Peter Dinklage loses voiceover gig, Michelle MacLaren gains directing job
By Dan Selcke
Today in side projects undertaken by members of the Game of Thrones production team: Peter Dinklage was replaced as the voice of a helpful artificial intelligence in Bungie’s Destiny, and Game of Thrones director Michelle MacLaren scored a directing gig on an upcoming HBO show about pornography.
First, the Dinklage story. Previously, Dinklage had provided the voice of Ghost (no, that that Ghost), a computerized companion that guided players through Destiny, a first-person shooter released by Halo developer Bungie last September. When the game’s latest expansion, The Taken King, launches next month, Ghost will instead be voiced by Nolan North, a veteran actor known for his work on series like Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed.
What’s more, North didn’t just record new dialogue for the expansion—he rerecorded all of Dinklage’s old lines, effectively erasing the latter actor from the game.
Why the switch? According to Jesse van Dijk, the lead concept artist on Destiny, “the consistency of the entire universe is very important to us, so we decided to give the full treatment to all of our previous content too. [This] is why Nolan North is also your Ghost from the very moment you start [the game].”
Another, less diplomatic way of putting it is that Dinklage’s work on the game was widely criticized as being wooden and dull. He was particularly blasted for a line that was eventually removed from a later version of the game, but which still made enough of an impression to take on a memetic life of its own. The line? “That wizard came from the moon.”
That seems like more of a problem with the writing than the voice acting to me, but who am I to second guess the people who make these decisions? I don’t even get why wizards are involved in what looks to be a very sci-fi heavy setting, but I haven’t played the game so I’m the wrong person to be analyzing it. I guess Dinklage will just have to make due with Game of Thrones, Pixels, and providing the voice of Mighty Eagle in the upcoming Angry Birds movie (really).
In other, slightly less odd news, former Game of Thrones director Michelle MacLaren has signed on to direct The Deuce, an upcoming drama series The Wire creator David Simon is readying for HBO. The Deuce will star James Franco in a duel role, as twin mobsters who preside over the pornography industry in midtown Manhatten during the ’70s and ’80s.
George Pelecanos, an author who wrote scripts for The Wire and who will also write on The Deuce, described it like this: “Porn, prostitution, pimps, the Mob, after-hours nightlife, institutional corruption, and New York in its Wild West heyday…it’s a world rich in character, and a fascinating story we’re eager to tell.” Sounds right up HBO’s alley.
MacLaren has a very solid track record on Game of Thrones—she helmed episodes like “Second Sons,” “Oathkeeper,” and “First of his Name”—but didn’t direct any episodes for Season 5. Entertainment Weekly doesn’t say whether MacLaren will be directing every episode of The Deuce or just the pilot, but if she has any spare time, I’m sure she’d be welcome back on Thrones.