Tag: HBO

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‘House of The Dragon’: HBO Announces ‘Game of Thrones’ Spinoff Begins Filming In 2021 – Plus New Concept Artwork

HBO has announced via the official Game of Thrones Twitter account that filming on their spinoff series House of The Dragon will begin filming in 2021. The show will be a prequel that focuses on the great house of Targaryen.

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.

They also included some concept artwork of the dragons.

Paddy Considine (Hot Fuzz, Macbeth) is the only officially announced actor and will play the role of King Viserys Targaryen.

Viserys was chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, but as we’ve learned from Game of Thrones, good men do not necessarily make for great kings.

The original series and the previous prequel pilot were shot in Belfast, Northern Ireland and are expected to shoot there as well.

SOURCE: HBO

Posted on in Television News

Paddy Considine Cast As King Viserys Targaryen In ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Series ‘House of The Dragon’

British actor Paddy Consideine (Hot Fuzz, Macbeth) has taken the lead in HBO’s new Game of Thrones series titled House of The Dragon has been announced by the network.

Paddy is a seasoned actor who most recently worked with HBO on the series The Outsider.

Filming is expected to take place in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Here is the official press release.

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.

Paddy Considine (HBO’s The Third Day and The Outsider) will be playing King Viserys Targaryen. Viserys was chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy, but as we’ve learned from Game of Thrones, good men do not necessarily make for great kings.

Martin and Ryan Condal (Colony, Hercules) will serve as co-creators on the series. Miguel Sapochnik and Condal will be showrunners, and the pair will also serve as executive producers along with Martin and Vince Gerardis. Sapochnik, whose directing credits include six Game of Thrones episodes, won Emmy and DGA honors for “Battle of the Bastards.” He was nominated for another Emmy in 2019 for directing “The Long Night” and won the Emmy for Best Drama Series as an executive producer for the final season.

SOURCE: HBO

Posted on in Television News

Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II Win Emmys For Their Performance In HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ – Series Nabbed A Total of 11 Primetime Emmys

HBO’s Watchmen did extremely well at the Primetime Emmy Awards this year which saw it win an impressive 11 Emmys including for Best Limited Series. 

The key prizes were that Regina King won Best Actress In A Limited Series or Movie and her co-star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II landing Supporting Actor In A Limited Series or Movie. Along with Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson winning for Best Writing In A Limited Series or Movie. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross also won for Best Score which has them now inching the pair closer to earn an EGOT. 

Other awards the show earned included Sci-Fi/Fantasy Costumes, Cinematographer (Limited Series), Casting (Limited Series), Single-Camera Picture Editing (Limited Series), Sound Mixing (Limited Series), and Sound Editing (Limited Series). 

Damon Lindelof has been adamant about not returning for a second season which may end up not end up moving forward at all without him, but only time will tell. 

I loved the series and it was extremely prescient despite the unwarranted backlash for the infusion of race and politics, I mean, Alan Moore did the exact thing with his original graphic novel. 

WATCHMEN – From Damon Lindelof and set in an alternate history where “superheroes” are treated as outlaws, this drama series embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name while attempting to break new ground of its own. The cast includes Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Don Johnson, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Andrew Howard, Tom Mison, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, and James Wolk. 

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Michael Crichton Sci-Fi Film ‘Sphere’ Getting A Series Reboot At HBO – ‘Westworld’s Denise Thé To Showrun

HBO has had some moderate success with its modern series adaptation of the Michael Crichton film Westworld as the series moves into the fourth season (expected to have six seasons). 

Variety has learned that HBO will develop a series based on Crichton’s novel Sphere with Westworld’s Denise Thé set to write, showrun, and produce the new sci-fi show. 

The novel was adapted into a feature film directed by Barry Levinson (Wag The Dog, Toys, Rain Man, Sleepers) film that was released in 1998 starring Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone, Liev Schriber, Queen Latifah, and Peter Coyote. 

SPHERE – When psychologist Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) wrote a report for the government on how to deal with extraterrestrial life forces, he didn’t expect his recommendations to be used. Now that a secret government agency is investigating what may be an alien spaceship that has been discovered partially buried on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, Norman finds that the plan he outlined is being put into effect and that the team he named in his report has been assembled.

I’ll be honest, it wasn’t the most impactful sci-fi film as movies like The Abyss and Event Horizon had previously tread similar ground. It was pretty much one of those films from the 1990s you would just forget was made. I revisited the film recently and the CGI effects didn’t age well, weren’t great for the era either.

Dustin Hoffman had led the studio’s box office hit Outbreak in 1995, which is likely behind the thinking of Warner Bros. to cast him as the film’s lead. A huge miscasting.

Sphere would end up becoming a big flop for Warner Bros. as it barely earned it’s budget back and wasn’t able to turn a profit. It doesn’t hurt that the twist and ending were more than just a little anticlimactic when it’s revealed the ship isn’t alien, but actually from the future and built by humans. 

Certainly, a property that could be improved upon with a new series exploration. 

SOURCE: VARIETY

Posted on in Television News

‘Chernobyl’s Johan Renck Says He’s Directing Pilot Episode For HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

We were excited when HBO announced they would be developing a live-action series based on the Naughty Dog post-apocalypse video game The Last of Us with Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin writing it. 

THE LAST OF US – Set in the post-apocalyptic United States, the game tells the story of survivors, Joel and Ellie, as they work together to survive their westward journey across what remains of the country to find a possible cure for the modern fungal plague that has nearly decimated the entire human race.

They’ve seemingly added another creative force behind the successful Chernobyl miniseries as director Jonah Renck will be involved. Johan revealed to Discussing Film in a recent interview that he’ll be directing the series pilot and hints he could potentially direct more episodes, but seems to be unsure if that will happen. 

RENCK: “I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it. It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot. Then we’ll see how it goes on further. I mean, both Craig and I, we are working with each other again and we will work with each other on other things because we like each other.”

HBO has yet to announce any casting for the series. 

SOURCE: DISCUSSING FILM