Game of Thrones news and notes from the past week:
- George R. R. Martin is back and blogging. He recently posted a photo of Maisie Williams posing in front of a Sky Atlantic billboard featuring her as Arya. It must be strange seeing your face pop up while driving around town.
- Speaking of Maisie Williams, a short interview with her appeared at This Is Somerset. She talks about her character and also her experience working with Sean Bean.
- Another short interview, this one with Sean Bean in What’s On TV, reported on at Digital Spy. He calls Thrones ‘disturbing’ and ‘not for kids’ but says since he was playing a good guy, he didn’t get too involved with the brutality.
- The press’ excitement for the show continues over at the Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex blog. Blogger Amy Ratcliffe gives five reasons the show will be a success.
- Charlie Jane Anders at io9 reports on the end result of the damage in Dwerja. It appears that the damage to the environment was not as extensive as originally believed. Which is good news. Hopefully the production can return to Malta for the second season.
- In casting news, Westeros has a run-down of minor roles that have been revealed via the actors’ CVs. These roles are likely non-speaking parts as HBO has not included them on the official cast list. But if you’d like to see what Thrones‘ Lord Glover or Lord Bracken looks like, head on over and take a peek.
- And lastly, in four-legged cast member news, we have a photo from the Game of Thrones Facebook page that is purportedly of the dog that plays Summer in a few scenes. From the same album is this one of the father of the little pups, which shows how big these Northern Inuits can get.
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49 Comments
Arya kicks ass !
coltaine777Quote Reply
“George R. R. Martin is back and blogging. He recently posted a photo of Maisie Williams posing in front of a Sky Atlantic billboard featuring her as Arya. It must be strange seeing your face pop up while driving around town.“
If Massie is driving around town, stranger things are indeed happening.
DigDougQuote Reply
It pisses me off that the production company didn’t abide by the permit on several occasions. It doesn’t sound like they referred to it or took it seriously at all. I hope they aren’t allowed back in Malta. Sounds like they need a wake-up call that they do actually have a responsibility to protect the locations that they film in.
On the plus side, the direwolves look great!
ElaineQuote Reply
Last night’s BEING HUMAN featured our Shagga (Mark Lewis Jones) playing a middle-class gimp-keeping vampire sex deviant. Imagining him with a beard threatening to feed people’s genitals to goats…yeah, that should work really well :-)
Adam WhiteheadQuote Reply
Let me know if anyone spots the interviews on YouTube
Austin CleganeQuote Reply
Hmm… I dunno if I like the Bean headline “Game of Thrones is Disturbing” – not sure that sends quite the right message! A bit negative, I mean.
That dog is freaking badass. Haters will hate though.
userjQuote Reply
Environmental alarmism? I’m shocked!
JoseQuote Reply
Another short interview, this one with Sean Bean in What’s On TV, reported on at Digital Spy. He calls Thrones ‘disturbing’ and ‘not for kids’ but says since he was playing a good guy, he didn’t get too involved with the brutality.
I love how a series “not for kids” puts its kids through some of the most horrific scenes.
ZackQuote Reply
Summer is beautiful.
LexQuote Reply
Summer is beautiful and Papa Moon is a glorious creature.Wonder if they’ll use the same dogs throughout.
obsidianQuote Reply
The dog is beautiful indeed, and acceptable as a stand-in for a real wolf in my opinion. But of course direwolves are known to scare the sh*t out of real wolves! I wonder what processing (or even partly CGI?) they will apply to the dogs in post-production…
As for the press’ excitement: funny how soon we all got used to that. Now let’s hope that 77 days from now we will still feel that way! Don’t forget, we fans-of-the-books should be the most difficult to please, so don’t let your enthusiasm carry you away :-)
Tar KidhoQuote Reply
Lex,
you going to try tracking down headshots for the new named characters for your cast list?
izakmoQuote Reply
I just love the photo of Summer. Such a beautiful animal.
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
Adam Whitehead,
Is Mark Lewis Jones a big guy? I can’t tell from any of the photos I’ve seen online. Shagga is described as massive in the books. I always pictured him as bigger than everyone except Gregor, Hodor, and the Greatjon.
izakmoQuote Reply
Nice looking dog, makes me want one. I wish they’d release the Mad King casting.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
Had a quick look but can’t find his height on the Interweb.
He doesn’t seem all that tall (he looked a few inches shorter than Aidan Turner In BH if that helps) but he is bulky.
MormegilQuote Reply
Elaine,
I’m a greedy fucker, so I don’t hope they won’t be allowed back, unless Malta turned out to be not the best location — I just hope they’ll abide by the permit. To the letter, and spirit.
JQuote Reply
Maisie is so awesome.
Pretty mature response on that interview as well.
ablaaaQuote Reply
WIC, what do you think is a plausible schedule for the release of more new material? I was thinking once February starts we should start seeing a lot more stuff come through, giving HBO a good, solid 2 months of big advertising time before the premiere.
Thoughts anyone?
NicoleQuote Reply
Nicole,
A month before the GoT premiere the finale of Big Love will be air, and we suspect that will be the opportunity to show the TCA trailer (which David Benioff called his favourite). Apart from that, anything goes … my guess is they will start revving up the promotion machine mid-February, two months away from the big date, and never let go.
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
I would like to give summer a very big hug. The Dad dog looks beast!
I was looking into how to buy this breed, and I wasn’t able to find any breeders outside the U.K. :(
I heart Maisie.
The DarkStarQuote Reply
Nicole,
There’s a couple of very brief new and expanded glimpses here.
If you look close you can see a monitor shot of Ned examining the dead direwolf.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
The DarkStar,
Yeah, dad dog looks cool (unless that woman is the size of Tyrion!)
Pablo JainagaQuote Reply
New Making Game of Thrones featuring Maisie! This way.
InkasrainQuote Reply
Make that starring Maisie; this child is absolute perfection! Can’t wait to see further profiles of the Stark children, and the rest of the cast.
InkasrainQuote Reply
Awww, she’s so sweet!! What a lovely and amazing girl.
Rinoa De la PicaQuote Reply
can someone upload the new mgot-vid to youtube,pls. Thx in advance.
JohnnyQuote Reply
Oh wow, this could be the best casting choice ever, Maisie rocks. Praying that they cast Strong Belwas just as good!
KnurkQuote Reply
Maisie looks great, pity we didn’t get a bit of actual dialogue from her though.
A little surprised at the way they are pronouncing Arya, it’s pretty much the way I pronoune it when reading the books but I thought the correct way was meant to be “are- ya”.
MormegilQuote Reply
Johnny,
Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4BWRMfSPHM
This girl just makes me smile. (C:
AbysswatcherQuote Reply
Yay! I really have high expectations of Maisie, she seems so perfect for Arya.
NicoleQuote Reply
Maisie seems perfect. I have no doubt viewers will be as impressed by her as we are.
Got to add ‘Aria’ to the list of pronunciations I don’t like though :( Always pronounced it Ahr-ya (with the r very soft, almost silent). Oh well, I’ll get used to it.
ShinyteapotQuote Reply
Cool little vid! It seems Maisie will handle the swordtraining well. I sure don’t think i could do any better. “Syrio” made some nice, cool moves there. As he should do. It just seems to fit his character to have a slightly fancy style.
Still dying to get some dialogue from our Arya, though. She’s definately the one i’m most exited about seeing coming to life out of the ones we haven’t seen yet. But she sure seems to have the looks and natural charm down.
sjweningsQuote Reply
She’s great! I think Arya is tied with Tyrion as my favorite characters, and both casting decisions could not have been any better.
Eh, I’m American, and that was how I read it as well. But I hink a lot of the difference can be attributed to an accent. Anyway, she’s barely stressing the ‘new’ syllable, to the point where it seems more natural. I actually think that’s a better way.
ZackQuote Reply
YES!! Maisie Williams for the M-F Win!!!!
EdQuote Reply
She is just adorable. I love her attitude towards the role, and there’s some nice dancing between her and Syrio. And that bear hug that Jon gave her… I awwww’d.
Katrina BrooksQuote Reply
I definitely like the pronunciation of Arya. It’s the way I have pronounced it and I’ve done so because I think it sounds far better than ahr-ya, which sounds a bit too crude. Maisie fits very well for the part and I can see her handle everything well, even the parts where she’s mistaken for a boy.
Tywin’s BastardQuote Reply
Zack,
Interesting you pronounce Arya the same way as me- I’m British, Welsh-English mix with an accent that changes depending on where I am and who I’m with (and how much I’ve had to drink). Maisie’s accent isn’t that far off the more English end of mine. So it’s not just natural accent- someone decided Arya would be pronounced that way in the show.
I’m sure it will work fine, someone had to make a decision so the show would be consistent, and this one has ended up different to my choice (along with Baratheon, Targaryen- quite a few of them!). It’s no big deal.
ShinyteapotQuote Reply
I loved the way she was expressing with her hands at the end there.
The DarkStarQuote Reply
Shinyteapot,
Interesting! Thanks for that info; I was unsure how accents were going to affect my own pronunciations. Maybe not so much after all!
I do like the pronunciation anyway. It’s “prettier” with the musical allusion. I can see parents thinking how lovely a name it would be for their daughter. Only for her to turn out like Arya. :D
ZackQuote Reply
Is it me, or did they nerf needle to actually… look like a needle. Not that I mind, but the hilt is so damn tiny.. if that even was the hilt.
KennyQuote Reply
Now I saw the artisans video, and Maisie is just amazing. Amazing.
I prefer the other pronunciation of “Arya”, though.
ablaaaQuote Reply
Doggies! Er, I should say wolfies! <3
I want to adopt Arya. (not Maisie, of course, who has a loving family).
Is it just me, or Lord Glover is somewhat hot? And his description on the site is a bit amusing? And I'm peeved a bit because he'd have made a decent Blackfish? In response to your query, Winter, do add them all, even the third Lannister from the left.
Blackfish BluesQuote Reply
I meant ” “the actor who’s playing Lord Glover” ‘s description”, of course. BTW, wonder if he’ll have a more meaty role in future books (and seasons) when we discover what he and Lady Maege have been up to in Greywater Watch, if they ever reached it.
Blackfish BluesQuote Reply
You make it sound so sordid :P
GaRQuote Reply
update the casting page with the new people
Jordan HealeyQuote Reply
Kenny,
Yeah, looks like they wanted to further distinguish the look of the weapon. It looks like a small-sword to me.
DamianQuote Reply
Heheheee, now that I re-read it, it does :D But I’m truly thrilled they are casting such interesting faces even in the minor roles, and this makes me hope for a well-characterized Maege: she’s one of my faves.
Blackfish BluesQuote Reply
Blackfish Blues,
BTW (sorry for double post, ) speaking of minor roles, in the Brienne thread GaR asked who would win in a fight between Asha Greyjoy and Dacey Mormont. My loyalty goes to the Young She-Bear, but my money is on the Kraken’s Daughter; she seems smarter. Also, Dacey does lose a close encounter with an axe at the RW :( But I like to imagine the two slugging it out and then going to some tavern to drink and tell bawdy stories.
It will be truly interesting to see how these lady fighters (Asha, at least, if Dacey gets the axe – oh my, that was a dreadful pun) will be portrayed in the series.
Blackfish BluesQuote Reply
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