As season two of Game of Thrones approaches, author George R.R. Martin admits he’s feeling a bit nervous about one particular turning point in the epic fantasy series.
Speaking to EW, executive producer Dan Weiss says that the battle will come in the season’s ninth episode which is adapted by Martin. Weiss went on to say that the episode was so intensive that it took a month to film as opposed to the usual ten days.
And while Martin penned the script, he says he’s still nervous to see how it all comes out on screen.
“I’m on tenterhooks to see what sort of (production) values (were used) and how much . . . they were able to capture on screen,” Martin said. “The Battle of the Blackwater is a gigantic set piece in the book; it occupies 12 chapters, or something like that. It fills up the entire episode, and we had to cut certain elements of it, or it would have demanded a Lord of the Rings-style budget.
“Of course, we (have) a high budget for a TV show, but we are low-budget for a feature film,” Martin added.
In the same interview, Martin also noted that the adaptation process has taken its toll on some of his characters. Fans of the books won’t see every single one of the people filling Martin’s pages up on screen, and though the author worries they won’t be happy, he sees character cuts as part of the inevitable reality of adaptation.
“The elimination of a character, (or) the introduction of a new character, is likely not to please the majority of (readers),” Martin said. “(But) the (TV-only audience) … they want a story they can understand and they want to know who all these characters are. They can’t refer to a genealogy in the back of a book, because they don’t have the books. You can’t confuse them too much with a multiplicity of characters. “
He should be nervous about finishing the next book. the last two each took around five years to do (even though he said the 5th book was almost done in the Afterward of the 4th book)!
And there are too many d@mn characters anyway!