HBO to make A Song of Fire and Ice series!!!

[sven]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...=1236&cs=1&p=0

HBO turns 'Fire' into fantasy series
Cabler acquires rights to Martin's 'Ice'
By MICHAEL FLEMING

George R.R. Martin series
HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire and Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"Fire" is the first TV project for Benioff ("Troy") and Weiss ("Halo") and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

The series will begin with the 1996 first book, "A Game of Thrones," and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season's worth of episodes. Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won't complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.

The author will co-exec produce the series along with Management 360's Guymon Casady and Created By's Vince Gerardis.

Martin's series has drawn comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien, because both are period epics set in imagined lands. But Martin has eschewed Tolkien's good-vs.-evil theme in favor of flawed characters from seven noble families.

The book has a decidedly adult bent, with sex and violence comparable to series like "Rome" and "Deadwood."

"They tried for 50 years to make 'Lord of the Rings' as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three," Martin said. "My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you'd have to choose one or two characters."

Aside from writing the most recent draft of "Halo," Weiss recently adapted the William Gibson novel "Pattern Recognition" for WB and director Peter Weir.

Benioff and Weiss were repped by CAA and Management 360.

This is the greatest news ever!

CLANCY BROWN SHOULD PLAY TYWIN LANNISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EDIT - Ice and Fire stupid! ICE AND FIRE!

[Baron Of Hell]

I wonder if this will fly. The books have underage sex in it and incest in it. Are they going to cut that out or make some people older.

I don't think this is going to work. Oh I think I would like it but I don't joe average has the patience for this series. Things are setup books in advance. Many questions from book 1 are still unanswered in book 4 or 5 (not sure where they are at now). Not sure if this Mac World is ready for something like this.

[Groucho]

Originally Posted by Baron Of Hell

I don't think this is going to work. Oh I think I would like it but I don't joe average has the patience for this series. Things are setup books in advance. Many questions from book 1 are still unanswered in book 4 or 5

Hey, if Lost is a hit, this might work too.

[Brian Gentz]

Rome had underage incest sex

[Draven]

This is awesome news, but I'm concerned because I don't have my books in front of me but I think it's "A Song of Ice and Fire" - Amazon confirms this. I'm surprised they got it wrong for this article.

That aside, this is the only way this type of book could be done justice, and it's very similar to "Rome" as far as situations and characters go. They're isn't even call for a bunch of fantasy creatures, as 99% of this series is people talking in castles and tents. There is limited magic and some creatures, but nothing that couldn't be easily handled by a cable series.

[Vendetta-AKK]

George RR Martin has been dodging film offers for years from producers who wanted to make this a film (2 1/2 hours), mostly due to the fact that they wanted to take advantage of the post LOTRs sci/fi fantasy craze. It is to his benefit and says alot about him as a person that he held out for an opportunity like this.

HBO is the best case senerio for this series, giving each book the roughly 10-12 hours of time any adaptation of these dense and sophisicated book's needs to be faithful to the spirit of Martin's vision.

One of the things that I am most interested to hear the producers address is how they will be handling the fantasy aspects of the story...naming the direwolves and dragons. The dragons will obviously have to be CGI, but they only make an appeareance briefly. The direwolves are central to the story. Obvious HBO's production values could pay for decent CGI, but I am curious to hear whether they might attempt to use real wolves and some sort of dog, and use some sort of scaling technique to fix the size issue. Even well trained wolves might be hard considering that they play often with the Stark children.


Baron of Hell - I don't think the incest is an issue at all, anyone with even the most casual knowlege of history knows that they was common with Royal families. And the underage sex, I think Danny is supposed to be about 14. A 17 year actress could easily play down, which is quite common anyway. Or some sort of body double could be used.

And as far as the series complexity issue is concerned. This is one of the wonderful things about the HBO deal. The average joe isn't really the target audience for HBO. Many of HBO's drama programming (Sopranos, Dead Wood, Carnivale) has very slowly advancing story arcs, that are much more literate in terms of story and pace. I think that is one of the most positive things about this deal, and why Martin is such a fan HBO, it is for adults who have fully functioning brains and attention spans.

Hooray, I am so excited about this!!!

[PalmerJoss]

The only thing I would worry about is production costs. Word is that Rome and Deadwood were very expensive productions, and Deadwood was cut short because of the escalating costs - and Rome may not be too far behind. I wonder if they'd be able to sustain the cost of the massive production. I won't hold my breath to see this until I hear that filming has begun on the series.

[adamblast]

I thought HBO was backing off the ultra-expensive TV shows.

At this point I'm thinking: HBO? No way it'll last past season two.

[kvrdave]

Originally Posted by Baron Of Hell

I wonder if this will fly. The books have underage sex in it and incest in it.

It sounds perfect for Showtime.


Actually, I don't think that will bother HBO.

[MrBob]

While I think that this is awesome, I have no faith that it would last past the first maybe second season before they shit can it. It would be like carnivale and Rome.

[pinata242]

Originally Posted by MrBob

While I think that this is awesome, I have no faith that it would last past the first maybe second season before they shit can it. It would be like carnivale and Rome.

Yup, and for exactly this reason:

Originally Posted by Baron of Hell

I don't think this is going to work. Oh I think I would like it but I don't joe average has the patience for this series. Things are setup books in advance. Many questions from book 1 are still unanswered in book 4 or 5 (not sure where they are at now). Not sure if this Mac World is ready for something like this.

[Vendetta-AKK]

Originally Posted by PalmerJoss

The only thing I would worry about is production costs. Word is that Rome and Deadwood were very expensive productions, and Deadwood was cut short because of the escalating costs - and Rome may not be too far behind. I wonder if they'd be able to sustain the cost of the massive production. I won't hold my breath to see this until I hear that filming has begun on the series.

This is probably my biggest concern as well, because it will be a real bummer if we get a season or two and then it gets cancelled. But you have to figure that at the very least we will be getting the very best adaption of Game or Thrones that we could have ever realistically expected to get.

And I have an optimistic hope that this show will prove to be more popular than some of the other HBO series that have not lasted. There are a few reasons why this might happen...

I was and am as disappointed as the next guy that HBO didn't stick with Carnivale, Deadwood, and Rome longer than they did. But I think Song of Ice and Fire has the potential to bring in a bigger audience because it has a passion and a real heart at the center of its storyline that none of those other shows have. To maintain interest in a story at some point you have to have some emotional investment with the characters. As much as I like those other formentioned shows, I never felt that. But tell me your heart didn't break when...

Spoiler:

When Bran falls from the tower

[Cusm]

Originally Posted by Vendetta-AKK

This is probably my biggest concern as well, because it will be a real bummer if we get a season or two and then it gets cancelled. But you have to figure that at the very least we will be getting the very best adaption of Game or Thrones that we could have ever realistically expected to get.

And I have an optimistic hope that this show will prove to be more popular than some of the other HBO series that have not lasted. There are a few reasons why this might happen...

I was and am as disappointed as the next guy that HBO didn't stick with Carnivale, Deadwood, and Rome longer than they did. But I think Song of Ice and Fire has the potential to bring in a bigger audience because it has a passion and a real heart at the center of its storyline that none of those other shows have. To maintain interest in a story at some point you have to have some emotional investment with the characters. As much as I like those other formentioned shows, I never felt that. But tell me your heart didn't break when...

Spoiler:

When Bran falls from the tower

My heart sunk and my blood boiled, and it is still boiling after finishing the second book. I am waiting on the third and already have the 4th.

[brainee]

Color me skeptical until shooting starts. So many books have the rights to them purchased, and go "under development", that never see the light of day.

I love the books though (though growing impatient with the slow releases), and this would be an ideal format for an adaptation. But as others have said, it's hard to see HBO sticking with this past a season or two, no matter what they might be saying at the start. Period pieces just seem to cost them too much money.

[Dashed]

Well since I just finished reading the 4th book yesterday this is great news. I really hope will work out but I wont get too excited until filming starts.

[Lastblade]

If this series is a success, the series will be canned at season 5. I figure GRRM will finish book 5 this year (fingers crossed), then take him another 6-7 years to get book 6 done which would mean the TV series will have caught up with his book, and then some.

[Ravenous]

Id hate to see HBO deal with this...

It sounds great but I know once I get into it the HBO cocksuckers will cancel it after 1 season ala ROME. They wont sucker me this time

[adamblast]

Originally Posted by Lastblade

I figure GRRM will finish book 5 this year (fingers crossed), then take him another 6-7 years to get book 6 done ...

I'm waiting until the whole series is finished to read *any* of the books.

I hope they're as good as people have said--but I'm simply *never* going to buy another "trust me, I'll finish this someday" door-stopper fantasy series. You can thank Robert Jordan for that.

[Lastblade]

Robert Jordan's next Wheel of Time book is supposedly the last and brings the story to an end. I wonder if Rand will live. Probably.

[Mordred]

This is great news. The only people who could do this series any sort of justice are HBO. Easily my favorite book series (although I haven't started on #4 just yet) and I can't wait to see how this turns out. I just finished re-reading the first along with my wife who read it for the first time and was dreaming about something like this. Hopefully it doesn't slow Martin's writing any though... it's already slow enough as it is.

[MrBob]

Originally Posted by adamblast

I'm waiting until the whole series is finished to read *any* of the books.

I hope they're as good as people have said--but I'm simply *never* going to buy another "trust me, I'll finish this someday" door-stopper fantasy series. You can thank Robert Jordan for that.

Fair warning if you haven't already, DO NOT read the plot synopsis on the back of the books, as they contain spoilers for preceeding books. Especially the second one which has a huge spoiler on it.

[Josh-da-man]

Definitely interested.

I haven't read the books, but I plan on when they're all published. When it comes to series novels, I don't like reading them and waiting years for the next installment as I tend to forget things.

Even if HBO does cancel this prematurely, it doesn't bother me as much as something like "Carnivale" because it's a derivitive work and at least I can read the whole thing. Providing that the author finishes it.

[Jay G.]

Originally Posted by Ravenous

It sounds great but I know once I get into it the HBO cocksuckers will cancel it after 1 season ala ROME. They wont sucker me this time

ROME didn't get canceled after 1 season, it's just starting season 2 on HBO right now.

Originally Posted by PalmerJoss

The only thing I would worry about is production costs. Word is that Rome and Deadwood were very expensive productions, and Deadwood was cut short because of the escalating costs - and Rome may not be too far behind.

ROME has already been confirmed as not returning for a third season, although the show's producers knew this going into season 2. I think part of the reason is that the BBC and RAI wouldn't go past 2 seasons as co-producers.

[Vendetta-AKK]

Here is what A Song of Fire and Ice author George R.R. Martin had to say about this announcement on his website blog:

Yes, this is the Big News that I have been hinting at.

No, the Big News was not the pizza crawl, or the delivery of the new WILD CARDS book, though of course I'm excited about those as well.

VARIETY broke the story this morning. Instead of rehashing what they said, let me just point all of you toward:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...goryid=14&cs=1

I've already gotten close to a hundred emails this morning, just off the VARIETY article. I expect that number will have swollen to several hundred before the day is out. I appreciate all the good wishes and congratulations, but I am NOT going to be able to respond to all of you individually.

I will be making my own announcement on my news page, of course, and that may answer some of your questions, but I haven't actually written it yet, so please be patient.

I appreciate all the casting suggestions too, but guys, you're getting way way WAY ahead of yourselves. Developing a television series is a long and time-consuming process, and we're just getting started here. We only closed the deal a couple of days ago.

I will do my best to keep everyone informed as the project progresses, but this is not something you will be telling TIVO to record next week.

This might be a great time to subscribe to HBO, however. Regardless of what happens with A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, HBO still has the best shows on television, shows like DEADWOOD, THE WIRE, and THE SOPRANOS that stand head and shoulders above anything on the networks. The second season of ROME just started last Sunday, and it's fabulous; the look of it, the writing, the directing, the acting, all of it is first rate. That's why I have been saying for years that HBO was the perfect place for A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.

[Ravenous]

Originally Posted by Jay G.

ROME didn't get canceled after 1 season, it's just starting season 2 on HBO right now.


ROME has already been confirmed as not returning for a third season, although the show's producers knew this going into season 2. I think part of the reason is that the BBC and RAI wouldn't go past 2 seasons as co-producers.

I knew Id have to clarify myself. Rome was cancelled well before season 2 aired, its basically dead in the water. Its cancellment was announced shortly after S1

I piss on HBO and will cancel them as soon as ROme S2 is done. I wont invest in their shit anymore.