OT: HBO Starts Casting Song Of Ice And Fire

S.R. Krol · #1 July 20th, 2009, 08:48 PM

So Sean Bean is playing Ned Stark. Gotta wonder how exactly the series is going to work considering we're years away from the story's conclusion. Either they expect it to be some sort of Dr.Who event in which the TV series just keeps going on and on, or they're going to simply base it around the books (such as, "inspired by the works of...") and do their own thing with it.

Burnsaber · #2 July 20th, 2009, 09:06 PM

I think that they might be going slower than the books. I mean that the story has tons of characters and happens all over the place (in different continents, actually!). I mean, it takes time to grow fond of a character (or hate her/him, SoFaI has tons of these too) so they'll have to take time to introduce each character.

What's the point of them brutally decimated if you couldn't care less about them?

tgbob · #3 July 20th, 2009, 10:34 PM

Sean Bean! Yes! I love that guy!

On one hand, it's HBO so you know the production values will be highish for a cable show, on the other than, it's HBO, so the sex scenes will be borderline softcore porn.

Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a negative in that train of thought?

atul · #4 July 21st, 2009, 12:02 AM

Yes, the age of characters in most of those those scenes?

Other than that, will be interesting to see how that series pans out.

Meglobob · #5 July 21st, 2009, 08:39 AM

Excellent Sean Bean playing Ned Stark, going be gutted when he gets killed!

I hope Tyrion Lannister is played by a decent actor, as he is my favourite character, been a while since I read the books, he's still alive isn't he?

Cersei Lannister will probably feature in the sex scenes, so hoping for a sexy acctress who can play a good villian.

dirtywick · #6 July 21st, 2009, 12:08 PM

The books were so thick at 1000+ pages and had so many plotlines going on at once, it'll be a really long time before they get through what's there. I doubt a season per book would cover everything, depends on episode length and how many per season.

Plus, figure he didn't go into great detail on battles very often, but there were plenty of them to use as filler. A few lines of action can turn into quite a bit on screen.

Anyway, should be really good. HBO has a great track record for TV series.

S.R. Krol · #7 July 21st, 2009, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meglobob

I hope Tyrion Lannister is played by a decent actor, as he is my favourite character, been a while since I read the books, he's still alive isn't he?

Still alive. He'll be played by Peter Dinklage.

Agema · #8 July 22nd, 2009, 04:12 AM

I certainly can't see it working on TV without several of the side plots being trimmed or removed.

Most TV fantasy is not particularly good quality. If HBO are making it that sounds a lot better, but I'd still be prepared for disappointment.

sevenwarlocks · #9 July 31st, 2009, 01:42 AM

This was great news for the series. HBO wouldn't have cast Bean if they didn't think they were going to pick this up.

I'm a mega-fan of the series, by the way - I've read the books countless times - until the books literally fell to pieces in my hands. So if any of you should be reading the series, get confused, and need to know, for example, who the heir of House Manwoody is, or why the Damphair doesn't like the sound of creaky hinges, I'd be the one to ask.

Someone mentioned the length of the series, and I can tell you that it is a very legitimate concern at this point. The producers plan to do one book per year (or at least one book per 12-13 show "season" with no guarantee that seasons will come once per year - they never came that fast for the Sopranos, and come faster than that for Entourage and Trueblood).

When HBO optioned AGOT, they thought that they were safe, as filming would not start for years, and book 5 of 7 was soon to be published.

Unfortunately, Martin has been stricken by a very serious writer's block. Book 5 is still un-published, and though Martin is currently sounding optimistic about his prospects for finishing it, he has been optimistic before, only to later dismiss much of what he has written as crap.

In the last 9 years, Martin has produced only "A Feast for Crows" which, in story terms, was only half a book. At the current rate, HBO is likely to run out of material to film before Martin finishes writing the series.

While I don't see how they could ever bring this in for less than the cost of Rome, I'm still looking forward to the project.