ‘Tales of Dunk and Egg’ in the works at HBO

    By PTI
    LOS ANGELES: HBO is developing a series adaptation of George R R Martin’s ‘Tales of Dunk and Egg’, a prequel to the events of “Game of Thrones”.

    According to Variety, the one-hour show would be based on the series of fantasy novellas that follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg) 90 years prior to the events of ‘A Song of Ice and Fire.’

    Martin has penned three novellas in the ‘Tales of Dunk and Egg’ series — ‘The Hedge Knight’ (1998), ‘The Sworn Sword’ (2003) and ‘The Mystery Knight’ (2010).

    The combined version of the three books was published in 2015 under the title ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’.

    No writer or talent is currently onboard the project. If the series is locked, it would be the second ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel to make it to screen.

    The network is currently working on ‘House of the Dragon,’ which is slated to premiere in 2022.

    “House of the Dragon” will document the buildup to the Targaryen civil war in Westeros that is known as the Dance of Dragons.

    HBO had also announced a prequel penned by Jane Goldman and featuring Naomi Watts but the project was passed over in 2019.