Tag: George R.R. Martin

HBO's 'Game Of Thrones' Spinoff Series 'The Hedge Knight' Casts Dunk & Egg
Posted on in News, Television News

HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spinoff Series ‘The Hedge Knight’ Casts Dunk & Egg

While HBO‘s “Game of Thrones” spinoff series “House of The Dragon” returns in June, another series is on the horizon with “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” (likely to get trimmed down to “The Hedge Knight”), and they’ve officially cast the two lead roles of Dunk and Egg, another spinoff show that has been given a series order. Entertainment Weekly has revealed that actors Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell have landed those respective roles that were first introduced in the “Tales of Dunk & Egg” novellas from George R.R. Martin, who is creatively involved with this show.

Claffey plays Sir Duncan The Tall, the titular Hedge Knight, and Ansell plays the future King, Aegon V Targaryen, who is given the nickname of Egg and is the squire to Duncan.

Here is the show’s official logline from HBO:

“A century before the events of ‘Game of Thrones,’ two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros … a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.”

“The Hedge Knight” has a 2025 premiere with casting underway it would suggest that filming could begin by the end of the year.

SOURCE: EW

Posted on in News, Television News

‘The Hedge Knight’: HBO’s Latest ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spinoff Series Exploring The ‘Tales Of Dunk & Egg’ Aiming To Premiere In Late 2025

While HBO has a fleet of “Game of Thrones” spinoffs in various stages of development alongside the second season of “The House of Dragon,” we got a great update on when we can expect “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” (We assume the title could be knocked back to something simpler like “The Hedge Knight“) will premiere.

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared the update via The Hollywood Reporter stating we could be getting the show that already had a full series order to premiere sometime in late 2025. The show is based on George R.R. Martin’s trio of novellas referred to as “Tales of Dunk & Egg” which focused on the adventures of Sir Duncan The Tall (Dunk) and Egg (The future King, Aegon V Targaryen).

“[Creator and executive producer] George R.R. Martin is in preproduction for the new spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which will premiere in late 2025 on Max,” Zaslav said.

Here is the show’s official logline from HBO:

“A century before the events of ‘Game of Thrones,’ two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros … a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.”

We’re still waiting on writers besides Martin alongside a list of actors and directors for “The Hedge Knight” as the 2025 premiere would suggest that filming could begin by the end of the year.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

HBO’s ‘House of The Dragon’ Series Adds Young Actresses Emily Carey & Milly Alcock; ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Will Debut In 2022

HBO is developing multiple series set within the world of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, one of the projects, House of The Dragon, has already started production and the network announced it will begin airing next year.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the series will tell the story of House Targaryen (a.k.a. the House that gave us the Mother of Dragons herself, Daenerys Targaryen) and take place 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

It’s been officially announced today that Emily Carey and Milly Alcock have landed parts in the mature fantasy series.

Below are the official character descriptions.

Milly Alcock as Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. She’s the king’s first-born child, of pure Valyrian blood, and she is a dragonrider. Many would say that Rhaenyra was born with everything…but she was not born a man.

Emily Carey will play Young Alicent Hightower, the daughter of Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King, and the most comely woman in the Seven Kingdoms. Alicent was raised in the Red Keep, close to the king and his innermost circle; she possesses both a courtly grace and a keen political acumen.

George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal will serve as co-creators on the series with Condal and .Miguel Sapochnik set as showrunners.

The rest of the cast consists of Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon (The Sea Snake), Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower (The Hand of the King), and Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria.

Martin recently signed a five-year deal with HBO and could see even more Game of Thrones projects being developed. There have been previous reports that Martin’s Knight of The Seven Kingdoms will be turned a series, titled Tales of Dunk & Egg, along with three other projects in development such as Sea Snake aka The 9 Voyages, Flea Bottom (slum in King’s Landing), and 10,000 Ships.

SOURCE: HBO

Posted on in Television News

‘Game of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin Signs Five-Year Deal With HBO – Are We Looking At Endless Spinoff Series?

Author George R.R. Martin has been involved with a heap of series lately and most of them are connected to his string of fantasy novels that were adapted by HBO into the international hit Game of Thrones. There are currently at least five live-action spinoffs in the works that includes House of The Dragon, a prequel series based on the novel Fire & Blood that will debut in 2022.

There have been previous reports that Martin’s Knight of The Seven Kingdoms will be turned a series, titled Tales of Dunk & Egg, along with three other projects in development such as Sea Snake aka The 9 Voyages, Flea Bottom (slum in King’s Landing), and 10,000 Ships.

George R.R. Martin isn’t stopping there as The Hollywood Reporter has learned the author has signed a huge five-year deal with HBO, that means he’ll be working with them to develop a multitude of new shows and potentially films as well.

Sources say Martin’s contract spans five years and is worth mid-eight figures.

Outside of the Game of Thrones stuff, George R.R. Martin is also developing HBO series based on other people’s work such as Nnedi Okorafor’s post-apocalyptic novel Who Fears Death and Roger Zelazy’s sci-fi fantasy novel Roadmarks.

I’ll be curious to see if they’ll attempt to create some original concept as well.

A handful of other Game of Thrones spinoff shows had been in development before this recent wave that will never see the light of day and it’s possible some stuff that has been announced won’t get past the pilot stage like their White Walker origin series. The Long Night aka Bloodmoon starred Australian actress Naomi Watts but the project from writer Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass) and the pilot was directed by S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones) didn’t earn a series order from HBO.

HBO isn’t the only place adapting George R.R. Martin’s work as Peacock is making a new series based on his Wild Cards franchise. Feature films are also on the table as well with Gore Verbinski directing a film version of Sandkings for Netflix and Paul W.S. Anderson directing a movie based on the fantasy short stories In The Lost Lands.

I’m not sure how he’s going to have the time to keep writing new books when he’s executive producing dozens of projects and potentially creating blueprints for them alongside showrunners.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Game of Thrones’: HBO Developing Three More Spinoff Series Including ‘Sea Snake’

HBO has been pushing forward with a large expansion of their Game of Thrones franchise with a string of spinoffs going into development. One was a White Walker prequel, titled Bloodmoon aka The Long Night, the pilot starring Naomi Watts (The Ring, King Kong) didn’t get picked-up for a series order. Another handful of potential spinoff series got nixed in development phases but the next wave was announced.

Recently, HBO has instead pivoted to another prequel series that is an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s House of The Dragon, that one is shooting soon in Belfast and will start airing in 2022. There are reports they are also looking to make a series based on Martin’s Knight of The Seven Kingdoms (collection of novellas about a Westeros knight and his squire) called The Tales of Dunk & Egg.

There are even more shows on the horizon according to Deadline. They’ve learned that HBO is developing another three Game of Thrones projects including Sea Snake aka The 9 Voyages, Flea Bottom (slum in King’s Landing), and 10,000 Ships. Martin is working with Bruno Heller (Rome, Gotham, The Mentalist) on Sea Snake and is said to be the furthest in development stage out of the three projects.

Here is a rundown of two of the shows from Deadline, which sound like they’ll be more prequels taking place many years before the events of the original series.

The 9 Voyages series refers to the great voyages at sea made by Corlys Velaryon aboard the Sea Snake ship. Velaryon journeyed to places including Pentos, Dragonstone and around the bottom of Westeros as well as to Lys, Tyrosh and Myr. He reached the fabled lands of Yi Ti and Leng, whose wealth doubled that of the House Velaryon, and him and the Ice Wolf headed north searching for passage around the top of Westeros, only to find frozen seas and icebergs as big as mountains.

Lastly, there is a show based around the 10,000 Ships, a reference to the journey made by warrior queen Princess Nymeria and the surviving members of the Rhoynars, who travelled from Essos to Dorne following their defeat by the Valyrian Freehold in the Second Spice War. This migration took place around 1,000 years before the events depicted in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Arya Stark, played by Maisie Williams, named her direwolf after Nymeria.

Details are scarce concerning Flea Bottom and if they’ll attempt to explore established characters from the slum or just using the setting to explore new adventures.

Considering that George R.R. Martin is working with and breaking the show ideas with these showrunners/writers, I think they’ll be super faithful to the fantastic fantasy world he created but might be upsetting to fans that see this as more distractions leading to longer delays for The Winds of Winter.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

George R.R. Martin’s ‘Sandkings’ Getting A Netflix Movie Directed By Gore Verbinski

Another George R.R. Martin adaptation is on the way at Netflix.

Collider reports that Martin’s novelette Sandkings will be getting a feature film at Netflix from director Gore Verbinski and Dennis Kelly writing the script.

Veteran director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) is teaming with original Utopia creator Dennis Kelly on a feature adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s 1979 novelette Sandkings that is currently in the works at Netflix, Collider has exclusively learned.

Here is what the story is about.

The story follows a wealthy playboy named Simon Kress who collects dangerous, exotic animals. One day, he stumbles across a mysterious establishment called Wo & Shade, where he purchases a terrarium filled with four colonies of creatures called sandkings, which grow to fill whatever environment they are kept in. Each colony consists of a large female called the maw, and numerous insect-like mobiles that she controls via telepathy. In addition to finding food for the maw, the mobiles also construct a sandcastle around her to protect the maw from invading colonies. Indeed, the four colonies — white, black, red and orange — often engage in coordinated wars with one another, especially once their new owner makes them fight over food by starving them. Simon begins taking bets on the outcomes of these wars, which leave some of his friends impressed, and others disgusted. Eventually, the sandkings escape Simon’s terrarium and begin to take over his house as their hunger — and Simon’s desperation — intensifies.

Sandkings was adapted into an episode of The Outer Limits in the 1990s and takes place within Martin’s Thousand Worlds universe, which is also the setting of his sci-fi horror story Nightflyers that got a feature film and short-lived series.

Martin is busy producing multiple spinoff series at HBO set within the Game of Thrones franchise.

Verbinski directed films like The Ring, The Mexican, Disney’s Pirate of The Caribbean trilogy, and a lackluster Lone Ranger film. He famously attempted to make a feature film based on the video game BioShock that went nowhere and was one of the many directors that tried to make a solo Gambit film for 20th Century Fox before the X-Men rights returned to Marvel. Gore most recently made A Cure For Wellness.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

George R.R. Martin’s ‘In The Lost Lands’ Getting Film Adaptation From Director Paul W.S. Anderson With Milla Jovovich & Dave Bautista Starring

Deadline is reporting that George R.R. Martin’s fantasy short story In The Lost Lands is going to be getting a big screen adaptation from Resident Evil franchise director Paul W.S. Anderson and FilmNation. Martin is most best-known for creating the Game of Thrones franchise, so the project should have some increased interest given the connection to the author.

They also reveal that Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista are attached to star in the fantast-action film as the sorceress Gray Alys and a drifter named Boyce.

Anderson is adapting the short into a script.

The movie will follow a queen, desperate to obtain the gift of shape shifting, who makes a daring play: she hires the sorceress Gray Alys (Jovovich), a woman as feared as she is powerful. Sent to the ghostly wilderness of the ‘Lost Lands’, Alys and her guide, the drifter Boyce (Bautista), must outwit and outfight man and demon in a fable that explores the nature of good and evil, debt and fulfillment, love and loss.

Milla’s action roles go back to Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element and got most of international notoriety from leading the profitable Resident Evil film franchise, she was most recently seen in Lionsgate’s Hellboy reboot.

Bautista is coming off his involvement with Marvel’s successful Guardians of The Galaxy franchise with a third installment on the horizon along with appearing in the box office juggernauts Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. He recently worked with Zack Snyder on the zombie flick Army of The Dead and is attached for an alien bounty hunter movie, titled Universe’s Most Wanted, directed by Brad Payton.

The film’s distribution rights are being sold at the European Film Market’s virtual event.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

HBO & George R.R. Martin Teaming For Series Adaptation of Sci-Fi Novel ‘Roadmarks’

Game of Thrones franchise creator/author George R.R. Martin is developing a new series at HBO according to Deadline. The outlet is reporting that he’ll executive produce a series adaptation of Roger Zelazny’s Roadmarks with Kalinda Vazquez (Fear The Walking Dead, Star Trek: Discovery) set to write, showrun, and executive produce the series.

The Road runs from the unimaginable past to the far future, and those who travel it have access to the turnoffs leading to all times and places–even to the alternate time-streams of histories that never happened. Why the Dragons of Bel’kwinith made the Road–or who they are–no one knows. But the Road has always been there and for those who know how to find it, it always will be!

Switching gears from fantasy to sci-fi isn’t much of a stretch for George as one of his novels, Nightflyers, was adapted into a feature film and recent television series, neither were terribly successful but it’ll be interesting to see where this one goes.

Martin is also behind a whole wave of Game of Thrones spinoffs including House of The Dragon, Tales of Dunk & Egg, and an animated project that is in development.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Television News

‘Game of Thrones’: Animated Project Reportedly In Very Early Development At HBO Max

Another Game of Thrones project might come together at HBO Max and this time would be an animated series as revealed today by The Hollywood Reporter. However, they failed to mention any details or who would be working on the show.

They’re also protecting themselves as mentioning in the report that things could fall apart, the warning seems to be in reaction to their premature story concerning a live-action Harry Potter series being in the works at HBO Max as well.

An animated Game of Thrones drama is in the early stages of development at HBO Max, multiple sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Meetings with writers for the adult-leaning project, which would be similar in tone to HBO’s Emmy-winning flagship, are already under way. No deals have been made and there’s still a possibility that the animated series never comes to fruition.

Live-action spinoff series coming soon include the prequels House of The Dragon and Tales of Dunk & Egg.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Television News

‘Game of Thrones’: HBO Finally Developing ‘Tales of Dunk & Egg’ Series

House of The Dragon won’t be the only Game of Thrones prequel series in the works at HBO based on established work written by George R.R. Martin. Today, Variety reports that HBO is in early development on Tales of Dunk & Egg, a new series adaptation based on Martin’s A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms, a collection of the three novellas focused on characters Ser Duncan The Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg).

A young, naive but courageous hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall towers above his rivals – in stature if not experience. Tagging along with him is his diminutive squire, a boy called Egg – whose true identity must be hidden from all he and Dunk encounter: for in reality he is Aegon Targaryen, and one day he will be king. Improbable heroes though they be, great destinies lie ahead for Dunk and Egg; as do powerful foes, royal intrigue, and outrageous exploits.

There had been rumblings for ages that the duo would be perfect fodder for an HBO series adaptation. Their adventures takes place 90 years before the events of the main novels and the Game of Thrones series.

Writers and showrunners aren’t mentioned but there is an expectation that Martin will be closely involved creatively along with being the show’s executive producer.

House of The Dragon, another prequel that has been given a full series order at HBO for a debut in 2022 with a cast that consists of Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, and Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Directors on the first season of that show are Miguel Sapochnik, Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel, and Greg Yaitanes.

SOURCE: VARIETY