A Song of Ice and Fire being made... by HBO

[brdgt]

There are a lot of scary things about this (Halo and Troy!) and lot of promising things (cable television series format)...

HBO Acquires A Song of Fire and Ice
Source: Variety (January 17, 2007)

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 executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, reports Variety.

"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-executive produce the series along with Management 360's Guymon Casady and Created By's Vince Gerardis.

Comments

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

DUDE.

I'll buy. HBO does a pretty good job with their dramatizations, and each book needs a full season. This is very cool news. Thank you for sharing!

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking - there's no way they could make these into feature films and do them justice, so each book being a season sounds like a great idea. Plus Martin is going to be a producer.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

HA! I totally called it the other day (http://grrm.livejournal.com/10614.html#comments) and I didn't even think it was possible- it was just my pet fantasy! This is wonderful news. I have faith! For all of Troy and Halo's negatives, I think they're good practice at the epic nature something like this would need.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

My concern over Halo is how much trouble that film has encountered before it has even been released. If they are going to do this I want it done, not talked about for ten years and then never released.

[antarcticlust.livejournal.com]

Oh, I absolutely agree. Luckily, GRRM has some television experience, so he's not going to have unrealistic expectations, or stall the program. And, luckily, it's HBO, which has a lot of experience doing this sort of epic production.

I don't think the Halo issues are what's-his-name's fault, anyway. It's been an awkward project since before his time.

As much as I had some problems with Troy, I found that when I watched it with Ethan I was able to suspend more disbelief and I enjoyed it MUCH more than the first disappointing experience. I would LOVE to see Sean Bean as Odysseus in The Odyssey.