so i heard u liek aSoIaF? we have several members who have expressed interest, so i figure i'd make a thread.
whats ya'll's opinion on the HBO greenlight? the actors? stuff in general?
I myself really like the decision, though i'm not entirely sure Sean Bean is the perfect Ned. too popular. Also a bit worried about Tamzin, Dany is a hard part to pull and i'll be upset if they mess her up. Over all i'm really excited.
Hopefully the ever increasing page count over at Not a Blog means we'll get Dance soon
In hoc signo vinces
"you sex craved blue colored red eyed squirrel messiah of a fictional video game world!"
-PoHa!
It's becoming so massive it, combined with George's great bulk will create an inescapable gravity well from which the draft will never escape.
In all seriousness though, as excited as I am for the live-action version I'm more excited at the prospect that G.R.R.M. will have more time to focus on Dance With Dragons. Plus, now that he's seen some of his ideas played out in front of him in RL it might give him some inspiration for the book going forward.
"Imagination and memory are but one thing which for diverse considerations have diverse names."
"How dare you question the colonnade!" - one of the Glorious Leaders
"Nemon + IKEA = creationism" - some guy
"The layout is awesome, the scale is awesome, the whole city is just awesome!" - Tyrion on Blacklight, circa 2007
I'm a bit concerned he's gonna die before he finishes the series.
I don't think i've ever seen swords & sorcery type fantasy done well on television*, so i'll remain sceptical for the time being. Sean Bean should be great, but, er, certain aspects of his character arc are going to be quite similar to Boromir's, so it's not exactly creative casting. I reckon that midget will steal the show regardless.
*needed a gallon of mind bleach after that gut-churningly awful Earthsea miniseries
I'm tentatively excited about the HBO series. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but 'Ice and Fire' is far and away better material to work from than the childish and dismally repetitive 'Sword of Truth' books they used for 'Legend of the Seeker' so I'm hopeful.
Really though, I'm, more interested in seeing 'Dance' completed as well, and the thought of him dying before that happened had occurred to me too. I mean, to look at him, you wouldn't expect he's the healthiest guy alive....
I'd hoped maybe Robert Jordan passing would have made him get his ass in gear, but it seems he's still more interested in the NFL than doing his FUCKING JOB!
Sorry, I get a little angry when I get to thinking about it. I mean, I don't care if he wants to waste his time watching sports, his hobbies are business. I do however get irritated when, if you were to add up all the WRITING about football he's done on his blog since 'A Feast for Crows' was released, it's easily enough to fill a book. You want to watch it George, fine, but save your writing for something your fans actually want to read. I for one couldn't give a shit about football, but if I did I'd read a sports page, I don't need my fantasy writers giving me a play by play of the last five bloody seasons of the NFL with an unfinished story lurking in my head. If he wants to be a sports writer, that's cool too, go do that, but first FINISH THIS SERIES. When you chose to release the first books you basically made a promise to your readers, to anyone who spent money and time on them, that you'd finish working on them, and if you die before that happens I swear I'm gonna kill you.
I'd post all this on his blog, but I don't have nor want a livejournal account, and he's disabled anonymous posting. I wonder if it's because he got sick of erasing messages like this....
I disagree, I think by making money and supporting himself from selling the first half of the story he IS obligated to write the rest of it, at the very least morally. Otherwise it's basically swindling the readers with an incomplete product. That's just my opinion, and don't get me wrong it's not like I hate the guy or anything, I just feel like when you begin something like this, especially once you've sold it, you've committed to finishing it. If that takes time, no problem, take the time you need to do it properly. He fully admits his procrastination though, not to mention constantly taking on other projects personal and professional. There has to be a balance between doing what you want, and doing what's expected of you. I just want the thing done, and after going through 20 years of 'Wheel of Time' the thought of doing it all again isn't appealing.
oh and shapeshftr, was that a pro or con joss comment?
gro-Dhal wrote:
I don't think i've ever seen swords & sorcery type fantasy done well on television*
See shows made by Joss Whedon.
That's a different sort of fantasy fiction. I mean the sub-Tolkien stuff, like the Sword of Truth nonsense or the Earthsea adaptation or any of those Sci Fi channel shows that they film in Romania or wherever.
[url=http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/05/entitlement-issues.html]Martin is NOT your bitch[/url] (scroll down to the bold)
doing what you love rocks. being forced to do nothing but what you love by a horde of rabid fans quickly makes you stop loving it. i'd rather he take his time and produce a great work rather than rush and produce a quick but boring and uninspired work.
In hoc signo vinces
"you sex craved blue colored red eyed squirrel messiah of a fictional video game world!"
-PoHa!
@LN - I totally agree. While I'm a huge procrastinator, whenever I have a writing competition deadline due, I just can't do it when people shout at me and tell me to be done. They don't understand that that's not how writing works. Writing is about inspiration, and actually WANTING to write. Forced writing cuts the quality in half. Again, as Lady Nerevar said, if you don't want a half-assed work, WAIT. I know what it's like to be anticipating something new and great, and just have it delayed and delayed, but there's something important in that delay - quality. Well, some hardcore fans would love it no matter the quality, but if you really want a great, expansive, imaginative, eye-opening, ..., book, then hold tight, and actually do something other than TR or waiting
@Euron's Last Comment - Joss Whedon is the shit.
Stryker: You're the stalker, right?
Live every day as though it were your last, and some day it will be.
Because the OP mentioned it on Tr or the official ES forums once, and one of my co-students was reading it too, I bought a copy of the first book half a year ago.
I'm reading the second part now and although I can see why it's so popular, it really doesn't hold a candle fantasy-wise to Clive Barker, Jack Vance or early Tanith Lee.
It's been compared to The Once and Future King, but so far it hasn been that good. If you like SOIAF, but haven't read that yet, you should.
On the other hand, compared with most of the pathetic crap that tries to pass for fantasy these days, SOIAF is really really good...
gro-Dhal wrote:or the Earthsea adaptation or any of those Sci Fi channel shows that they film in Romania or wherever.
Didn't see that, but it can't possibly be worse than the anime version..
Heh, I just like to play a hard ass. I want him to write the damn thing, but I know how frustrating and unpredictable the creative process can be, especially when you're feeling pressured. I do think he spends way to much time on football though...
Getting back to the original subject, which was the upcoming TV series, what I'm most interested to see is how they choose to do the sets. George is a pretty descriptive writer and I definitely have a really clear idea in my head of what I imagine, say, Winterfell or The Wall would look like. I know they're doing a lot of location shooting, so are they going to use existing castles? How much are they planning to build sets? Or will they just cop out and CG a lot of it as often happens in television where the budget is usually lower than film. It's tough to say what would work best, on one hand CG often looks really fake, but on the other hand how do you find or build something like The Eyrie?
they are using a combination of real castles and a large soundstage set. [url=http://www.westeros.org/GoT/News/Entry/3935/]westeros outlines the public locations in this article.[/url] some people actually visisted one of the castles while pilot shooting was happening, seemed to be rather impressed.
some stuff will inevitably be changed however, at least because george's descriptions are rather epic at times. as long as it makes sense in the story (eg: winterfell has a lot of towers, red keep is red, and harenhall is big) i don't particularly care that it doesnt look *exactly* like i imagined it.
In hoc signo vinces
"you sex craved blue colored red eyed squirrel messiah of a fictional video game world!"
-PoHa!
They're using some of the old Kingdom of Heaven sets in Morocco. I'm glad they're doing some proper location stuff and not just shooting it all in British Columbia.
I wonder how the actors are going to talk. There's no need for them to fake British accents like often happens in fantasy, but they ought to be consistent. Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon are both played by Yorkshiremen and that's a pretty distinctive accent.
I wish they were filming is all in BC, I'd get to watch!
But not really, the on location stuff will be far better. Well now I'm a bit more excited. You're right LN, it's not important for most of it that it look exactly as described or imagined, as long as it works and looks good. I hope they at least make the attempt with some of it though.
