HBO options Song of Fire and Ice (1 Viewer)

[Andy Sheets]

This will probably make some folks happy


http://www.comingsoon.net/news/tvnews.php?id=18457

 

[Holadem]

I just got started on this series of books the other day. I like what little I've read so far. And it does seem right up HBOs alley, as it appears to be very adult, with minimal magic and creatures. More like a medieval/historical tale with elements of fantasy. Heck, even if I had never heard of the books, the idea of HBO tackling fantasy sounds very appealing.

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H

 

[Andy Sheets]

I started reading the books a few years ago and got about halfway through the first when I decided to back off and wait until it was actually finished before reading it. I thought it was basically well-written but considering the way fantasy authors like to bleed the readership these days (*ahem* Robert Jordan...), I'm hesitant to read any of these sprawling multibook sagas before they're done. I'm glad I waited on this since when I was reading it, Martin was saying it would be absolutely, positively no longer than four books and now it's going to be no less than seven.

 

[Kevin Grey]

If anyone can do it justice it's HBO, however I'm not sure how the budget will work out. There are a few very large scale battle sequences along with several locations (a large city and a couple of other areas) that would seem to demand resources beyond even what Rome and Band of Brothers were given.

 

[Joe:C]

I'm not that familiar with this particular series, but this sounds interesting. It's good that HBO is getting this so things won't be "toned down".

 

[Adam_S]

I've been walking on cloud nine since I heard. I've been dreaming HBO would do this since I discovered the series back in 2001. This series is my personal LOTR, and the first three are amongst my favorite books. I really hope this goes forward. I'll be watching it closely.

GRRM worked for two years to get the story to work as he had outlined, but it refused to cooperate, so he had to spend another two years rewriting material and adding one extra book. the plan for more than seven years had been six books, it only recently expanded

 

[Phil Florian]

No freakin' way!! That is amazing. It was what every GRRM fan has been dreaming about. I think even Martin mentioned something like this in an interview. It would never work as a single movie, that is for sure. After their awesome and unflinching work on ROME, I can see them handling this property in the same way (violence, sex, magic, horror, and backstabbings galore). This is hip stuff.

THanks for making my day! Hope it isn't bogus.

 

[Kevin Grey]

I thought it was two extra books since the original extra "gap" book was taking too long and was too large anyway so the result was splitting the gap book into two- Feast for Crows and Dance With Dragons.

 

[JohnDG]

In that case, how about filming Zelazny's Amber series?

jdg

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I don't think it's a big current bestseller like Martin's series.

I'm not a huge fantasy guy, especially when it comes to endless series, but the first book in this series (A Game Of Thrones) was really fantastic. The second was a bit more run-of-the-mill. I haven't read the third or fourth books yet.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Not to mention several set-pieces would be mind-bogglingly strange (a 1000 mile wall of ice that is 700 feet tall?), beasts that CGI would simply ruin (watch An American Werewolf In Paris and try to think how bad a direwolf might look).Then the logisitcs of having several dozen characters, many of which have identical twins, children, and 2 or three living generations (all of which are supposedly to look very similar). And to top it all off, Winter Is Coming.

 

[Jim_C]

Fantastic news! I love this book series and have often wondered if it would ever be turned into a mini-series or films. A full-blown HBO series is more than I could have dreamed for.

 

[Adam_S]

for the entirety of the first season and most of the second the direwolves are essentially pups/yearlings, hardly full grown adults yet - that means Akitas or various other dogs could be substituted quite easily.

The wall set would be almost laughably cheap if you're not doing swoop-swoop swoop-swoop LOTR cgi camera shots. The sets could all be built in a regular stage with a greenscreen cyclorama.

The biggest challenge to the series is how to incorporate Dany, especially in the later seasons. In the first book her story is almost as long as Eddard's but since she's on an entirely separate storyline on an entirely different continent with a cast that does not overlap in the first season... That will be the biggest difficulty of adapting the series, I'm sure. It's quite an abrupt jump and there's potentially no payoff to keeping up her story for 4-6 seasons. All the other core storylines of AGOT begin when they are all converged at Winterfell. So it's easy to follow all of the threads as they separate--much like the Fellowship breaking at the end of FOTR.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

That, and the story surrounds a 13 year old girl that avoids an incestuous relationship with her brother by mostly being naked or otherwise "involved" with an 8' tall dreadlock'd mongolian. It would be like Flowers In The Attic on crack.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Maybe animation is the way to go (meaning make it a fully animated series rather than live-action).

You know, it suddenly strikes me that the title of this thread should be "A Song Of Ice And Fire," not "Fire And Ice."

Looks like it's misstated in the quoted article, too.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

HBO animated?? That might actually work! (I don't think theres been "serious" adult animation in decades).

 

[Adam_S]

Variety uses shorthand in almost every article they write, even reviews.



fwiw, Martin has said that he intended there to be a five year interval between books three and four in which the children grew up, trained and matured into new roles in the post war world. Since he was unable to make the interval work despite years of effort the kids are just going to be accelerated into their roles though it will be less realistic. He's said if he knew from the beginning there would be no interval he'd have made the kids several years older to begin with. It'll probably be one of the first things he (and the producers) want to change. In the books, Dany marries Drogo when she's 13 and he's in his late twenties... in the tv series, the ages will be closer to what decent folk are willing to accept.

Adam

 

[Raasean Asaad]

besides, everything with Khal Drogo with the exception of killing Viserys
would most likely be a flashback as well.

 

[Adam_S]

I don't get why that would be so at all...

 

[Phil Florian]

I worry about the big battle scenes, as well, especially considering how poorly they were handled...or not handled...in ROME. Granted, I LOVE ROME and felt that its approach to the material would be very well suited to the GRRM books but the battle Pharsalus (is that it?) was shot as 4 guys, wildly swinging cameras, blurry shots and yelling. Very, very low budget.

They handled it better in a quiet moment when the battle was later explained using a stick and dirt (honestly!). I don't know if that would work as well, especially for the second book. If I recall, the first book lacks that level of huge battles. That said, HBO had very large feeling battles in BAND OF BROTHERS so it can work.

Many of the larger battles really can be "faked" a bit since they aren't seen from some bird's eye level like in LOTR. They are seen directly through the eyes of one individual character so each scene would only need a smaller group of people at a time. It should be doable.

Casting will be the most fun part of this for a while. Using BAND OF BROTHERS and ROME as starting points, since I am sure there will be some cast members from one or both considering the talent and scope and who is involved with the production.

Peter Dinklage, the little person from THRESHOLD and ELF and a lot more would be phenomenal as our favorite Tyrion. I have always thought this when I have seen him on screen as he has a very commanding presence. Kevin McKidd (of ROME and TRAINSPOTTING), if messed up a little, has the scowl to do Sandor Clegane (he isn't pretty enough to be a Lannister). Ciaran Hinds (ROME and MUNICH) would be good as one of the lords, no doubt. Too stiff to play Eddard, I would think. Daddy Lannister, maybe? Stannis (Hinds would possibly make this character more enjoyable, I would think) or maybe even Roose Bolton.

Hmmm...obviously, every fan is making their own fantasy cast list but I wonder what others think would be good. Knowing HBO's penchant for getting really excellent talent (ooh...Ian McShane blonded out would be a viscious Lannister, actually) any actor of quality outside of the "big money" folks is fair game.

I know this will probably happen no earlier than the 2009-2010 season but still...it can't come soon enough.