Game of Thrones is a very popular show, and plenty of producers have invoked it when talking about their own projects. Anne Rice has talked about making “a Game of Thrones style” show based on her Vampire Chronicles novels, Arrow modeled an action scene off the show’s battles and ABC name-dropped Game of Thrones, like, 30 times when talking about its biblical series Of Kings and Prophets. (The latter was cancelled after two episodes, incidentally).
The latest person to make the comparison is flamboyant producer Adi Shankar, who’s making an animated adaptation of the Konami’s Castlevania video game series for Netflix. “This is very much Castlevania done in the vein of Game of Thrones,” he told IGN. He also said the show is “going to be R-rated as f***” and that it’s “going to be the best f*****g video game adaptation we’ve had to date.”
I told you he was flamboyant.
Director Adi Shankar attends the 5th Annual Streamy Awards at Hollywood Palladium. (Photo by Michael Tullberg/Getty Images)
Anyway, Shankar is the guy behind cult action hits like Dredd, as well as this absolutely bonkers gritty “reboot” of Power Rangers.
We’ll see if Lionsgate’s Power Rangers movie resembles that when it hits theaters next month. I don’t know if Shankar’s Castlevania adaptation will resemble Game of Thrones, but I’m willing to bet it’ll be interesting. The first season of the show is due out this year, with a second to follow in 2018, per Shankar’s Facebook page.
Elsewhere, heavyweights on the stock market are expressing their grievances with each other by exchanging heated Game of Thrones references. It started when the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), tried to justify a fee on access to its data center.
"The mere fact that a User needs to have equipment and connections in place in order to be able to receive a market data feed within co-location does not convert the costs of such equipment and connections into market data fees, or convert the Previous and Current Proposals into market data filings. By way of analogy, to view ‘Game of Thrones’ one must buy a television and pay for a subscription to HBO, but that does not convert the cost of the television, or of any other necessary equipment or connection, into a fee for the HBO content."
Outraged, a trade body called the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) responded with its own SEC letter, and got deeper into the GoT references:
"Lord Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish would blush at the deception this analogy presents. Unlike HBO, NYSE controls the cost and terms of use for not only the market data, but also the connectivity fees, port fees, cross connect fees, and cage fees. The HBO content analogy would be akin to NYSE’s market data fees if HBO were also in a position to require the viewer to purchase from HBO the cable connection, the television, the television stand, the power cord, and the electricity, all in addition to the HBO subscription itself, and on the terms set solely by HBO.Further, and unlike subscribing to a television program, brokers are legally obligated to seek best execution for their customers. They are required to consider the likelihood that a trade will be executed and whether there is an opportunity to obtain a price better than what is currently quoted. There is no analogous legal requirement that television viewers subscribe to Game of Thrones."
I dunno if Littlefinger blushes at much, but I’m glad he’s known around the stock market.