Winter Is Coming - News and rumors about HBO's Game of Thrones

Day 17: More filming

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:12:00 +0000

Filming resumes today on the Game of Thrones pilot. It seems likely, based on all the other scenes that have been shot already that they would be moving into the Paint Hall for these last few days of filming in Northern Ireland. Then it is on to Morocco. It sounds like Thursday will be the first day of filming in Morocco. Or at least, that is when GRRM plans to arrive.

As for the filming at Castle Ward, WiC reader kinnygraham was at the location yesterday and had this to report:

Yesterday (Sunday) I was able to go and visit Castle Ward (which is normally open to the public on most occasions anyway) and got very close to the set they had been using there and take some pictures (including one of the Stark symbol engraved in a wall mentioned as having taken GRRM’s interest on his visit).

There was nobody around at all, other than other members of the public and there even were some ‘props’ lying around (stuff like carts, one of which had been prepped for the addition of digital effects – i.e. canvassed in green material with red motion capture ‘dots’).

I’m sure it was a different story when the crew were around but like I say I was able to do this purely by exercising my ‘rights’ as a member of the public.

It sounds like the set was still fully up, which might meaning they are filming there again today. Or it could just mean that the take down crew hadn't started yet. I was confused about what the cart with the green canvas and red dots was until mogons pointed out in the last thread that it was likely going to be digitally enhanced in post and become Cersei's wheelhouse! So that seems to confirm our speculation that they were filming the King's arrival at Castle Ward.

If we get any more reports, I'll be sure to post them here.

Day 14: More filming in NI

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:55:00 +0000

They are now concluding their second week of filming for the Game of Thrones pilot. I had heard that filming was to last 18 days, although I'm not sure if that was just filming in the UK or if that was the whole thing. It seems they have most scenes that need to be filmed in the UK already in the can, so four more days of filming should be about right to finish it up. Then, I assume, it is off to Morocco.

George R. R. Martin was able to find some time to update us on how his UK trip is going so far over at his Not A Blog. He talks, of course, about the Belfast and Dublin signings and moots but also touches on his thoughts on the filming so far. Take a look:

And here we are in Dublin. Ireland has been exciting but exhausting. We had a huge turnout last night for the signing at Eason's, with a queue that seemed to go on forever, but I finally scrawled everyone into submission, and afterwards I signed all the stock as well. If you missed the signing, or happen to live a thousand leagues away, you can still get an autographed copy of the SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH hardcover or any of the Ice & Fire paperbacks by phoning, emailing, or dropping by Eason's on O'Connell Street. They even have a few trade paperbacks of DREAMSONGS.

Afterwards we adjourned to a nearby pub for a lively evening of Guinness and conversation with the local fans. I met the good folk who will be running next year's Octocon, where I'll be GOH, and hoisted a few with the hardy survivors of the Eason's event. Didn't stagger back to the our hotel till after midnight, by which time Temple Bar was roaring. Ah, if only I were twenty years younger...

The Belfast event on Tuesday was also a hoot and a half. The crowd was much bigger at Dublin, but in Belfast some of the cast of the HBO pilot dropped by to sign books and meet the fans as well. My thanks to Ron Donachie, Richard Madden (Best Dressed Man in Scotland), Alfie Allen, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner (and their moms) for joining the festivities. And to the lovely Ros, Esme Bianco, who dropped by McHughes afterwards for the moot. Matthew Hughes, one of the authors who contributed to our Vance tribute anthology, also turned up at Eason's to help me sign SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH.

In between signing and mooting, I've been hanging round the shoot, trying not to get underfoot. "How is it going?" everyone wants to know. I think it's going great. Wednesday's location was amazing, so real I could hardly tell where the real castle ended and our fake castle began. I saw Bran and Tommen swatting at each other in the yard, Joffrey taunting Robb, the Hound growling at Ser Rodrik, while Arya displayed her wretched needlework to Jon above, and it all looked wonderful. Saw some of the footage from the crypts too, and that looked amazing as well. Yes, some things are not exactly as they were in the books, that's inevitable with any adaptation... but these are my characters and this is my story, and it's thrilling to see 'em come to life.

Last night in Belfast I got to meet two more of the cast, quite unexpectedly. Some of the Moroccan players were in Ireland for costume fittings. I ran into Ian McNeice for a brief moment outside the hotel, as we were waiting for our rides, and the night before we bumped into Dany -- the amazing Tamzin Merchant, who is even more beautiful in person than she is on screen -- into the dining room. What a terrific cast Nina Gold has assembled.

Also toured the Paint Hall, though we didn't do any shooting there while I was in Belfast. Some of our sets are going up, and look great. And in another part of the building the huge castle sets from the big budget (compared to us, anyway) feature YOUR HIGHNESS are still standing. Their great hall is pretty eye-popping and they built an impressive castle yard as well.

Tomorrow I'm off to London . Signing at Forbidden Planet on the 11th, Then it's off to Marrakech.

Life is magical and full of joy (but no, I have not been seeking out football scores, so don't tell me. TIVO is getting all my games).

Lastly, check out this excellent video of GRRM at the Belfast moot taken by JacMac30. It has George mentioning the possibility of a two season order and also where he mentions it will be March before HBO makes a decision. And it ends with a marriage proposal. Great video Jackie!

UPDATE: Forgot to add this excellent post from Tower of the Hand with pictures and descriptions of the known locations used in the pilot.

UPDATE: More location news, this one courtesy of the Westeros Game of Thrones News site, apparently yesterday's filming took place at Castle Ward. Jackie dug up some photos of the location.

UPDATE: Couple other small, but none-the-less interesting updates: 1) a marketing manager for HBO has tweeted he just finished Game of Thrones and loved it, 2) David Benioff talks ASOIAF near the end of this interview from 2007, saying it is the best fantasy series since Lord of the Rings.

Day 13: Filming... something

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:33:00 +0000

Filming continues today in Northern Ireland on the Game of Thrones pilot. Another location shoot today, supposedly taking place at a castle in NI. I'm not sure what they are planning on filming and so far my guesses have been pretty far off, so I'll hold off on any further speculation.

The reports and photos from yesterday's signing and moot continued to roll in today. Check the updated posts for links to reports and photos from Adam, Jackie and Rimshot! One interesting tidbit that came out of the moot was from Westeros poster Padraig who mentioned that GRRM has stated that HBO will give a final decision on the pilot by March 2010. My guess is that would be the absolute latest they would decide on it. I think hearing something Jan or Feb is more likely.

Rimshot also has gave us a fascinating and interesting report from the set yesterday. Sounds like they were actually filming the kids sparring scene yesterday and not the King's arrival which was what I had originally speculated. Anyway, here is the full report.

'The Shoot'

(of course I can't go into specifics here but I'll try to give you a flavour of the shoot)

So I'm there, bleary eyed, at 6:15am. There are about 15 of us extras heading to the set today. We all pile into the mini-bus and head of into the pre-dawn day. At the unit-base, we all get off the bus and head into the holding area where our names are checked and we get our costumes on. Various 'families' are represented (Stark, Baratheon, Lannister) and their costumes look amazing! I was a wee bit jealous as my Stark servant costume is a bit plain in comparison. We are all separated into our families and there is a bit of banter and shouting amongst us 'Lannister Bastards!' shout the Starks etc. The craic is good as they say in Ireland!

We then line up for hair/make up. I have a long haired wig which matches my beard (I'm still picking the glue out of my side-burns). Once we are ready its breakfast!! I don't normally have a fry on a set but I felt like one today. The caterers on GOT are the same ones we had on Your Highness so I knew the food would be great.

Then it was to the set we went!

We had to walk a bit of the way and at one point I turned round and 4 Stark Guards were walking in a line behind me, capes flowing in the wind.

I thought, 'Man, that looks impressive!'

The set is just awesome! I wish I could describe it for you but I know you will be impressed.

The 1st AD described what were were doing that day and started placing us and running through our actions. I think I'm ok to say that it is an outdoors scene involving two kids sparring. That much you know already so it isn't spoiling anything but there was more specific
action/dialogue going on that I won't go into.

A cool moment was when I was relaxing in between shots. I was sitting on the ground, reading GOT. I had just read a line about Theon Greyjoy when a voice above me asked 'what do you think of the book?' I looked up and it was Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen)! We had a nice chat about how GRRM likes to kill off his characters and he told me that the pace really picks up at the end. I was really enjoying chatting to him until another extra came up to him and said 'Are you Lily's brother?' to which he said 'Yes' but then moved on.

Also, I saw GRRM taking a photo of the Stark banner that is carved into the side of a wall. I asked him if he enjoyed the previous day and he said he really enjoyed it and was happy with the turnout. There is something cool about seeing GRRM standing in the middle of his creation, taking photos.

At one point I was getting a cup of tea when the Hound appeared right next to me to get one too! I was too intimidated to talk to him. Just wait until you see this guy!!

Anyway, we filmed until after 4pm when we were wrapped.

There are about 100 extras there today (Ace Jones is one of them!) and their call was 3:45am this morning!!

I hope I haven't given too much away but I tried to be as vague as possible.

I saw some dailies from previous days filming that were being shown to GRRM and they look incredible. Also from what I saw yesterday this is of such a high quality that I think this show is going to rock!

(even one of the chickens laid an egg!!)

That's all from me. I don't have anymore days on the GOT pilot but hopefully once the show is picked up, I'll be back!

UPDATE: Another set report, this one from Knight of Redemption over at the Westeros forums.

Hi boys and girls I thought you might like to hear the impressions of someone who has been on set and has seen some of the rushes. from the last couple of days.

Obviously I am not going to give anything away here, but. I have to say having seen some of the younger cast; Joffry, Jon Snow, Brand and others at work. The casting is inspired. The care being taken, to get every take just so, speaks of a labour of love. The atmosphere on set is is one of a happy crew (I have met many of them on other shoots) The A.D's extras and other cogs in the filming engine soon get a sense of whether or not they are on a good project. To a man and woman I got the idea that they felt this was a good and well run project.

The Director delighted in pointing out to George a small visual homage to something that happens later in the story...made me smile and I hope it stays in for the final edit. The dedication shown by him and his crew during long days and a punishing shooting schedule is another pointer to the quality of the finished product.

Seeing shooting through the monitor gave me some idea of how the finished thing will look. Let me tell you, it looks great. I think HBO will deliver another fine product and I for one, am sure this will go all the way.

Some of the young actors and actresses stand a good chance of growing up in the world of Westeros and if one or two new stars don't emerge I will be most surprised. Each of them are looking forward to what faces them as the story unfolds, and as you all know, it will push their skills to the max.

So there we go. I don't think I written anything to upset the powers that be, and I certainly wont be posting any of the pics they were kind enough to let me take. I just hope I have given you guys a fair impression of was for me, an interesting and fun look behind the scenes.

Thanks to all the cast and crew I met that say, it was a pleasure.

Hi to those I met at the Belfast Moot. It was fun talking swords and armour with you.

UPDATE: Tremere was at the GRRM signing and moot in Dublin today and reported back with some interesting info.

Just came from he Dublin Signing and Moot.

Had a gr8 time here in Dublin with some Westerosi I just met and good old George. Perhaps I should start attending the Westeros forum, as they were all nice people. The queue for the signing was quite long, but I amused myself by looking at some little girls running around wo got phrases painted on their faces as: I love Jaime & Jaime must live. Luckily for them Jaime is only interested in incest so far I'd say...

The bits of information I got are quite small, but here goes. George apparently enjoyed himself greatly watching Bran smack Tommen around on Wednesday. Sean Bean apparently was quite a tough signing, he had to be convinced quite a lot and didn't come cheap a lot. I guess we should happy they did so to have a gr8 fan favorite join the show.

I of course mentioned the gr8 blog WIC and George told me that even though he tries to stay away from Westeros forum as much as possible, in order to not get influenced, he would occasionally visit Winter is Coming. There you have it Winter, the master himself sticks his nose around every once in a while.

One a more recent news item about the dialect-expert George had the following to say: The Dothraki are getting an entire language of their own. It will be created by this person and i can only guess that it will be the next generation Klingon. Apparently the Dothraki actors are no going to say anything themselves and will be mouthing most of the words while the sound of their voices will get added later.
George personally intended to have several dialects for the several regions of Westeros as it is the size of south america and people would therefore naturally speak differently. For most of Westeros this will be abandoned for the series as you have a mixture of Irish, english, Scottish, Americans etc running around. For the average American, as George put it, it will be too hard to understand anything different anyway or link dialects. I personally have hope that the Dhornish will keep their slurrish accent, but that's all for due time.

Some notes about the books themselves. george apparently has big issues with chronology. He would love to skip 5 years, but although it would be very to nice some characters like Arya, it will be less understandable for others.
And finally... Mereen is the furthest East the story will go from now on.

Day 12: Filming the King's arrival

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:01:00 +0000

While the fans get to live vicariously through the lucky few able to go to yesterday's signing and moot, the cast and crew were back at it today for day 12 of filming the Game of Thrones pilot. Based on reports, it sounds like they might be filming the King's arrival today and possibly tomorrow. We know that much of the cast had an early 5 AM call time today and had to leave the moot last night at a somewhat decent hour.

Also, Rimshot is to be serving as a "Stark servant" on location somewhere. There aren't many scenes remaining to be filmed that would require a Stark servant. So again, the King's arrival seems the likeliest guess as to what scene he will be appearing in.

Some more crew member news, Tatiana S. Riegel has been confirmed to be editing the pilot per Variety. (Credit to Thoros of Myr for spotting this one.) Riegel had been listed as editor on the Game of Thrones IMDb page a little while back but I was waiting for some official confirmation before reporting it as we all know how reliable IMDb can be. Riegel most recently worked as editor on The Men Who Stare at Goats and the pilot episode of the Showtime series United States of Tara.

Not expecting anything, but if I get any set reports or leaked photos today, I will update this post.

UPDATE: Adam Whitehead provides an interesting tidbit about HBO hiring a dialect coach for the Dothraki language. Technically this was information gleaned during the moot, but since it relates to the series more than just being some fun stories about mingling with the actors I'll post it here.

HBO have hired a dialogue coach and linguistics expert to create a working Dothraki vocabulary for the actors and extras to use in the Pentos scenes. They also have a working vocabulary guide which they handed out to the actors. As has been said many times before, GRRM isn't bothered about how readers pronounce words, but obviously they needed something moe consistent for the series, and he agreed to help them out with that.

Reports from the GRRM moot

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:35:00 +0000

I'll be posting the reports and photos from the post-singing moot yesterday. I expect these reports to trickle in as everyone wakes up and tries to get rid of their hangover! The first report we got was from Silverstar.

A bleary good morning from me. No proper report as I've just woken up and am drinking my first coffee of the day, but a quick stop by!

The moot was absolutely awesome. I overuse that word, but it was. Richard, Ron, Esme, Maisie and Sophie showed up, and happily mingled with us for ages. Julia also turned up, and was one of the last to leave.

I spent a lot of time chatting to Maisie and Sophie's mums, who are very lovely (hello Maisie's mum! hello Sophie's mum! I know you're reading this!). Maisie and Sophie actually act like sisters, and get on so well - absolutely adorable. Richard came up to them as they were leaving to say goodbye to his 'little sisters'. Also very cute!

Esme is gorgeous, very tall, and makes me look like a dumpy dwarf in the photo I have of me with her.

Richard ... is going to have half the female population swooning after him. Lovely, lovely guy, and I have photos of me with him first! So they're going in the safe for boasting purposes once he's a huge star.

Ron is just a sweetheart. Chatted to us for ages about GoT, and about other work he's done. He's so enthusiastic about it all.

In fact, all the cast are just wonderful. Really friendly, really enthusiastic, and seem appreciative of us all. I think most of them weren't quite sure what to expect from us lot, but I think we behaved ourselves and left a good impression. They're all honourary BwB members now, whether they like it or not! And we didn't need to mention WiC to them, really. They already know about us, and at least some of them have been checking this place out.

Didn't actually find out much real info about the shoot at all, because we were having far too good a time just getting to know everyone. Sorry!

More later, with pics, when I'm awake.

UPDATE: Silverstar follows up her report with an answer to a question about who seemed the most comfortable to be mingling with the fans.

They all seemed pretty much at ease, to be honest. I'd say Kit was probably the least comfortable yesterday, but I think he was completely exhausted after some really long shooting days this week. Really sweet for him to show up at all, really. Alfie was lovely, but didn't make it to the moot as he apparently was hungover, from what I was told. Rory McCann stopped by at the signing very, very briefly, but I totally missed that he was there, unfortunately. Richard, Ron, Maisie and Sophie were all massively friendly and lovely.

On the question of which actors have read the books, Silverstar has this to say.

Maisie and Sophie's parents are reading the books, and giving them a summarised version, apparently. Maisie's stepdad has read all of them, and both their mums are somewhere around ACoK, from what I recall.

Ron devoured all four within a month and is waiting impatiently for ADwD along with the rest of us now. He thinks they're wonderful.

Kit I think is up to AFFC. Alfie is starting ACoK. Can't remember about Richard, but he'd definitely read at least AGoT.

UPDATE: Adam Whitehead checks in with a detailed report from the moot last night.

One slightly "Huh?" moment that got lost in the mix was George cautioning that it's just a pilot so it might not get picked up, but then he said it might get a one-season order or it might get a two-season order! He didn't say any more about that (presumably miniscule and highly unlikely) possibility though. He also wouldn't be drawn on what will happen in Season 4 with the split AFFC/ADWD situation, other than they'll deal with that closer to the time.

Richard, Alfie and Kit at the signing were talking about the wolf pups and saying how cute they were. The girls seemed disappointed they hadn't gotten to see the pups (no scenes in the pilot with Sansa, Arya and their wolves, as we had already surmised) but were looking forward to it in the series itself.

For inevitable ADWD questions, GRRM repeated that he had over 1100 MS pages but more were needed. He hoped not too much more and was very happy with the progress he'd made over the last few months. He confirmed that part of the Meereenese Knot is related to the timeline of events of people showing up and departing in the right place to track with the other books, but it's all coming together. He also said that Star-Crossed Lovers was going to be a straight mix of fantasy stories with a romantic element to them, whilst Warriors was much more mixed genre, which apparently the American publishers really like and British publishers seem more concerned by, but he's hopeful for a British deal for Warriors soon.

The party! About 20-odd people gathered at McHughes early for food before heading down to the cellar bar, which was quite big and nicely laid out, even though the bemusingly ecelectic music selection (going from Country to Hard Rock to Pop to 1980s Electro with little rhyme or reason) was a bit loud until we got them to turn it off. George and Parris turned up, followed by Maisie, Sophie and assorted family members. The girls ended up working the room like seasoned actors, talking to different fans, posing for photos and chatting to George. Their mums, who were awesome, talked about the books (they're on Book 2 and seemed to think my proposal of Keith Allen for Balon had merit; I bottled out of asking Alfie earlier at the signing his opinion!), the fandom and so on.

Then Richard Madden, Esme Bianco and Ron Donachie arrived. Esme hadn't been at the signing so was immediately surrounded by fans asking if she could add her autograph to the others in the book. She seemed chuffed with the attention and chatted to people happily, name-checking Paul Gude when I mentioned I was a poster on WiC as well. A couple of American fans weren't sure who she was playing so Esme (having to talk carefully as Sophie and Maisie were around) came up with the phrase that Tyrion needed a 'more HBO introduction' in the series, so that scene had been written. Everyone got what that meant.

Ron was 150% pure cool. Laidback, happy to chat about this project and other things he had done. He recounted filming Titanic and when they were overrunning on the scenes with everyone in the water James Cameron just grabbed a camera and waded straight out into the water to get the shots needed before the sun came up. He also turned out to be a Jets fan and had previously read Fevre Dream many years ago, but hadn't realised it was the same writer until a few days earlier. George and Ron then talked American football for a bit, before Jackie/JacMac came over and it turned out she and Ron had gone to the same school (at different times). For such an experienced actor, he seemed to be really into the fans and their excitement for the series. When asked if he knew what happened to his character he replied yes, but two seasons was a good innings and he'd be happy to stay for the duration.

Romulocks proposed to his +1 halfway through the night (she said yes) and there was much drinking in celebration of that. The cast and families thought that was cool and were impressed when we told them the number of board hook-ups, marriages and babies born as a result thereof was quite high. George urged them not to have a Red Wedding-themed marriage.

Maisie got to say "Stick them with the pointy end!" She'd been informed this was a key Arya line. I think Sergio said on WiC that he thought she was too cute to play Arya and I have to say that's dead wrong. She was a sweet girl but when she was ribbing Alfie at the signing and when she was talking seriously about her character, you could see she had all the determination that Arya needs in her role. Sophie's mum said that when Sophie and Jennifer Ehle was standing next to one another with their hair done up they looked very much like mother and daughter and looked great. Sophie was very confident, seemed to enjoy the attention and talking to fans about her character.

On a more serious note, some people involved in the production had seen the negative comments about Tamzin Merchant and let it be known they were not impressed. Whilst Dany's scenes are being filmed separately, most of those present had met Tamzin and the rest of the Pentos gang at the read-through, and were impressed with her performance and her 'getting' the role from the books dead-on.

After hearing Ron and Parris chatting about George's books, it turned out to be time for the Maisie, Sophie and families to leave (early call in the morning, plus the pub had a policy of asking children to leave before 8pm, which was missed by a bit). Richard came over to give 'his sisters' a goodbye hug, which caused collective swooning from most of the female population present. We had to revive a certain other forum member present (cough) with gin after that. I also got a great photo of the girls with Esme, which I'll put up later tonight (no public Internet computer in Northern Ireland has a photo slot, apparently). I also got some great pics of GRRM with Richard, including one with Richard looking a bit serious which could be great with a caption: "So George, my agent said I'm not needed for Season 4..." "Ah..." (He knows what happens to his character, btw).

Shortly after that most of the cast had to leave for their 5am calls and the evening seemed to be winding down when Julia Frey arrived. Immediately she was a big hit and regaled us with stories of working on Alien 3 and other projects, although was a bit more circumspect about 'the current project'. We tried a few questions about if the pilot would have finished visual FX or just animatics and what was going on with a composer and got some excellently non-committal answers ("That's an interesting idea," "Could well be...but it might not,"). Julia has a great poker face and didn't give anything away. She also gave Paul Gude a shout-out. After stopping for pictures, she left and the evening wound down with us heading back to the hostel and collectively passing out.

FIN.

UPDATE: Silverstar has been kind enough to upload some photos from both the signing and moot. You can view them in the comments below and over here at the Westeros forums.

UPDATE: Westeros poster Shaun Snow has given his report of the get-together last night.

It was a good day, very cool of the cast members to hang out with us. I sat at a table with mostly females, and if the constant "Isn't he cute, isn't he giggly, isn't he nice, isn't he hot" was anything to go by, Richard Madden is going to be a big hit as Robb. Heh.

The girls playing Sansa and Arya were really cute, seemingly joined at the hip very much unlike their book counterparts. You would never think Sophie Turner was 13 to look at her, shes crazy tall and very pretty. Maise Williams was particularly likeable, precocious and chatty and I think will make a great Arya. At one point I heard Sophie teased about how she'd need to practice crying alot for playing Sansa, unlike Maise, who then piped up that she thought Arya was crying on the inside, which I thought was a nice little insight from her.

George was great, but that goes without saying. I didn't speak to him much but thats par for the course from me alas.

Finally a special shout out to the six and a half foot German guy, Alex, who came all the way to Belfast by way of Dublin on his lonesome for the signing and moot. He spoke, what seemed to me, perfectly legible English but was quite obviously having a hard time understanding all the crazy accents we were speaking in. I ran into him again the next morning on his way to catch a train. I hope he made it home safely. Obviously a big, and dedicated, fan.

UPDATE: Nice report can be found at the Silver Oak blog, including an interesting tidbit about GRRM mentioning the inspiration for the weirwood trees.

UPDATE: Jackie posted her report over at the Westeros forums. And you can find her excellent photos from the signing and moot here.

UPDATE: Rimshot gives his take on the moot in the comments here on WiC. Here is what he had to say.

[1] The Moot

(please accept my apologies if I get names/aliases wrong. I am useless remembering names!)

So, after work I headed for McHughs. I was quite worried that everything was going to be ok as I really wanted it to be a good night for everyone. One thing I had asked was for signs to point towards the room. I was particularly anxious that they get the 2 'R's right as in 'GRRM and Friends'. So I rang McHughs the previous day to go over all the arrangements. "Can you make sure that the sign has 2 'R's in the name? I asked. "Yes, I've got that", they replied. And, when I turned up, I was glad to see that, indeed, there were 2 'R's in the sign, which read 'GRRF and Friends'. AGGHHH!!

Anyway, to try and forget the signs, I went and had an excellent burger and chips. There were other moot people there (sounds like something from a H.G. Wells novel!) but I didn't introduce myself as it felt a bit weird.

After that, I headed downstairs. I noticed GRRM and Parris where still upstairs eating but I decided to leave them alone to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet as there would be little of that later!

Downstairs I headed for the bar and was pleased to see a good number of people there. I met Speculator (that's his IMDB name, I can't remember his WiC name!) and got chatting. I was looking around trying to figure out who was who. We went and sat with 'The Pink Haired Lady and the three-prong bearded gentleman'. I really didn't know anyone and I was worried about fitting in as I hadn't read the books. But those worries were short lived as we got chatting and I immediately felt at home.

I must admit I felt like a minor-celeb as all of a sudden, several people came over to introduce themselves to me. I had alot of 'so you're Rimshot!' all night and it was fun! Ace Jones and his girlfriend joined us at the table and the banter was fantastic. Romolocks and his lovely girlfriend (who was about to become his fiancee!) introduced themselves. I also met JacMac30, Werthead and of course, Silverstar!

I started to relax as it was evident that people were having a good time. Then, something I wasn't expecting to happen. GRRM got up and gave a wee speech and also introduced the cast members in attendance. At the most, I was hoping for 1 or maybe 2 members of the cast so to have 5 was amazing! George talked about the next book, the show etc (all of which has been documented here already).

He then sat at our table! We were like kids in a toy shop having such access to the main man and he was more than happy to answer our questions. He talked about how he needed a full day with no interruptions to write (in his words, he said that if he had a dental appointment a 4pm and tried to start writing in the morning, he couldn't do it because he knew this 'damn appointment' was getting closer!). He also said how the Weirwood trees were inspired by tress in Australia but he made then white so that the contrast so the red sap would be more dramatic. Also how he almost died trying to climb Ayers rock! He enjoyed chatting about sports with Ace Jones and when I asked him if he was happy with what he saw on set so far, he said it was all going very well. I also joked with him that, in the next book, he should open it with 'The pink haired lady sat on her destrier, scanning the horizon for signs of life when she saw the one she had looked for all these long years; the man with the three pronged beard.' so our friends at the table could get parts in the HBO show! :)

I had a great chat with someone from the Sean Bean online site (sorry! can't remember your name) who was there to report any sightings. Sadly, Mr Bean wasn't there.

The raffle was a great success (even though I didn't win anything) :(

The night went on and photos were being taken all over the place. I didn't send any photos from my iphone as it was too dark for the iphone camera. Everyone was getting great access to GRRM and the actors and the atmosphere was really good. I think at this point I thought that we had pulled it off! I joked with the others that this was the first Annual Belfast moot but, you know, I would be up for doing it again next year!

I spoke to loads of other people (but didn't get many photos taken) but at 10pm it was time to leave as I had to be at the Painthall to be
picked up at 6:15am (thankfully it was put back as they had filmed late the night before). So I said my goodbyes to Ace, Silverstar, Wert, GRRM, Parris etc and I walked into the night. Just before I headed off, I looked at McHughs and thought 'mission accomplished' We did good!

UPDATE: Another report, this one comes from Lady Jane, a member of the Sean Bean Online forums.

Day 11: Filming rolls on (UPDATED)

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Filming continues today and it sounds like they are still shooting exterior scenes at this point. Either they are still working on the execution scene or they've moved onto the King's arrival (I'm aware that the picture on the right is actually of the King leaving Winterfell, but it is some of my favorite ASOIAF art and it sorta relates, so I had to post it). And based on Esme Bianco's recent tweet, it sounds like the weather isn't cooperating.

It would seem stilettos aren't the best plan for location shoots in torrential downpours!Thankfully someone lovely is fetching me wellies

The peculiar thing is, why is Bianco out in the rain at all? We know, from the leaked script, that her scene is indoors. Perhaps her role has been expanded? Maybe Tyrion brings her with him to Winterfell and she is present at the King's arrival? It's also possible she just wanted to watch some filming today.

In other news, Costumegate has sparked some considerable debate over whether they plan to shoot 30 more episodes next year. I really don't see how that is possible, but since it is out there I am going to do my best to try and get some sort of official confirmation either way so we can put this to rest.

Oh and don't forget, today is GRRM's signing and after party. If you are going, be sure to head back here with a full report and any photos you may have snapped!

UPDATE: Made an awesome discovery over on Flickr. A user named Gerry B22 has uploaded photos of the shoot in Tollymore. Including pics of the fake snow and dead direwolf!

He titles the photos as pics of the Your Highness shoot, but the presence of a dead direwolf plus the fact that he states they were taken on Oct. 30 means he is obviously mistaken. Don't forget to take a peek at the pic of the direwolf being packed for transport to get an idea of the size of the thing.

UPDATE: This article from the Belfast Telegraph talks about the GRRM signing today and has a quote from the man himself that reveals where they shot the execution scene.

Mr Martin said he was pleased by the impressive turnout of fans and said he had used his trip to visit locations for Game Of Thrones. “We were at Cairncastle yesterday for an execution scene. It was a bleak setting and pretty appropriate,” he said.

“I haven’t been to the Paint Hall yet, though.”

Reports from GRRM signing

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:05:00 +0000

Keeping the reports about the GRRM signing in this post and moving the shooting info into a new post.

UPDATE: According to Rimshot, Richard Madden is at GRRM's book signing. Which means they must be shooting a scene that Robb doesn't appear in. Which rules out the execution, direwolf finding, or King's arrival. Maybe they are filming the brothel scene on location somewhere?

UPDATE: Rimshot with his post-signing report over at the Westeros forums. Meeting the author before even reading his book!

UPDATE: Adam Whitehead checks in after the signing with a great report. Sounds like a lot of fun, wish I could have been there!

Very, very awesome.

A queue started forming about an hour before the signing was due to begin. Then we started recognising people lurking at the back of the bookstore: we spotted Ron Donachie and Sophie Turner hanging out. Then George and Parris arrived and introduced everyone who had come along: Ron, Sophie, Maisie Williams, Richard Madden ("The Best-Dressed Man in Scotland"), Kit Harington and Alfie Allen!

After George signed the books, the cast agreed to sign them as well, leaving my copy of GAME OF THRONES emblazoned with many signatures. Many, many pictures were taken by myself and Silverstar (hers turned out a bit blurry, obviously a technical hitch). Seriously, dozens of photos were taken and will appear at some point (the Linen House computers don't have accessible USB or XD card connections, unfortunately). We got a fantastic group photo of George and everyone else who was there.

Ron Donarchie reported he was doing some horse-riding this afternoon, whilst Kit was clearly exhausted after three 17-hour days. Everyone was astonishingly friendly and approachable. Ron reported that he had devoured all four books already and was bugging George about the fifth one! Kit has reached AFFC and Alfie is in the second half of GoT and coming up on CLASH, and noted it's a good thing he's good with boats. Richard Madden was a very funny guy and bearing the brunt of much humour for being "The Best-Dressed Man in Scotland".

Funniest person of the day was Maisie Williams, who (amusingly) reprimanded Alfie for disappearing and holding up the signing queue at one point (for about twenty seconds), leaving him contrite in the face of some very Arya-esque withering scorn. All the cast seemed to be getting on excellently, taking the mick out of one another, happy to pose for photos and more.

A lady from HBO was there and seemed delighted with all the excitement over the books. She said they'd had a big talk with George to see how happy he was with filming so far, and he said he thought everything was going great. HBO seems to be running a lot of things past George to ensure the series remains true to the books and his vision, and HBO are very respectful of that.

We also heard that Lena Headey is doing great work as Cersei and her performance was nailing the character from the books superbly.

That's about it. We're back at the hostel to freshen up before heading to the pub. The meet-up begins at about 6 and Ron and Richard said they'd try to make it. Kit was clearly insanely tired, so he might not be along. We'll see who else makes it.

Everyone was brilliant. George and Matt Hughes (a fellow SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH author) was sitting behind a huge desk, but everyone else was milling with fans in the corner, happy to chat, have photographs taken and chill out with people. They seemed genuinely touched and impressed by the dedication of the fans present.

Awesome stuff. Photos to follow :-)

UPDATE: Rimshot provided another, more detailed report, in the comments.

Hi

Just back from the signing. Sirry for not posting more from the queue but, would you believe it, while I was waiting I started reading GOT and, the next thing I knew, it was my turn! I'm already hooked!!

As Adam said, there were loads of cast more than willing to have their photos taken. I didn't get any photos unfortunately because I had to get back to work.

When I got to meet George I told him I was 'Rimshot' and he called over Parris to meet me. I then had a very interesting chat with Parris all about the production and the future of the series. She is very optimistic about the show and very happy to be here filming it. She is heading home soon but George is heading on to Morocco.

Parris, it was great chatting with you and I look forward to chatting more tonight, although I get the feeling people will be queueing up to chat to you and George!

The signature on my book reads

'To ********. All good wishes. Thanks for McHughs. (signature)'

Can't wait for tonight now.

BTW - While I was standing in the queue, a guy came up to me and said 'excuse me, do you know where George said to meet up later?'

Before I could open my mouth, a girl in front of me said 'McHughs'.

I had a wee laugh at that one! Could be a big crowd tonight!!

UPDATE: Photo from Rimshot of the signing. You can make out Alfie Allen, Richard Madden (in scarf) and Kit Harington (glasses) in the background!

UPDATE: Another report, this one from Silverstar.

Hey guys,

Having awesome time here! Dozens of photos - mostly blurry, but I have some lovely ones too. Me and Richard, Kit, Alfie and Ron, then another one with the girls, who are really sweet.

I told Maisie and Sophie that we were all rooting for them, and they made a comment about how it was a bit scary that there were 'thousands of fans on the internet!" I was like "Um ... yeah, that's us ..." shamefacedly.

All the cast are lovely, Richard and Ron especially both chatted with us happily for ages.

Will write up a proper report and post pics tomorrow when I get home!

Off to the pub in a sec.

UPDATE: This report comes from nedkarstark of the Westeros forums.

We had a great time at the signing and all the cast were so very friendly and obliging. They all said they were keeping their fingers crossed for hte series to be greenlit. All said that they were having a fantastic time and enjoying the various shoots. Richard said that it was great having George about for the filming. Alfie told me that the costumes are top notch. He also said "wait til you see the weapons". He also enjoyed the scenes with the horses. Awesome.

UPDATE: Ran has update the Westeros Game of Thrones site with a great summation of all the reports and some truly amazing photos sent to him by Parris. Below is a shot of GRRM with the cast in attendance. (NOTE: Photograph © Parris.)

UPDATE: A couple more photos taken by Parris from the signing can be found here.

UPDATE: Wert posts his photos from the signing over at the Westeros forums.

Day 9: Taking a break

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:50:00 +0000

As far as I can tell, today was another off day for the production (seems like they get Sundays off). Everyone has been working real hard, early mornings and late nights, and things seem to be running on schedule. So this off day was definitely deserved.

GRRM posted a short blog post about arriving in Belfast.

Late, wet, and bedraggled, but I'm here.

Tomorrow heads will roll. Well, one head, at least.

Based on that, it sounds like they will be filming the Gared beheading scene tomorrow. It seems that may be one of the last exterior shoots they have to do. The only other one being, I believe, the King's arrival. All the courtyard scenes and the feast scene were shot at Doune Castle and the prologue has been completed down at Tollymore Forest. After the execution and the King's arrival they will likely be heading inside the Paint Hall for all the interior scenes. Then on to Morocco.

Also, I wanted to take a moment and send some virtual well wishes to Julia Frey. Her recent blog post talks about the downsides of working on a production like this, chiefly being away from family and friends. She mentions that reading WiC has helped cheer her up and even given her a few virtual friends. So to Julia I say, glad you've been enjoying the blog! Hope that my posts haven't seemed too stalkerish. Good luck and hang in there! (Oh and your comments on the safety graphic I sent you are hilarious!)

Lastly, to our UK-based readers, don't forget about George's signing at Eason's and post-signing meet up at McHugh's Pub on Tuesday evening. For the lucky few that are going, be sure to be armed with a camera and a good memory! See you tomorrow folks!

Day 8: Filming continues

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:47:00 +0000

As expected, the reports have slowed down considerably now that the production has moved back to Northern Ireland. Jamie Campbell Bower tweeted that he had an early night last night, which suggests to me that they are finished filming the prologue. A day and a half of filming seems about right for that relatively short scene. Will have to keep an eye on his Twitter and see if he talks about leaving Belfast.

In other news, Norri, a member of the German medieval band Corvus Corax, posted over at the Westeros forums confirming their involvement in the pilot. He mentioned that they played new versions of two of their songs, Skudrinka and Ballade de Mercy. He also mentioned that they had their costumes and hair done in a style that would fit with the look of the show.

Speaking of costumes, Rimshot checks in with this exciting report from his costume fitting yesterday:

Had my costume fitting yesterday.

As I sat there I kept thinking 'my friends at WIC would love this!'.

As I mentioned before, I'm a 'Stark Servant' (not Start! That's what happens when you answer the phone still half-asleep!).

To tell you the truth, I had written a long piece describing my costume and several of the others I had seen, including guards and Jaime's armour. I saw loads yesterday and I'm dying to tell you guys but I would be letting down my agency and betraying the trust they have in me.

Guys, I'm sorry as I know you are hungry for any bit of info but it would be wrong of me and I want to keep working in this business. Carla and Extras NI have been very good to me and, if GOT is picked up, we could have years of work to look forward to.

You will see what I saw soon enough but I will say this. I have worked on loads of films and worn loads of costumes and those I saw yesterday were some of the highest quality I have ever seen (wait till you see the armour!) I can't wait to get my servant's costume back on and to step into the world of GOT.

As always, keep it here for any updates.

UPDATE: Here is what is reported to be a photo of a Clanranald member dressed as a Baratheon guard from Louie Pastore's LiveJournal.

[photo removed]

Day 6: Filming the prologue

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:08:00 +0000

I have heard via a reliable source that they are filming the prologue today somewhere in Northern Ireland. This seems to be supported by the fact that Jamie Campbell Bower tweeted about waking up early this morning (about 5 AM Belfast time). Presumably he was up this early because he needed to travel from Belfast to wherever the shoot will be. Julia Frey also had an early morning tweet.

With the knowledge that they are shooting the prologue outdoors in Northern Ireland, I wonder what this means about having snow in the scene. A quick check of the typical NI climate in late Oct reveals that snow is very rare. Will they use fake snow? Or perhaps they just will forgo having snow in the scene altogether?

In addition to today's location shoot, we've heard from two extras that have been called to another outdoor location. WiC regular Rimshot has been called to be a 'Stark servant' for a location shoot on Nov. 4th. Also Westeros forum poster Ace Jones has gotten the call to be a 'Baratheon guard' while they film at a castle on Nov 5th. It seems likely that these two days of filming will probably occur at the same location. With (at least) one of the days of filming taking place at a castle and requiring Baratheon guards, it most likely means they will be filming the King's arrival scene.

Either way, it looks like the Paint Hall is going to be used much less than people originally thought. From the looks of it, only interiors will be shot on a set in the Paint Hall. All the exterior scenes have, so far, been shot outside.

I don't expect there to be many reports today, but if there are, I will update this post.

UPDATE: I've heard a report that the filming today is happening in Tollymore Forest Park. Tollymore looks to be a relatively short drive from Belfast, so the location seems to make sense.

Day 5: No filming today

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:55:00 +0000

I had heard that there was to be no filming today and it was strictly a day for transporting cast, crew and equipment. Well GRRM has confirmed that fact in his most recent Not A Blog post. He also shares some other exciting news, particularly for those planning to go to the Belfast meet-and-greet:

The Scottish filming is done, and cast and crew are packing up today for the big move to Belfast and its Paint Hall, where the shoot will resume. So far, so good.

Parris and I are moving on as well. She'll be headed over to Ireland tomorrow to spend Samhaim with friends, while I linger here in Scotland a few more days to visit with Lisa Tuttle. We converge again in Belfast in November. Today we swung by the HarperCollins warehouse outside Glasgow, where I signed five hundred hardcovers of SONGS OF THE DYING EARTH. Ask for one at your favorite UK bookstore, they will be going all over the country.

Things are shaping up for the signing at Eason's in Belfast. Last night after the filming wrapped we stayed up late drinking with the cast, and I think we convinced a number of them to join us at Eason's. Should be a hoot and a half, assuming they don't come to their senses in the cold grey light of morning. I told them my readers were essentially harmless. Hah.

The cast is sensational, by the way.

Winter Is Coming: I've also heard that filming will resume tomorrow where they plan to shoot the prologue at an undisclosed location in Northern Ireland. I assume that by the time George makes it back to Belfast they will be shooting some of the indoor scenes inside the Paint Hall.

Great to hear that the fans snooping around Doune Castle these last few days haven't completely scared off the cast. I kid, I kid. From all reports, it sounds like the fans were very well behaved and all the cast and crew was quite friendly. Will be very cool if some of them come out to the signing and/or meet afterward to interact with the fans. I'm so jealous of all of you that are going to be there. Don't forget to drop the name of my site here if any of the cast feels like doing an interview later on down the road!

Award-winning VFX supervisor working on pilot

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Robert Stromberg, an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated visual effects designer, has been more or less confirmed to be working on the Game of Thrones pilot in the capacity of visual effects supervisor. This confirmation came via a series of Julia Frey (VFX producer) tweets, in which she mentioned she was sitting down for dinner with Robert in Belfast and responded to a question from Ran about whether he was working on Thrones by saying it would be an "extreme coincidence" for them to be in the same city together.

Winter Is Coming: Stromberg, most recently, was production designer on James Cameron's Avatar and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Adding his experience and expertise to the project is another feather in the cap for the producers. So what does this mean for the direction of the show? Brude echoes my sentiments and sums it up quite nicely over at the Westeros forums.

Stromberg is a FX guy, he's been doing FX work in various roles at the highest level since 1991 starting as a Matte Artist and moving on eventually to FX Supervisor and Designer. He has recently graduated to full blown Production Designer, though he has done so serving under two directors who are themselves first rate artists/designers: James Cameron and Tim Burton. Not only that, he is doing so on what are probably going to be these two directors' most FX laden productions to date with Avatar and Alice in Wonderland. Avatar, which I think has some sort of FX in probably 90% to 95% of the shots in the film, and much of the film being completely rendered and Alice looks from the photos seen so far to be largely FX throughout, too. Needless to say, it doesn't get any bigger!

I'm certain this show will have far, far less SFX than these two movies, but if you are getting an FX guy with his pedigree to be your FX supervisor, I think it's being done for a specific reason, and that is you plan to have rather a lot of FX, at least for a TV show. I'm guessing rendered backdrops and the like might be fairly common on this show and perhaps they do expect, come second season, to do a pretty large scale Siege of King's Landing. If that's the plan, this is the guy to get to do it.

UPDATE: In the comments Mauberly pointed us to an Irish Film and Television network article that states that Sean Bobbitt is the director of photography on the pilot. Bobbitt recently was nominated for an Emmy for his DP work on BBC's Sense & Sensibility.

Day 4: Filming at Doune Castle

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:58:00 +0000

Today, according to reports, will be the last day of filming at Doune Castle for most of the principal cast. Officially, the last day they have the castle reserved for filming is the 30th, so I'm not sure if that means they have a few days for take down or they will be filming second unit type stuff until then. Either way, most of the main cast (Bean, Headey, Ehle) will be completed filming at Doune Castle today.

Sounds like they had a late night last night. According to the stand-in for Ehle and Headey, filming didn't wrap until close to midnight. From the reports of the great hall being done up for the feast as well as the amount of extras that were present yesterday, I'm going to guess that they were filming the feast scenes last night.

Meanwhile, Jamie Campbell Bower has tweeted that he is on his way to Belfast. I am assuming this means they will be filming the prologue in the Paint Hall and not in the highlands of Scotland as some had speculated.

As usual, keep it here for updates throughout the day.

UPDATE: Commenter grimherald checks in with a set report:

The main courtyard is covered in mud and there seemed to be a cart there and some large iron braziers dotted about. They were filming in the great hall, so access there was restricted but we managed to see a room where all the food/props were stored. Some woman was running about asking where the wineskins were and there was a silver banner with a bird on it with the name Corvus Corax. Also saw the Lannister banner which had a crimson background with a roaring lion's head. Bumped into a couple of extras on the way out who were in costume, just peasants by the looks of them. Sadly, didn't get to see any of the main cast but the fact that I was standing in Winterfell made my day.

UPDATE: Received this photo of the courtyard set from an anonymous emailer. I believe this is the first photo of an actual Game of Thrones set, not just a photo of crew setting up. Oh and I can definitely see this being the scene of the Jon/Tyrion encounter.

UPDATE: A poster over at the Westeros forums claims to have seen one minute of footage during his trip to Doune Castle:

just as a quick note, i went to over to scotland and doune castle today, saw them editing the show.... looked FREAKING AWESOME!!!!

im not kidding, i honestly don't believe they could've done a better job with the roughly 1min of footage i saw on their screens.

Day 3: Filming at Doune Castle

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:09:00 +0000

Today is officially the third day of filming. Although, from the reports we've been getting, it is likely the first day they will actually be filming. It sounded like the last couple days consisted of mostly rehearsals and equipment set up. Today all the main cast will be present, including Sean Bean.

No set reports or photos yet. However, GRRM checked in from Scotland this morning with a blog post in which he discusses meeting some of the cast members.

I've met Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner (and their charming moms). They're terrific, bright and beautiful and bursting with enthusiasm, excited to be a part of this.

And now I'm having pangs of guilt about all the horrors that they're going to have to go through in the months and years to come, thanks to me.

I'm going to have to rewrite the books so only nice things happen to Arya and Sansa. Might change the story some.

Also ran into Ron Donachie, Jennfier Ehle, and Kit Harington, and all of them were great The rest of the cast is around here somewhere too, but we haven't bumped into them yet. But I expect we'll meet them all today on set.

In addition, we've gotten some info regarding today's shoot from a stand-in for Lena Headey and Jennifer Ehle. Props to Ran from Westeros for the find. Anyway, this stand-in, MissKatiana2, has tweeted that she will be working on Monday and Tuesday. And that Sean Bean, Jennifer Ehle and Lena Headey will be there as well. She also described a scene that she was blocking the other day:

on 'action' - i had to come out of the castle 'cellar' & go up the castle steps with my 'hand maiden' behind me carryin.. the train of my dress, did that twice & then the real actress did it!

UPDATE: Commenter Mauberly points us to an article in The Press and Journal regarding the filming at Doune Castle. No new info here, but it is nice to see more press about the show.

UPDATE: Got a detailed report from an anonymous source who claims they were at the filming today. Can't be sure as to the validity of this report, but here is a summary of what they had to say (they asked to not be quoted directly).

-The entire cast is there, along with McCarthy, Benioff, Weiss and GRRM.
-Mark Addy is in a wig and beard.
-Ehle is present and was apparently nursing a baby (has she had a baby recently?).
-The wolf pups are there.
-The great hall is set up for the feast. All the food is real and looks delicious. A ton of effort has been put into even the smallest detail. They apparently have a popular German medieval band there playing drums and bagpipes.
-Dinklage's performances have been amazing and quite funny.
-Over 100 extras in full costume. Costumes look beautiful.

UPDATE: A poster by the name Crakehall is posting about his set visit over on the Westeros forums. Sounds like he might be the one that sent me the report above since he is reiterating the info present in the email. But he has offered up one extra tidbit over there: that GRRM did his cameo appearance today.

UPDATE: Here's photographic proof that Crakehall was there (you can see GRRM and Parris in the center of the photo).

UPDATE: More from Crakehall:

I did see the banners, however, and they are awesome, so don't you worry In fact, the great hall gave me the biggest 'dork' moment of my trip. The woman who was taking me through laughed when I started pointing out the houses.

UPDATE: Great report from JacMac30 over at the Westeros forums:

Photos weren't allowed and the two security people John (I think) and blonde haired raccoon hat wearing lady said they were getting stick for the existing photos up on the net so no photos from me. I'd like to repeat how lovely they were btw, really nice and friendly.

People I saw:

Mark Addy, wearing black brocade. Saw him trying the crown on too while a crew member was taking what I presume were continuity shots. Beard long but not too busy, black with grey.

Ron Donachie - all I can remember is he had long grey whiskers on his cheeks. I was so take with them that apparently I missed Kit Harrington next to him.

Jennifer Ehle, couldn't see her outfit. She was wandering outside the castle with her baby. Her husband and son turned up later. Hair quite ginger (long wig unless her hair is very long these days). More ginger than I expected. Not what I'd call auburn but then it may look different under studio lights and on camera. It was tied back in multiple plaits.

Jack Gleeson, wearing long crimson brocade coat. Nearly bumped into him on the way out. He looks great as Joffrey.

Think I saw the woman who will be playing Septa Mordane among the extras. There were lots of Lannister and Winterfell soldiers, and Winterfell staff. Looking really great. Winterfell staff were in grey/blue outfits while the Lannister red was more subdued than I expected but still looking great.

Rory McCann - by this point I was a bit giddy at being so close to the following so details are lacking. He has the right side of his face done up but I can't remember the details. Wearing black (or dark brown) and red I believe.

Sean Bean - is Ned! Longish hair, close beard. Wearing a blue/grey under a dark leather coat.

Peter Dinklage - blonde shaggy hair. Think he was wearing a red velvet outfit. I did wish him luck as he was being called to set. (As they all were).

The Winterfell folk trouped past. - Richard Madden, redder hair than I expected but looking good. Can't remember much of Alfie Allen, I was very close to them at this point that I couldn't see their clothing easily. Sophie Turner, wearing the same blue/grey colour as Sean I think. Don't think Maisie and Isaac were on set today. Could be wrong.

Finally while I was waiting to get into a the one and only toilet...who should come out but Jaime Lannister! Poor Nikolaj, I laughed inanely! Really wasn't expecting him to come out! He was wearing a light blue and light brown leather over coat. I was surprised it wasn't crimson. Poor guy must have been wondering why I was laughing at him coming out of the toilet! Tall, blonde and a lurvely smile! Definitely Jaime!

Also spoke to Tom McCarthy and wished him the best for the film. He seemed surprised and chuffed that a fan of the books was there. Oh and I saw DnD from afar.

I was really impressed how everyone just seemed to bring the books to life in front of me. I hadn't expected that. Can't wait to see this on the small screen!

Quick 'hello' to transport guy I chatted to in the castle and a final thanks to go to Mo Mr. Driver who ended up giving me a lift back to the car park instead of having to wait on the bus. He enjoyed hearing what the filming was all about. Said he learnt more in those 2 minutes than he had all weekend

Anyway, that's the long giddy story boiled down. Really pleased that I took the day off work now!

Filming continues tomorrow but that will be them done at Doune. Regards the CGI debate, from what I saw outside I don't think they'll be shooting the outside of the castle. There's too much filming rig about. The mats etc out the front were to attempt to stop the grass turning to mud. Historic Scotland insisted the big trucks are not allowed to drive onto the grass to turn etc (info from Mr. Transport). They've covered the grass in the court yard with loads of sand.

Think that's it....

Jackie - happy to answer questions if I can. Oh..Mark Addy...no, don't think there were lifts but then I think Robert sits down for the whole of the feast so maybe he had a cushion. He is bigger than Sean Bean though (he was um...shorter than expected

UPDATE: Jackie (aka JacMac30) has responded to a few questions here and over at the Westeros forums. Here is what she said:

I was attempting to reply regards the authenticity of the costumes etc. I can't say I'm an expert on medieval costumes but they seemed close to me, esp the staff and soldiers. I didn't see any armor as the soldiers were dressed for the feast. The colours were quite muted and the fabric is similar to that seen in Merlin (I stress fabric). I don't mind Merlin but I know it's a bad word around here. The Lannister crimson/red was darker than Uthors.

Sean was wearing a leather coat to the knees with scroll work inlay (or maybe another pattern, I didn't like to stare). Quite dark colours.

Nikolaj was also wearing a knee length leather coat and as stated earlier, not red/crimson but a light greyish colour I think (again I was embarrassed at the time for having just laughed at him coming out of the toilet!). I think there was cream too.

Didn't really see the Stark's attire as I was too close to them.

Rory was in dark colour but I think he also had read on. He is significantly taller than Sean Bean and a similar height to Nikolaj.

Mark Addy's looked very Royal and rich.

I think Crakehall might be right and that we saw the back of Lena as she was being helped up the stairs to the feast hall. If so, then her outfit was very intricate and regal. Quite an ellaborate head dress.

The house hold staff were wearing various styles. The kitchen staff had head scarfs and leather like aprons wrapped around their waists. Some wore long tabards over trousers, some had shorter tabards (think they were the servers at the feast).

Other extras looked like they could be other lords of the north, they work skins on their shoulders or big leather collars. There was someone with a shaved head and looked quite savage. I think Septa Mordaine was there too.

As for the banner I saw, I should have stated it wasn't in the main hall at the time it was in the preparation area. I never saw the main hall.

Responding to Ran regards external shots. Unless they took some shots before they put the scafolding up (to block the light from the halls windows, not for cameras) then I don't see them filming wide shots of the outside. I wasn't there for the King's arrival so don't know if that was shot from outside. I doubt it as there was no set put up around the Historic Scotland visitors shop which is in the gate way.

I'm not there today. Figured yesterday couldn't be topped and I really should get some work done, talking of which.... I am smiling a lot today though.

Jackie. - ps. I did boo quitely when the Lannister guards men were called to the main hall

.....................

To answer some of your questions:
1) the people on the left are indeed in costume but some were wearing 'normal' coats over the top. I did see them reading lines at one stage. My impression is the woman (dark hair)and RAF style coat might be a Stark lady in waiting. The guy with the leather looking coat might be a steward not sure.

2) the puppy was about knee high and quite big. Not a newly born pup. He/she was being trained on the grass just to the left of pathway seen in the photo. Visually perhaps not intimidating to the castle dogs but I'm not sure they'd be filming that or not. Looked like it was being trained to sit and pay attention ;)

3) Sean's hair was dark but not black. More a dark grey.

Think that's it...

Jackie - still smiling ;)

Filming at Doune Castle

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:00:00 +0000

It looks like Doune Castle will be the location where the first scenes of Game of Thrones will be put to film. According to this report from the BBC, they will be shooting there over the weekend. The report mentions that they will be filming in the courtyard.

This matches the reports coming from Louie Pastore and the other members of the Clanranald Trust of Scotland who have stated they will be joining the filming on Monday. Ran over at Westeros was able to confirm that they won't be doing much fighting and will essentially be extras. Guards in the background of what I guess will be the royal parties arrival to Winterfell and/or the combat training scene.

It appears that the courtyard may not be the only part of Doune Castle they will be using though. According to the guy who posted the above pic, there were quite a few props being brought into the castle for the show. The list included stacks of furniture and faux dead deers and pigs. Ran speculates they may be using the Great Hall to film the feast at Winterfell.

UPDATE: Looks like GRRM has arrived in Scotland as well. My guess is he will be on set for the first day of filming.

UPDATE: First set photos have come in via Ran's Twitter. You can't see much, but at least it is proof they are actually doing this thing! Click to enlarge. Even bigger versions can be found here.

UPDATE: Bumping this post to the top since we keep getting more reports. First, a tweet from a Sean Bean fan who was at Doune Castle today, indicates that Bean won't be on set until next week. Another set report comes from over at the Westeros forums. Here is what this poster has to say:

Popped in to Doune. Was rather cool - the Winterfell great hall looks awesome. Peter Dinklage was around, didn't recognise anyone else, though apparently Ghost was there yesterday..

Filming is happening in the courtyard, the walls, a kitchen scene and the great hall.

UPDATE: Another report from another poster over at Westeros.

I went down to Doune as well - I can also confirm that filming was happening on the walls. The castle looked awesome - but anything filmed today is going to be wet... it rained all day today.

Filming is going on at Doune until the 30th. But that might include breaking down the sets.

UPDATE: The above Westeros poster, Loras, has uploaded two pics he was able to snap at Doune Castle today. The second one is a little hard to make out, it is a picture of the equipment in the courtyard glimpsed through a window in the outer wall. He has this to add:

I forgot about the box on the front of the castle (in my pic) - there is one on the other side of the castle too. I think that they are being used by camera men. The hall at Doune is big but not that big, by putting the camera nests exterior to the castle they can make the hall seem bigger and the crew can take up less room.

UPDATE: Ran has tweeted that he has heard through "a little bird" that Lena Headey was on set today with dyed blonde hair and looking "beautiful."

UPDATE: Last update on this post. This report comes again from Westeros poster needle.

His (Dinklage's) hair was blonde and longish, scruffy looking, very much as I imagine Tyrion. He wasn't in make up or costume or anything - didn't see anyone in costume really. He was hanging about outside the castle a fair bit.

Just to echo Loras, staff at the castle were lovely and friendly. It wasn't shut off to tourists today which is how we got in (not anything to do with being a 'long term aquaintance' of GRRM, Ran!). Just luck we arrived when there wasn't too much filming going on so we could wander around. Lots of film vans, and buzz about the place.

UPDATE: Ok last update, for real this time. A nice detailed report courtesy of Westeros forum poster, grantsensei.

Okay, so I popped in to Doune in mid-afternoon yesterday (24th). As has been said before, the staff were really courteous.
Dinklage was in the courtyard when I arrived, at that point we were being asked not to loiter so I went upstairs, turned a corner... and found myself in the great hall in Winterfell!
It was all set up for the feast, with tapestries on the wall and enough seating for about 50. It looked really cool - though as has been mentioned before in this thread, a lot smaller than I'd imagined. Went back down (after phoning my mates from Winterfell!) just before they were rehearsing a scene with Ghost - a very cute(!) white wolf puppy. I, along with the rest of the public were ushered away while they did the rehearsal, so can't tell you anything about that.
Rehearsal must have ended then, because Dinklage left the set, chatting to (I think) Ron Donnachie (Rodrick Cassel). I think the glum looking (it was really cold and wet this weekend!) youth following behind in a hoody was Kit Harrington (Jon Snow).

Jason Momoa talks about Thrones

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Jason Momoa had a panel today at Armageddon Expo in New Zealand. During the panel he spoke of his role as Khal Drogo in the Game of Thrones pilot. Le Saboteur from the Westeros forums checks in with a report.

Okay, Jason Momoa panel was today, he is such a cool guy. Incredibly charismatic and funny for someone who's going to be playing Drogo. Naturally there was a LOT of Stargate fans so I didn't get time to ask more than ONE question. I got it on video (though he was like OH NO YOU ARE NOT VIDEOING THIS HBO WILL KILL ME so I dropped the camera and pointed it at my leg for a while, then went back to shooting because I'm cool like that), but won't be uploading it 'til later. Here's the basics.

- He has read Game of Thrones but no more of the series. He said it's amazing.
- He thinks Khal Drogo is one bad mofo, and he's a little intimidated by all the fighting and riding he'll be doing (he seems pretty confident it'll get picked up, it seems)
- He thinks he got the gig by doing the haka. He said it scared the shit out of the casting directors, and he tried to act as intimidating as he could, looking at them like "you gon' die", or something similar. He joked that they gave him the job to get the hell out of the building. Apparently there were people in the building wondering what was going on. The haka he performed was the one he did at his cousins funeral, and he wouldn't perform the whole thing for us, he considers it pretty personal.
- The scene he said he's most looking forward to doing is; "where some one tries to kill my wife".

I can't re-watch the video right now (currently downloading video to the computer) so I can't elaborate on what scene he was talking about, I was concentrating on keeping the camera still-ish so was only half hearing what he was saying. Hopefully should be able to upload it within the next few days.

He seems pretty excited about it! Like I said, he's very captivating (beyond his ridiculously good looking exterior), and I'm sure his scenes will be good. He's very tall, but not a tank of a guy. When he was stalking around the stage, talking about his audition, I definitely 'whoa'd.

And while we wait for Le Saboteur to upload video of his panel today, there are two videos (via Ran's Twitter) from his initial appearance at the Armageddon Expo in Melbourne where he first announced his involvement in the project. You can check them out here and here.

[Credit to Danuška for the above photo. Check out her blog for more photos of the expo.]

Benioff & Weiss thank the fans

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:36:00 +0000

David and Dan checked in over at the Westeros forums to thank the fans for all their help and support in the casting process. They also tease a possible George R. R. Martin cameo.

This is just to say thank you, from both of us, for all the excellent casting suggestions posted on the board. We hope you like the group we've assembled. Seeing them together for the first time was surreal: watching the Stark children whispering in the corner; seeing Jaime and Tyrion gossiping at the bar; staring up at the Hound as he loomed over the crowd...

Gods be good, we'll get to do this again soon. Littlefinger, Renly, Varys, Ilyn Payne-- all great roles in need of great actors. But we've got a lot of work before we get there. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

And now to figure out George's Stan Lee moment...

Valar morghulis,
D&D

Winter Is Coming: The cast for this project was about as close to perfection as one could have hoped. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect when David & Dan first asked for fan suggestions. A part of me expected them to check in once or twice and then get wrapped up in pre-production for the pilot and not really take into account the fans' choices. But to their credit not only did they listen to the fans, they remained active in the community.

Many of the names among the cast were first mentioned over at Westeros (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jennifer Ehle, and Harry Lloyd to name a few). And a number of them were actually the fans' top choice (Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Ian McNeice and Jason Momoa in particular). I think the amount of input and interaction amongst the fans' and the shows creators here is pretty impressive. And all this before it is even officially a series. David & Dan are to be commended for helping foster this relationship. So hats off to them for sticking to their word and delivering a great, great cast!

Also, a cameo for George would be awesome. Who should he appear as? I'm thinking seeing him at the feast in Winterfell or maybe at Illyrio's mansion would work.

More Game of Thrones press

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:25:00 +0000

With the start of filming closing in (only two more days!), the buzz for the series continues to build in the main stream press. First, TIME television critic James Poniewozik weighs in with his thoughts on the project and the potential for a series pickup. I would categorize his feelings as "cautiously optimistic."

Game of Thrones—the HBO pilot based on George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels—is getting ready to shoot next week in Northern Ireland and has cemented its cast. If you're not familiar with the show, you have a good excuse, since it does not yet exist and there's still no guarantee that it ever will.

Still, as James Hibberd notes at The Hollywood Reporter, HBO does not generally like to shoot (presumably) expensive pilots like this for nothing. I'm basing this on no inside information, mind you, but just considering HBO's history, I would guess that the pilot would have to pretty badly screw the direwolf, as it were, not to get a shot at the air.

There is also a great article from Nicole LaPorte over at The Daily Beast in which she goes into detail regarding the online buzz surrounding the pilot. In particular she focuses on this here blog quite a bit and the ever-present Paul Gude even gets quoted in the article.

Martin is himself an avid blogger, and he regularly feeds his followers casting news in the form of mysterious clues that Thrones fans attack like starving piranhas, and generally figure out in no time.

One of the latest hints (“The gray man once had groupies. Yes, girls. Who?”) was posted on the winter-is-coming website at 7:43 p.m. By 8:04, it had been cracked.

Explaining the methodology, Paul Gude, currently ranked as the site’s No. 1 commenter, told The Daily Beast:

“‘The grey man once had groupies’ was a reference to Luwin, who is described in the book as being a grey-haired man with grey eyes. Legion—another commenter—figured out that Donald Sumpter was in a film called Groupie Girl, and he was also in a couple episodes of Doctor. Who.”

HBO has yet to confirm Sumpter being cast. Nonetheless, Gude said confidently, “We think we’ve solved it.”

Winter Is Coming: I am loving all the attention this project is attracting. The series pick up seems like almost a foregone conclusion at this point, but I really don't want to get a head of myself. Poniewozik does make a point in the comments of his article that HBO has gone so far as to filming an entire season of a series before deciding not to air it. So just because there is a lot of buzz and they are spending a lot of money on the pilot does not guarantee a series pickup. But things are looking good.

Also, great job by Paul Gude representing the WiC community in that Daily Beast article. Nice to see you guys getting some much deserved love for your ability to decipher GRRM's clues. Hopefully a series pick up is around the corner, so we can flex our clue cracking muscles once again!

HBO confirms remainder of cast

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:50:00 +0000

HBO has confirmed the casting of the remainder of the main cast for the Game of Thrones pilot. Once again, this confirmation comes via Mo Ryan of the Chicago Tribune. It should come as no surprise that we were spot on in all our guesses.

Another day, another round of "Game of Thrones" casting.
Over the weekend, as I noted in this story, news emerged that "Stargate Atlantis" actor Jason Momoa has been cast as horse lord Khal Drogo in the epic saga "Game of Thrones." "GoT" began filming its pilot in Northern Ireland this week (other locations include Scotland and Morocco).
HBO confirmed the casting for several other roles in the drama today:
-Jamie Campbell-Bower (of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon") as Waymar Royce
-Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark
-Richard Ridings as Gared
-Ron Donachie as Ser Rodrik Cassel
-Donald Sumpter as Maester Luwin
-Ian McNeice as Ilyrio Mopatis

Winter Is Coming: Nice work to all who puzzled these out. Most of them were figured out so long ago I don't remember who got what, but good job to all! Now to get to work on the cast list page...

UPDATE: Jay Tomio at BSCreview also got word from HBO of the confirmations. He also added Aimee Richardson as being confirmed by HBO to be playing Myrcella.

UPDATE: George R. R. Martin has posted his confirmations of the castings for Rodrik, Luwin and the three prologue characters.

UPDATE: He has added confirmation postings for Bran/Benjen, Ros/Illyrio, and Drogo.

Esme Bianco interview

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:12:00 +0000

A new interview with Esme Bianco has been posted to her fan page on Facebook. In it she answers a number of questions regarding the Game of Thrones pilot.

How did you hear about Game of Thrones pilot?

My agent called and told me about the part so as soon as I got home I was straight on Google to find out more.

What interested you in the project?

Well for starters it’s an HBO production, which is really exciting as I love their shows – they are always so creative and love to push the boundaries of drama, and it’s a great opportunity for me to work with some incredibly talented people on a high profile project.

What was the audition like?

I had three auditions, all of which I actually really enjoyed. The casting directors were lovely, very friendly, and made it as relaxed as possible. Auditions are always pretty scary though.

How did you find out you got the role?

I got a very excitable call from my agent. I was jumping up and down whilst she was trying to talk to me.

Your character isn't in the original novel (A Game of Thrones). Have you read the book? Are you planning on reading the book?

I just bought a copy and plan to start it as soon as I can!

Fans are excited for when they'll get a chance to see your scenes. Have they given you any indication if the pilot will become episode one if the series is picked up, or if you'll have to come back and re-shoot?

I haven’t been given an indication so I couldn’t say, but I certainly don’t think it’s out of the realms of possibility!

Is the pronunciation "Roz," "Rose," or "Ross" ...?

It’s pronounced ‘Roz’

Did you have a chance to read through your scene with Coster-Waldau and Dinklage?

I certainly did, the read through was with pretty much the full cast. Even though it was just a read through, the script instantly started to come alive, and it was amazing to see so many talented actors around one table. We were all buzzing afterwards!

Winter Is Coming: Nice work Paul Gude on getting the interview! Some good stuff in there. Including the fact that the full cast was present at the table read. It sounds like the buzz for this project has even infected the actors now! Can't wait to hear more from this production as filming gets ever closer.

Myrcella cast, may be pilot only though

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:04:00 +0000

According to the Twitter account of Northern Irish golfer John Richardson, his daughter Aimee has been cast as Myrcella in the Game of Thrones pilot. You can see her in a video posted on Richardson's official website at about the 2 minute mark.

It sounds like the actors playing Myrcella and other "featured extra" roles may only be around for the pilot though. Over at Westeros we received a report from a fan at ValleyCon at which GRRM mentioned the possibility of all these roles being recast if this goes to series.

He mentioned that there are a lot of people in the pilot that have not been cast, and won't be cast for the pilot. The example he gave was Tommen. Tommen is in the Pilot, but doesn't have any lines. So he is played by an extra. If the show gets picked up, he will need to be cast and played by a "real" actor. So the Tommen in the pilot will not be the Tommen in the series. They might go back and reshoot the Tommen scene, or they might not. But the same thing applies to a lot of the Winterfell minor characters that we see but don't hear. And with so many, it will not be possible to reshoot all of the scenes. Sharp eyes might catch this. Most people won't.

Winter Is Coming: Nice to see an actual blonde cast for once. Aimee does seem a bit older than the pilot script originally indicated Myrcella would be (8 years old). Maybe they've decided to age up the royal kids after all? Would make sense as I still think it would be quite ridiculous having a 13 year old Joffrey acting physically superior to a clearly much older and larger 18 year old Robb. Of course, Joff is pretty full of himself.

As to recasting, that was inevitable. I'm hoping they don't make it too prevalent or noticeable. On the other hand, I'd rather they not take a ton of time reshooting stuff so they can get right into filming the remainder of the season, if it gets to that point. The sooner we get to see the end result, the better. And if it means a completely different Tommen from episode 1 to episode 2, well, I'm sure I'll be able to deal with it.

The Live Feed talks Thrones

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:56:00 +0000

James Hibberd from The Hollywood Reporter has posted the full cast list for Game of Thrones on his blog, The Live Feed. Most interesting is his comment on the prevalent buzz surrounding the show and his take on the possibilities of a series pick up.

Has any recent TV show generated more online excitement -- when its not even a TV show yet?
HBO starts shooting its adaptation of George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones" as a pilot next week in Ireland, with additional locations in other countries. Though HBO has plenty of competing projects in development, this is the sort of sprawling and expensive production networks don't typically like to pilot unless they're pretty confident they're also going to series.

Winter Is Coming: Glad to see another prominent TV critic picking up on the amount of buzz and helping to promote the show in the process. With the cast finalized (would be nice to get official confirmation for our guesses though) and filming less than a week away I expect the buzz to reach a fever pitch.

Jason Momoa as Drogo!

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:16:00 +0000

According to some reports, it looks like Jason Momoa may have been cast as Drogo. Supposedly the actor himself announced it at Armageddon Expo in Melbourne, Australia. Here is a report from someone who was at the convention.

I'm @abitliketrying on twitter and was sitting in the front row when Jason Momoa announced it, and was one of the first to tweet. It was Armageddon in Melbourne, Australia.

He just got the call the other day and he said it hadn't been announced. He'll be filming in Morocco and doesn't like horses, so isn't looking forward to the horseback scenes. He also said that it'll be his first nude scene and first sex scene.

He went on to say that Game of Thrones was one of the best series that he'd read, and everyone should read it. Believe me, few enough of us cheered when he first said it.

He also said when he went in for the audition he did a haka, as he thought it would be perfect for Drogo.

Cheers!
Dee

Winter Is Coming: Great news, assuming it is true. We'll have to wait for official confirmation, but it seems like this is the real deal. Another role filled with one of the fans' top choices. To those that don't know, a haka is a traditional maori dance. Great to hear he's read and is a fan of the books as well! Also that means all the major roles are cast and ready to go for filming which begins in exactly one week!

UPDATE: HBO has confirmed the casting via both Mo Ryan of the Chicago Tribune and Jay Tomio at BSC Review.

Producer provides glimpse of possible filming locales

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:48:00 +0000

A great find by Ran over at Westeros has led to this visual effects producer's blog. It looks as if Julia Frey (HA!) will be working as the VFX producer on the Game of Thrones pilot and in her blog she chronicles the location scouting trips she went on to Belfast, Morocco and Scotland. Be sure to browse through the posts as there are a lot of great pics. It looks like Benioff even makes an appearance in one of them!

As well as the great pics, I was able to glean some interesting info from the posts. One, it looks like they will be filming the Dany scenes in mid-November. (Probably why they are willing to take their time finding the right Drogo.) Two, they will be using a modified portion of a large Kingdom of Heaven set during their Morocco filming. Three, they scouted a Moroccan oasis, I'm assuming this will be used for the Dany/Drogo wedding night scene. Four, they will be filming at Doune Castle in Scotland.

I'll be sure to keep tabs on her blog and Twitter account. Hopefully she will continue to provide great pictures and info as the filming gets underway.

Meet GRRM and (maybe) cast and crew

noreply@blogger.com (WinterIsComing) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:37:00 +0000

George R. R. Martin has made plans to head to Belfast and visit the Paint Hall for the filming of the pilot the first week in November. He also plans to have a book signing while in the city and afterwards a meet-and-greet. There is a possibility that some of the cast and crew may attend this post-signing get together. If anyone wishes to attend either the signing or the moot, here are the details.

Book Signing
November 3: 1:00PM

Eason & Son, Ltd.
20 Donegall Place,
Belfast, Belfast, BT1 5BA
028-9023-5070

Brotherhood without Banners Moot
November 3: 6pm to 1am

McHugh's
29-31 Queens Square
Belfast, BT1 3FG

If you plan to attend the moot, please visit this thread over at Westeros and RSVP by week's end. If you do go, be sure to take pictures and report back here with your experiences, especially if you see any of the cast or crew!