It looks like we will be able to watch George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire on HBO in the near future. Variety is reporting that the cable network has snagged the rights to the show and will cover one book per season.
It also claims that the 7 book series will be completed by 2011. Not at the author's current rate of productivity.
Still, I have high hopes for the series; HBO creates some damn fine shows.
3 comments:
Thanks for the news!
No guarantees concerning quality, of course, but in terms of format it appears ideal. Issues of talent, budget, and commitment to the full series are in mind, but I can't think of a more promising format and pathway to getting the most out of the translation to the screen.
They'll have to drastically simplify the series in terms of both story and cast, but in this case, I won't mind. As long as they keep the central characters and storylines more or less intact, and, you know, get someone who can actually make a decent story on film to do it, I'll be happy.
I deeply fear, though, seeing Verne Troyer cast as Tyrion...
HBO's series structure is 12 episodes per season, so even if the average episode is only 45 minutes they'll have a 9 hour movie to tell each volume in the series... so they really shouldn't have to dump much if they cast well and the director trusts the actors to convey the emotions and motivations of the characters. I haven't read A Game of Thrones since '98 or so, though, so I don't recall how talky it tended to be.
Still, yeah, we won't know how well these are going to be handled until we have more details (such as casting), and even then we'll likely still have to wait for the series to air. Benioff and Weiss each have too thin of professional resumes to draw much info from. Not to hunker down and drop a load in the potpourri, but I see that Benioff is also listed as screenwriter for the '08 Wolverine movie, and Weiss' sole pro credit is for Halo, a 2008 movie based on a video game.
At least Martin's restricted to a single episode's screenplay out of each season; he doesn't need any more of an excuse for falling behind on the rest of the series.
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