Submitted by: Michael Hickerson & Walter Gass (SoSF Fans)
The Hugo Award winning “A Song of Ice and Fire” is one of George R.R. Martin’s greatest works and a bestselling fantasy series. HBO has decided to turn the set of stories into a cable dramatic series.
Taking on the screenwriting and producing duties are David Benioff (Troy, Wolverine) and D.B. Weiss (Halo). Benioff and Weiss will do most of the writing chores, but Martin himself (who will also co-produce) has signed on to do at least one episode of season one. More from him could be in the offing for future episodes.
Each book in the series will fuel a season of shows starting with the first in the series bowing to , “A Game of Thrones.”
Martin is still writing the fifth book and hopes to have the seventh and final book in the series completed within the next five years. So, if successful, the HBO weekly series of “Ice and Firee” could go on for at least a decade.
Martin’s “Ice and Fire” storylines fit well into HBO’s more adult-oriented audience which has seen the success of other adult features as “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” “Deadwood” and the highly acclaimed “Rome.”
While being slightly Tolkien-esque in its delivery, Martin’s epic storytelling centers around the flawed characters from seven medieval noble families and their many battles and campaigns in the midst of magic and prophetic utterances. Being adult in nature, the novels, and, no-doubt, the upcoming weekly series, have its fair share of sex, violence and bloodshed.
“They tried for 50 years to make ‘Lord of the Rings’ as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three,” Martin said. “My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you’d have to choose one or two characters.”
Something as complicted and prolonged as ‘Ice and Fire’ makes for an excellent weekly vehicle on a network like HBO.
HBO? A Song of Fire and Ice?! Good god, that news made my week! The very best place for it!
OK its not “A Song of Fire & Ice”, its “A Song of Ice & Fire”. I wont blame you guys, so far everywhere else I’ve read this they got it wrong too.
That aside, this is huge news. I hope this doesnt die on the vine. HBO is perfect for this, as long as they dont screw up with the budgeting like they did with Rome. The series on HBO are top notch.
./D
OH MY GOD!!!!
I have so been waiting for something this awsome to happen! I’ve been a fan of these books since day one! This is going to be the best series on TV ever. For this reason alone I will be getting HBO!
I /love/ the books, but I just don’t see this working as a TV show. Fantasy, even with the more fantastic elements done in a subdued way just never seems compelling on TV.
I hope I’m wrong though 🙂
OMG! I cannot believe I actually did that. Thanks Dingo for pointing out that faux pax…I’m only the biggest friggin’ Martin fan on the planet and I still fell into the old vernacular trap of putting Fire before Ice in a sentence…Jeeez! Again, thank you for clearing it up so I could make the correction…now I’m off to do pennance and make homage to my clay figure of George, burn incense and light a repentence candle……:(
I’m excited about the news, but I have my worries as well.
I would assume they may have to significantly up the age of Bran, Jon, Arya, Sansa, Rob, etc. Even Daenerys is young. 3/4 of the main characters are under, what…15 or 16 years old? Considering the amount of story they represent in Game of Thrones, they’d have to get some ACE child actors. They’ll also have quite a bit of CGI work to do…the direwolves, dragons, and locales…here’s hoping those come out well.