The Targaryen sibs as UK Stars of Tomorrow

Great job acquiring the article! Nice reading.

Here is a link to a picture from Fossils that Emilia mentions. http://emiliaclarke.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=6&pid=230#top_display_media
Found on http://emiliaclarke.com/

(spoiler)I can't wait to see the beggar king crowned! I hope it's a messed up as I imagined it being and not just show a cut away with Visarys screaming.

Well, the new location at least keeps them all in Europe :) Might be a slight factor in favour of Malta! No leaving the EU … though UK is outside the Schengen area, so they would still have to check all the documents every time.

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I think just the opposite, Visarys coronation is better left for the imagination, it's more horrific that way, seeing the molten gold pouring down, hearing the screams, maybe seeing the smoke rising and Danny's face, people will always imagine far worse things than what you show them and the effect is greater that way.
on the other hand a beheading is pretty straightforward and we all seen it a hundred times before so there is nothing much left to the imagination.

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Well, as it's written in the book, Drogo sticks the pot full of molten gold directly on Viserys's head, so what actually happens to most of him should hypothetically be left unseen. We'd just see his chest getting burned horrifically, with an echoing scream and billows of smoke. Part of the reason I think they should make it as graphic as that allows, though, is that they can spend more time on it that way. I think it should be fairly drawn out: most people will probably feel pretty happy that such an insane, sadistic bastard got his just desserts, but lingering on it should bring home the gruesomeness of such a violent death. I've always felt that one of the central ideas of ASoIaF is that even righteous killing is nasty work.

As for Ned, I'm not concerned with letting the viewer fill in a more gory image. It's just that it works dramatically in the books, so it seems like a good idea to carry it over to the show. Arya doesn't see it, and we don't see it either. It makes it all that much more traumatic because there's no closure, and the next we see of Ned (assuming adherence to the books) is his head, tarred beyond recognition on a stick. More to the point, I don't think gore would really suit the scene. Ned's death isn't supposed to be horror-movie-scary or gross, just shocking and depressing as hell. Plus doing justice to Sean Bean's decapitated head with special effects seems like a tall order without any of the normal conveniences (hood on the victim, basket for the head to fall into, etc.) which are absent due to the impromptu nature of the execution.

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Very nice write up about Harry and Emilia. I saw this article a few weeks and one of the other actors caught my eye. The girl sitting next to the boy wearing a red shirt (sorry I don't know her name) she looks like how I always pictured Lyanna Stark. Maybe they could get her for Lyanna in the flashback segments? If not, another actress with that kind of look.

Not the girl in turquoise, but the girl in cream.

I agree that Ned's death is more dramatic than horrifying but I don't think the scenes need to be exactly like in the books, the directors should have artistic freedom to create there own image of the story, for example, maybe in the TV version they'll decide that Drogo orders one of his men to do the deed and just sit and enjoy Visarys scream, it's up to them.

With the show being shot in NI and Malta and no other locations named, I really have got to wonder how they are going to depict the Dothraki Sea. Maybe there is still a location that hasn't been mentioned? I don't know, it's strange.

I would have thought the Ukraine or Russia would have been ideal, and inexpensive, too and there are a lot of good Eastern European film crews now who could easily handle a production like this.

SDCC?

ty

Fairly sure Harry Lloyd is the skinny guy in back. Not sure on Emilia my self.

Here's another group shot in which you can see her more clearly: http://www.screendaily.com/reports/uk-stars-of-to…

I'd like to, but didn't book anything soon enough. Don't have any vacation time anyway even if it is only a 2hr drive for me. Bunch of friends will be there though.

Same on all counts. I'm hoping for minimum nerdrage.

There was not much complaints when she was first announced, so with costume/make-up i think people will be more pleased rather than less.

I was surprised to see that the big casting announcement didn't make it to the official HBO GoT site. Perhaps they are waiting for this week's big announcement (ok, I'm hoping… let's say the next big announcement) for Tywin and most of the rest of the cast to publish their official Cast section..
But still, they have a News section, you'd think this counts as news…

Aren't there some possible UK locations for the Dothraki sea?

speaking of Tywin, of all the suggestions given, I still haven't found anyone imposing enough to be the Tywin I imagine, though I admit I don't know half of them and photos often do not convey how powerful an actor can act.
But I don't think I've seen the name of Stellan Skarsgard put forward yet for Tywin.
What do you guys think?
I know, I know, you'll all say he looks too young. Yet he's 19 years older than NCW. And Tywin is still in his prime and on the field, so not that old.
And they could age him.
Give him a close shave of greying hair and he has the Tywin look I'm looking for on this picture .

I've never touched foot upon the soil of Northern Ireland, but I have heard there are plenty of places that could double for "expansive grasslands." Though from what I know most aren't exactly flat; we ain't in Kansas anymore.

It makes me wonder as to the wording of the agreement with N. Ireland. There may be a percentage of filming locations they have to use there in order to have gotten such a sweet deal.

Man, Nymeria that is a good idea. I just recently watched him in Zero Kelvin and was blown away.

He's excellent.

Ditto :/

For some reason, I've never thought of this… but I love Stellan Skarsgard, so I like the suggestion!

I'd always assumed a smallish field and large green screen.

I woudn't have though that I would hear in my lifetime that Charles Dance is not imposing enough.

In my defence I only ever suggested Keith Allen as Balon Greyjoy. Everyone came rushing in and said Lily could play Asha. Lily isn't a professional actress like her father and brother, although she doesn't look a million miles away from the part (especially in Amoka's drawings).

Charles Dance is pretty terrifying when he's got that cold, considered stare going on like he had in BLEAK HOUSE.

My only concern, and it is so slight as to be almost nonexistent, is that Dance did ham it up a bit in GOING POSTAL and MERLIN, his two most recent genre appearances. However, neither of them were entirely 100% serious roles (GP was a comedy-drama and MERLIN is a kid's show). He has surpassed Alan Dale to become my #1 choice for the role however (after LOST Season 6 made me realise that Dale's pretty useless at doing an English accent).

Please no. I sat through King Arthur. I still can't figure out why. Flat affect.

Lily Allen WOULD make a good Asha. She looks similar to how I imagine Asha might look.

The book is hideously overrated. It's okay, but not great, and definitely nowhere near GRRM's level of writing. In addition, the trailer was pretty clunky whenever McShane wasn't on screen. This not turning out to be much cop is not a surprise.

Oddly, they seem to be already prepping an adaptation of the sequel, WORLD WITHOUT END.

"I just SHOT somebody!"

Seems like a second unit to take some wide shots and CGI to do the rest would be acceptable here. Perhaps the could also work up part of the quarry location as a Dothraki Sea area for certain scenes.

I obviously havn't seen the miniseries yet so I can't comment on it. I was disappointed in Mo's comment of the book. I thought the source material was extremely strong. Both well though-out and well written with engaging and real characters that all came together in a net of personal struggles and overlapping goals and desires. No, its not Thrones. George's writing style is more exciting, but part of the charm of Pillars to me at least is that as an historical novel, it is bound in much bigger chains than ASoIaF and yet it still manages to produce a (for me) mesmerizing story. One of GRRM's strengths in GRRM is that he downplays the fantasy aspects of his world. Follet however doesn't have the ability to dip into the magical inkwell when the story drags a bit. Burning buildings while exciting are still ultimately mundane. Shadow babies and dragons, well, they add a certain excitment that nothing in the real world can compete with. For Follet's book to forgo any fantasy vehicles and still leave me so caught up in the plot says something about the spell his story casts.

Somehow I misread your post. I thought it said Dance wasn't imposing…dunno what I was thinking.

Isn't Asha supposed to have a sharp beak/hatchet nose, whereas Lily Allen has a rounder button nose?

Yes you do.

I'm quite sure you've seen "Last Action hero" or "The Golden Child", :-)

Nope to the first one, and I saw the second one about 20 years ago!

His voice alone does it. This production would be made that much better with someone like Charles Dance attached.

(I could also imagine the chaos GRRM might willfully and with great impunity sow by titling the announcement "DANCE IS IN!")

As to Gillian Anderson, I think she has Michelle Fairley beat in the looks department, but Fairley basically destroys all competition for the "good posture" award. (That woman would go to the gallows perfectly erect; you could hang her with books balanced on the top of her head.) And both women can do "stoic shock" exceptionally well.

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Remember even though the book shows us that scene from Arya's point of view Sansa is also there so we will probably get reaction shots from her as well.

I believe she was in the pilot. Don't know if she's been dropped since.

There certainly isn't anything in Malta that will work, I imagine that is just being used for the city shots. Once they get out in the Dothraki Sea something else is going to have to be done.

I agree that his vilain in King Arthur isn't developed enough. The look is great, but even the way he speaks and moves looks neandertal. However, I'd say this is what he was directed to do and must reflect the image the director had of a Barbaric leader, beacuse everything else I've seen Skalsgard in was very good, nuanced and more fleshed out.