HBO Preps 'A Song Of Fire & Ice'
Any of my fellow epic fantasy devotees will be wetting themselves with glee (or horror) right now, but the rest of the world should know as well: HBO has commissioned a full-fledged series from the popular epic cycle "A Song of Fire & Ice," from fantastic giant George R.R. Martin. While "Fire & Ice" is still unfinished, that really won't impact turning it into a television series. (Any of you familiar with the decades-long glacial pace of now-deathly-ill author Robert Jordan's as-yet-unfinished "Wheel of Time" series will understand why that's no big deal.) With four of the seven 1,000 page volumes in this series published and a fifth on the way, HBO will have as much material as they can handle if they indeed intend for each novel "to fuel a season's worth of episodes."
"This is not game related!" Some of you may be screeching. Oh but it is. There's been a card game, a board game, a tabletop RPG, and other less successful attempts to turn this staple of modern epic fantasy into an interactive experience.
HBO is bringing writer/producers David Benioff (of "Troy") and D.B. Weiss (of "Halo"), who will write every script save one, which will be written by Martin himself; the series will be shot in Europe and, of course, New Zealand. Why a series and not a movie or a miniseries? Says Martin:
"They tried for 50 years to make 'Lord of the Rings' as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three. My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you'd have to choose one or two characters."
Those are some neat credits, and a fine hunk of hubris from the author himself. What gives me pause is this: HBO recently scaled "Rome" back from three seasons to two because it was too complicated and expensive to shoot overseas. Does that mean this project is doomed to be doomed, or doomed to be poorly made, or both, or neither?
HBO turns 'Fire' into fantasy series [Variety]
[Via: Wonderland]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff on 21 January 2007
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: epic fantasy, george r r martin, hbo, song of fire and ice
Oh good God. My face is frozen in a sort of hopeful wince. It's a tough expression to maintain.
A fantasy show with HBO's production values and willingness to include adult language/violence/nudity/rape (what's the fifth warning they flash before shows)? I need to go talk to the folks at Comcast.
I stopped reading at the second book when I saw the story was longer than 4 books~ This is going to be a very long running HBO show~
Any bets that the Stark's Northern realm will be filmed somewhere in Slovakia or Czech Republic? I can see that as a feasible location.
Well, if anyone were to this, HBO has by far the best shot of developing something remotely close to the books.
I'm excited... the promo picture of Jaime on the Iron Throne looks *awesome* :)
I'm really excited and optimistic about this news. I hope the wait isn't too long.