HBO acquires rights to film "A Song of Ice and Fire"

[Thunderclap]

My god. It finally happened. There is no emoticon to convey what I am feeling right now.http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117957532.html?categoryid=14&cs=1

(From the Variety article)
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 exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"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.

George Martin fans should head over to http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=15507, the thread at Westeros.org (#1 ASOIAF fansite on the internets), and join in the drunken revelry.

 

[brink's]

Never heard of these novels before..........but I'm happy as well.

Everything HBO touches turns to gold. I just finished watching da ali g show, 6 feet under, the sopranos and the wire and I'm amazed by how well they were written and produced. easily the best television out there.

 

[Thunderclap]

I'm glad too. HBO are about the only people I'd trust with this. I'm surprised that they optioned it before the series was even finished.

This means that George RR Martin had to tell some network exec how it all ends. Think about it. Some suit knows who in the end will sit the Iron Throne, who Jon Snow's parents are, all the mysteries that the fans have been agonizing for years.

Also, in the Westeros thread I mentioned, some chap from HBO came in and he sounded like a fan, and handed a a genuine desire to see this series done well.

 

[StardogChampion]

Now we need them to make a TV series of Watchmen.

 

[Seppo]

I haven't read any of these books (yet) but I've heard a lot of good things about them. What I'm really looking forward to is the Dragonlance animated film.

 

[Krynn72]

DSFHASDJHFSDJFHSJHKASC

HOLY F-ING SHIT. I wanted THIS SO ****ING BAD

F*CK YEAH.

 

[DeusExMachina]

AMERICA. **** YEAH.

This is so ****ing awesome. And Martin's involved too, this will be gold.

 

[Thunderclap]

Now we finally got some fanboys in here! Hot damn I can't wait till this gets out. Now, not getting ahead ourselves, here's how I think it will play out:

9 months: Preproduction. Realize that HBO has only 'optioned' ASOIAF. Meaning the screenwriters will write up a few drafts, show it to the execs, if they like it, we'll get an official greenlight. Please remember that at this point ASOIAF is not being made, but the POSSIBILITY of it being made is now a very real and possible thing. If it gets the nod (which I will alert you to), then they start actually looking at location, CGI companies, costuming, auditions, all that crap.


2 months: Actual on the set shooting. Pretty straightforward really.

4 months: Post Production. Inclusion of all the CGI, and just touchups and editing.

3 months: Random delays and mishaps, and them holding it off for an opportune broadcast time ("the sweeps" etc.).

This gives a release date of June 2008. I think they will hold off for a Fall premiere to get the most views and of course so their ads can say "Winter Is Coming. November '09" or some such thing.

Holy hell. I still can't truly grasp the magnitude of this. Now all we need is "Planescape: Torment" on the telly and my life is complete.

 

[DeusExMachina]

Planescape sequel please D:

 

[Thunderclap]

Planescape Torment 2: Morte's Revenge!

What would the plot be? The Nameless One is damned for all time in penance for his monstrous sin. Will Morte and the rest just break into Hades to bail him out?

 

[DeusExMachina]

We'd probably need a new protagonist seeing as with...Planescape's inevitable ending and all.

 

[Thunderclap]

I'd like nothing more than to see the Planescape universe return to the computer screen. The Nameless One's fate is immutable. An epic setting unmatched by any other game, with a grand, sweeping story and some of the best characters ever seen, but his tale is over. Finished. Closed.

Nothing less to discuss. (Except of course his actual name and the nature of his sin. The past incarnation that taught Ignus went by the name Yemeth, which I always sounded suitably impressive for the Nameless One). We'd need someone new, and trying to match the Nameless One and his epic band of heroes will be a difficult task. They could throw in some references to the old Planescape, maybe even letting us revisit his old territory, but I think it would be strange to meet any of the old party members.

Except maybe Ignis, who I didn't take with me. I believe the "correct" party you should have had, as in the one that made the best story, was Nameless/Morte/Dak'kon/Annah/Grace/Nordom. Ignis and Vhaillor (sp?) got left by the roadside, and getting to meet the previous might be fun. You've got to appreciate a game where one of the most terrifying and villanous monstrosities that ever defiled the Planes with their presence is employed as a restaurant mascot. He's still there for all we know, and seemingly immortal given the nature of his imprisonment.

Sigil is just begging to be the setting of an open-ended RPG. P:T was actually not very open-ended. It had one story to tell, and it told it well. You could join factions, but they were very much geared towards advancing the one main story rather than having little subplots of their own. As you might guess from my avatar and sig, I'd join the Harmonium if we ever saw P:T 2.

 

[Krynn72]

Holy shit... I just realized something. I might be getting out of school when this hits the CGI stage...

I would totally flip out if I get a chance to work on this. And if not the first season, then maybe the second!

 

[Zephos]

HBO produced what is in my opinion, the best thing ever put on TV (Band of Brothers)... Never read the books but hey! Sounds entertaining.

 

[Krynn72]

HBO produced what is in my opinion, the best thing ever put on TV (Band of Brothers)... Never read the books but hey! Sounds entertaining.

I agree. Best series ever created. I also loved the first season of Rome. You should check that out too.

 

[Zephos]

I agree. Best series ever created. I also loved the first season of Rome. You should check that out too.

That I shall do.

 

[jondy]

Can anyone give me a quick synopsis? I've enjoyed what little fantasy I've read (Pullman's dark materials, LOTR etc) and I'm keen to read more.

 

[Thunderclap]

Shamelessy jacked from westeros.org:

A Game of Thrones
In a day and age where door-stopper fantasy series with no apparent endings are hitting the bestseller lists, it?s often hard to consider new entries into this particular sub-genre with any seriousness. After all, if Robert Jordan or Terry Goodkind are the heights of the field, what?s the point of trying anything else? But each book (or series) should be judged on its own merits - and George R.R. Martin?s A Song of Ice and Fire proves that there?s still room for diamonds among the rough.

The first book in the series (for a long while planned as six volumes, but the exigencies of the publishing world now make seven the likelier number) is the award-winning A Game of Thrones. Describing it isn?t easy, because a short summary will miss one of the precious facets of the work. But here?s an attempt to give the feel:

Imagine a feudal kingdom on a massive continent in a world filled with many cultures and half-legendary lands and an ancient history. Imagine a time where dragons once lived but magic is now dwindling, yet the seasons can be long or short, bringing glorious summers or terrible winters that last years at a time. Imagine a massive iron throne from which seven kingdoms are ruled, with false knights and true all gathered about it in hopes of blood or glory or profit, and shadows behind it pushing the pieces that make up the game of thrones.

That?s the book for you, in a nut-shell. But if you want something more specific, try this:

The story starts with a frightening prologue that tells us who the truest enemies are, and then turns suddenly to the castle of Winterfell from which the Starks rule the North for King Robert on his Iron Throne far to the south. A man is executed and on that bloody day direwolf pups are found next to the dead body of a huge direwolf slain by a broken antler in her neck. There just happens to be one for every son and daughter of Lord Eddard Stark, including his bastard Jon Snow, and what that strange coincidence can mean is a mystery. On that same day, more blood when news arrives that Lord Eddard?s childhood fosterer and friend Jon Arryn, the man who had rebelled against a king to protect him and his best friend Robert and became Robert?s Hand, has died. Slowly the history is unveiled, piece-by-piece like a jigsaw puzzle forming into place haphazardly, and layers of events are formed that mold the lives of all the characters.

What follows is a tumult surrounded by the distant tremor of fear that comes when we hear the Stark motto, "Winter is Coming". Politics, murders, conspiracies. Tournaments, love, hatred. War, battle, trials. Disaster and victory. And that?s not the half of it, for a parallel but separate storyline follows Daenerys Targaryen, Stormborn, the last daughter of the dragonkings who had ruled the Seven Kingdoms for three hundred years. Wed to a barbarian khal with an army of 40,000 nomadic warriors, she goes from childhood to adulthood in a harrowing journey that follows her progression further and further from the things she knew.

It?s one of the best fantasies written in the last forty years, and it can stand proudly up there right next to The Lord of the Rings. Where that great work is inspired by epic legends and myth, this one is more grounded in history and reality. You couldn?t count the out-and-out villains on the finger of one-hand, because they don?t exist, and while the heroes are in greater number they?re all flawed. Eddard Stark, for example, is the epitome of decency and honour but he?s unsubtle and the tasks he take on are more over-the-head than he could possibly imagine. It should be no surprise to say that in a world filled with so much grey, happy endings may be far and few, instead becoming ambiguous or even terrible. Good people die, as do bad people, and the wicked win as many victories as the good.

If you want something written in a straightforward manner, without a lot of politics, without bloody battles or frank language and sexual situations, without a huge cast of characters and more than a few POV characters whose chapters are always divided by other POVs lying in-between, then A Game of Thrones may not be for you. But if you want something that will shake you up, that will surprise you and shock you, leaving you elated and angry and sad by the page-turn, and making you think, then give it a try.


EDIT: I would also like to politely appoint myself head "Bringer of ASOIAF news to halflife2.net. I'll post in this thread whenever any news comes up. Check out the News section at http://www,georgerrmartin.com to see a discussion the man himself had with the television writers.