With the release of Game of Thrones in IMAX beginning in many theaters on Thursday, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss interviewed with Entertainment Weekly to share their surprising reactions to episodes they’ve watched “hundreds of times.”
Check out the video below the cut!
I won’t go into the detail of writing out select partial quotes shown in the video you are going to watch anyway, but “immersive and superior” sound damn fine to me.
Apparently, the conversion process to IMAX looks incredible and the sound may be even more phenomenal.
With many theaters selling out in advance, it is somewhat concerning that the end game may potentially end up being on the big screen.
My message to HBO and D&D would be this: give me the whole series on the TV at the house first, because it obviously won’t keep any of us from going to see the repeat at the MAX.
When are you going? We’re doing our best to coordinate theater parties here. It’s your chance to share a special Game of Thrones moment (and Junior Mints) with a complete stranger.
Looking Forward, The Dany Edition is coming up soon, so stay tuned. See you guys at the movies!
Oz is on Twitter here.
Any spoiler discussion, including comments about what may or may not beon someone’s shirt,
need to be 100% covered with spoiler coding.
Sue the Fury,
hahaha
Sue the Fury,
Huh?
Sue the Fury,
Hey, did you know that by combining Raspberries and Lemons you can make a really good Jelly?
David’s a mastertroll.
Colty,
Oh boy, this thread will be heavy on the spoiler-code.
On a side note, I had commented before that the “Daynites” (as we used to call them a long time ago) seemed to be extinct. However, I recently have gotten involved with Quorus for professional reasons: and as a side-effect, I have discovered that they are a vocal minority!
What’s sort of goofy is that, to them
In other words, nothing has changed in 15 years! 🙂
There’s no question that GoT will become a movie franchise after the HBO series…
I doubt D&D or any currant cast members will have anything to do with it though, by then they all will really want to move on.
I’m thinking Disney buys it… Yeah yeah I know what you’re going to say… It’ll be rated r and Disney doesn’t do that but they do, just not under the “Disney” movie banner.
I’m a nerd and a geek and when Disney bought out Marvel I was pissed but I must admit they are doing an amazing job with the MCU. They bought out Marvel and they stated something like “We have the princess market corner and wanted to expand to the superhero market to attract more of a male audience”
They also bought Star Wars…
Disney seems to have a much more active and smarter franchise eye…
I really hope they buy the movie rights to GoT and put into power a great producer to make it all work like Kevin Feige does for the MCU.
Anyway I’m so excited to go see this in IMAX!
If GoT concluded on the big screen in either a two parter or trilogy, this entails the crew having to commit for perhaps three years, with work starting right after season seven ends. Then there will be new contracts for the remaining actors, which means of course negotiations.
The good news is since the infrastructure and crews are in place, this should greatly lower production costs. If HBO budgeted 70 million for last season, this means what will be shown on IMAX costs between 14 and 20 million (Ep 9 I’m sure cost more than the average). Therefore HBO would budget perhaps 40-50 million for each entry.
I would say that this is very questionable. They intend to conclude the over-arching tale for the series (whatever the word is for a collection of stories, I don’t recall it!). After that, what would there be to do? It would just be storyless fan-fiction (pardon the redundancy 🙂 ).
It’s really true about Ramin Djawadi , I think S4 was his first year to be nominated for an Emmy for GOT , which is insane. He should have been nominated for seasons 1-3 and gotten a at least one win by now.
Wimsey,
roberts rebellion is ideal for a movie trilogy. Its nothing but epic battles, duels, and tragedy. If the last book became a series of movies it would get a huge budget and would also make a lot of money, so contract negotiations wouldnt be that much of a problem because there would be more money to throw around. Another thing to consider is that most of the main characters will be dead by the time there would be a movie. You could even have george martin attached as a co writer. Im almost positive the final book will be one giant war and battle like battle of the five armies except good. I rather wait longer than see something like that on a limited budget.
Jeb,
Yes, but would anyone ever buy a shirt from a dude named Ralph Lipshitz? Not me, that’s who.
Wimsey,
i can totally see a movie based on Princess Nymeria titled “10,000 ships”
THIS^^
Cannot wait for this time tomorrow night!!
Benoiff needs to grow a beard.
I think it’s safe to say that this Imax thing is an test to see how well a season premier will do in Imax. Nudge, nudge.
OT: The Americans S3 premiere was quite good tonight. I especially enjoyed seeing Elizabeth slap the crap out of John Boy.
You know, Joy is not possible without Relaxation and Laughter.
Arthur,
Are you saying something like a spin-off set in the GoT universe but not about the current characters (books and show) or do you mean they finish the current book-series that way?
Barring a miracle, it would be all plot and no story: and that makes for bad movies. Martin himself probably wouldn’t be too interested: he’s big on stories centered around people’s moral an/dor emotional conflicts, but it’s tough to deliver that with any impact when you have a constrained ending.
(This was a big reason why the Star Wars prequels were so bad.)
And I can hear the Disney musical numbers for that already! (Indeed, I’ll remember them next time I have food poisoning….)
Seriously, that is another one where it is tough to imagine what kind of story they could graft onto the events. Really, there wasn’t much in the World of Ice and Fire that would. But, then, history makes for lousy stories in general, and faux histories are not much better of a source.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Have it on DVR. I’m not as hyped for its return as I was for Justified. I love the scenes with Phillip and Elizabeth, the rest, not so much. The daughter is slightly more enjoyable than Dana Brody(loved Homeland’s season 4, btw). Still, it’s nice to have shows to watch during the wait for GOT and Mad Men to return.
http://www.foxsports.com/college-football/outkick-the-coverage/patriots-and-seahawks-players-talk-about-game-of-thrones-012715
Kinda interesting
Hey Arthur,
That’s just silly. Considering HBO owns the rights, why would they let it go to Disney? It’s a trick question. They won’t. They will milk the cash cow until it’s dry, just like they did with the Sex and the City movies and now the upcoming Entourage movie (assuming it does well, which is questionable).
By the way, Oz, is there any progress on the “always show spoilers in the comments” option. It’d be nice to get it back ! 🙂
Benioff looks depressed. I wonder is that because all this show hate.
Melusina,
Hate for what? What show?
All I’ll say is I couldn’t disagree more with this assessment.
Man, D & D look exhausted. I can’t even imagine the workload and pressure they’re facing now.
And Ramin Djawadi better get an Emmy by the time this entire series is over; he’s as good as John Williams and Hans Zimmer, in my opinion.
Arthur,
I’ve only just got the image of GoT done in a Fraggle Rock style out of my head from a previous thread and now you give me a Star Wars/GoT cross-over.* I suppose it could work, just with inter-planetary rather than inter-continental travel. North of the Wall = Hoth; Essos = Tatooine etc. We already know a certain person apparently has a time travel device of some kind so not too much of a change, although as light sabers could presumably work well against White Walkers that might tip the odds?
* not your fault obviously, I just have an active imagination. Sometimes a bit too active :O(
Al Swearengen,
Maybe they spent the whole budget on the show and only had enough left for one beard between them?
Then what made them so bad if not for lack of story? OK, there was Jar-Jar. And Lucas’ directing style. And the wooden dialog.
OK, I stand corrected. ONE of the things that made the prequel movies so bad was the lack of story!
Seriously, though, it does highlight the problem with a prequel. Plots should be writte
n with some story in mind. In particular, the culmination of the plots should serve to highlight whatever story it is that you are trying to tell.
Um, he’s much better than John Williams: Djawadi is not constantly recycling the 4th movement to Beethoven’s 5th symphony! (Djawadi’s compositions have been really strong for this show: some of his leitmotifs are just gorgeous and others are incredibly powerful.)
He and Weis got lots of hate on asoiaf forums (and other forums) because book fan don’t like the show.
Melusina,
I imagine it’s more exhaustion. Even though they’re busy all year, this time especially is when they’re dealing with the post-production of S5, which coincides with the promotion of the season and as well, the pre-production of S6 (Benioff’s wife told a story about walking into his office recently and seeing the storyboards for S6 posted everywhere).
Dudes are busy, always.
Wimsey,
I think you’re misunderestimating the story potential for Robets rebellion. Love triangle? Stark and Baratheon rebellion against a cruel regime? Epic battles (bells, strident)? Jaimes tragic descent? C’mon these are all the trappings of a great epic story.
Melusina,
Other than books fans and the guys that”I afraid of sex and violence”, everyone likes the show and in a fucking big way. It is the most loved tv show right now.
And about books readers… the truth is… the tv show is better than the books.Very few characters are evil or pure bad persons in tv show. In tv show most of them are grey with deep and complex personality, unlike the books where the characters are too cliche, being just bad or good persons without the depth and the complexity of the tv show characters. The books have more information, but overall the show is much better.
Lulu’s Mum,
Given that GoT is the Star Wars of its time, I’m not against a crossover. I’m hoping The Force Awakens will be more like GoT than Marvel.
The SW prequels was a story about:
1.) What happens when organized religion (the Jedi) become enmeshed in politics and military actions.
2.) What happens when organized religion becomes mired in rigid religious dogma and it does nothing but spout empty ideas (hey, Jedi, the galaxy is falling apart, maybe you’d want to do something other than sit on your asses meditating or killing for a dictator?).
3.) What happens when a person is pre-judged on things that have not even occurred yet (Anakin), and not given the benefit of the doubt.
4.) What happens when self-righteous people do not make the effort to see things from the other’s perspective, even though they’ve known each other a long time (hi, Obi-Wan and Anakin).
5.) What happens when you tear apart families and then use the children for your own ends (hey, let’s rob Luke and Leia the opportunity to be a family, and let’s keep them in the dark so when they grow up they can kill their dad and commit possible incest. It’s for the greater good).
6.) What happens when you run away when you’re most needed (guess Yoda was in a real hurry to go to that swamp paradise).
7.) The wonders of genetic engineering (clone troopers) and genetic mutations (Anakin’s strange bloodwork).
8.) Giving away our freedoms for dictatorship, or you know, the terrorists win.
9.) Always be friends with merchants and big business; they can help you overthrow the government.
My opinions on the original films changed after the prequels – I actually think the Jedi did more damage to the galaxy than the Empire did. Yes, I’m #TeamVader now.
Mr. Djawadi is only 40. Mr. Williams is 82. When you’re an 82-year old composer, you will repeat yourself in your work. Plus, the 5 Oscars, 4 Golden Globes, 7 BAFTAs, 21 Grammies and 49 Oscar nominations probably may not have swayed Williams from changing his formula anyway.
Iuldsa,
Yes, littlefinger is definitely more complex in the show, no doubts. Also Grey Worm / Missandei romance, so good, like why didn’t GRRM think of that ? Karl Tanner, a well-written character with a deep personality, you really don’t know if he’s good or bad, and he has so much impact on the story going forward. Totally not bland and useless like that Coldhands guy in the book. Oh and let’s not forget, we’re getting the Sand Snakes next season. That was such a good decision they made when they wrote the scripts, like, can you imagine if we had gotten minor, uninteresting characters like the Gryffs instead ? This show truly is better than the books, I really don’t understand the complaints.
Melusina,
The show has 9.5 on IMDB and is number 2 thing on IMDB. Other than Breaking Bad, Game of thrones is better rated than every single TV show, anime, Animated tv series, mini-series, documentary and movie on IMDB. So yeah, i believe that they should be very happy not depressed. It was to be expected that, no matter how good the tv show will be, most of the books readers won’t like it. It is called jealousy.
I was at other forums and some fans were actually suggesting that if GoT finishes up with a series of films, they should alter the cast and give the roles to big stars. I’m like wtf, this cast is already stellar with their performances, comfortable with their roles and interaction with others; they are a well oiled Thespian machine, and have name recognition when it comes to the show, why would anyone suggest such a move.
Besides it would drive up production costs, the crew and their respective departments have geared the show around these actors.
King Tommen,
Agreed on the exhaustion – this has to be a crazy busy time. Also, if Im not mistaken, he and his wife just had a baby a couple of months ago.
But have to love him poking the internet bear with his clothing :-).
That thing which may be on a shirt was etched on a gorram wall in Castle Back way in season 1
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Last year during this time, we were treated to TD, which was fun to discuss. Given that schedule hole this year, I’m happy to have The Americans work itself into the top echelon of shows. With it’s low-tech but high-brow approach, I find it oddly paralleling today’s events and concerns.
Wimsey,
Although I’m not a huge fan of the dueling maester storytelling approach of the recent ASoI&F works, I can see a decent screenwriter doing an effective treatment of The Rogue Prince / The Princess & the Queen someday. Although the bulk of the Targs are pathetic, privileged goofs, there are many touching stories/tragedies during that time as well (…if you can get past the incest). Plus, the dance would be amazing on screen, and there is Rhaenyra, Daemon and Mushroom! I guess it could easily get quite campy though.
The “grand pre-GoT trilogy” in my head is the following:
1) The Dance: The chaos of dragon rule, leading to a horribly bloody and dysfunctional end
2) D&E (although this would most-likely be better-served as a series): Post-dragon Westeros. So many mysteries about the internal machinations of Westeros could be explored, including Stark/Targ ties, Blackfyre Rebellions, Bloodraven, BitterSteel, and the mesmerizing Shiera Seastar (whereabouts still unknown)
3) Robert’s Rebellion: The end of Targ rule, calamities everywhere in Westeros, and the jaded rise of another set of leaders
So many ASoI&F mysteries and theories could be explored within these works. Probably won’t happen but it could be fun!
——
“Tonight…we fight!” – Ser Alliser
Iuldsa,
Eurgh. Your opinion is not fact and if it was stated as fact it would be so, so wrong.
Flora Linden,
The more I think about it, the more similar the general themes of GoT and Star Wars seem, although of course lots of other books, programmes and films have them too. Just with a much lower bewb count as befits stories aimed at an audience which includes kids.
On a vaguely related side note, what do people think of the lack of swearing in GoT? There is some, but surprisingly little and it’s obviously not so they can get a less restrictive rating, which isn’t going to happen due to the sex and violence quota. TV shows/films from the USA seem to have very little swearing in general even if they have every other taboo that censors look out for, whereas home-grown viewing here in the UK seems to have about as much as you’d expect in that particular context. Do people in the States swear much less than us foul-mouthed Brits or just pretend to?
When you lead off with “What happens when….” then you are almost always talking about theme, not story. There is a big difference. Moreover, most of what you mention happens between the trilogies: they are outcomes, not issues with which lead characters are wrestling.
Star Wars actually offers a good contrast between story and theme. Star Wars told a story similar to Lord of the Rings: Restoring what should be. (Yes, I know that Tolkien said that Rings was a story about death and immortality: but he didn’t quite succeed in telling that story with his tale.) Thematically, Star Wars was (in some ways) opposite of Rings: in one, “what should be” includes a republic, in the other, “what should be” includes a monarchy. Empire told a very different story: people coming to grips with sides of themselves that they initially did not want to acknowledge. And then Return basically retold the same story as Star Wars, albeit somewhat differently. In contrast, Phantom, Clones and Revenge just had a lot of stuff happening: but none of them were any more than the sum of its parts. There was not one general thing that all of the lead characters (or primary plot devices) were doing that transcended all of the particulars: and that’s what a story is.
I didn’t know that John Williams was a reincarnation of Ludwig van Beethoven…. (Beethoven didn’t recycle Beethoven’s work anywhere near as much as Williams has!)
Hodor’s Bastard,
Those are viable plot outlines: but that’s still not getting us the story. goodkinghenry suggested that you could impose a story about love triangles onto this. That has some potential for Leanna Stark, but really only for her. Moreover, that only works so far into the plot that Martin has outline: that would culminate in the Trident. Things like the Sack of Kings Landing would either be denoument or require a new story. (Of course, that is what a sequel is.) One might spin a story about conflicts between love and duty. However, can you really spin the rebels as being “undutiful” when Aerys II is a madman? Can you spin Rhaegar as being undutiful when he’s doing this to save the world? For Robert, Ned and Rhaegar, love AND duty call to do the same thing: but a Martinesque story would demand that they call for opposite things.
I am not saying that it is impossible. However, ideally a storyteller creates a plot around the story that he/she wants to tell. Superimposing a story onto an existing plot is really, really tough simply because the plot was not designed with the story in mind. (Conversely, that can make unraveling particular details of plots difficult, too: an author has to keep them in line with a story rather than only being A->B->C->D progressions that work logically.)
Seriously, David & Dan – shut it. 😉
This does nothing but make me more annoyed that neither of the IMAX theaters (reasonably) close to me are showing GoT. What the h, HBO?
🙁
Waiting for a leaked trailer.
Lulu’s Mum,
Not just themes, but characters too. Lately, I’ve been thinking Luke, Leia and Han Solo as prototypes for Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion. You have the whole triad/three heads of the dragon configuration, with a set of twins and a black sheep known for wit and cleverness. The Lannister siblings are way more twisted of course; besides actual incest with kids, Jaime and Tyrion have traits from Luke, Leia and Han, while Cersei has Anakin’s insecurities and need for power along with Leia’s strong will and Han’s sharp tongue. (Actually, Luke, Leia and Han can be seen in the Starks and Targaryens as well, but I won’t get into that.)
I was surprised the show didn’t have many swear words, given everything else that was included. I have no problem with that – in this particular show when swear words are used they have more impact. Also, maybe since many of the characters featured are noblemen/aristocrats/royalty, swearing is considered to be low class.
Lucius,
Who isn’t :P. Thank God the wait is nearly over!
Flora Linden,
I wasn’t thinking so much of casual swearing as when something major suddenly happens that’s physically or mentally shocking, when your response is completely involuntary. They don’t seem to have any just-smashed-a-hammer-into-my-thumb f**ks**tb******s type swears in most stuff from the USA. Would have thought someone with GRRM’s creativity might enjoy getting to make up new curses, unless he’s very non-sweary himself.
And on SW similarities, don’t forget long, elaborately styled hair for Leia and thingy, er Natalie Portman’s character. I didn’t realise as a kid that actors were wearing wigs and thought how lucky they were to have the most amazing hair.
Due to some perfect timing, I just finished watching episode 8. Bring on the screening!
Lulu’s Mum,
After The Wire ended, hyperactive swearing on the small screen took a hiatus, it seems, although a few shows out there are trying hard to bring colorful language back.
“Me? Shit no. M’lord. Bugger me with a bloody spear.”
— Shitmouth
Hodor’s Bastard,
Aaaah, never seen The Wire – yes I know it’s supposed to be amazing but I didn’t have the time to commit to it properly when it was on, will watch one day – promise! Perhaps they had more than their fair share of swear so there wasn’t enough to go around for everyone else. There is apparently only a fixed amount of matter in the universe, after all! ;O)
EDIT: I like the etiquette of what Shitmouth’s saying. Don’t forget who you’re talking to, even if you are swearing for Westeros.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Tyrion Pimpslap,
I’m finally up-to-date with The Americans and, yes, its great to have high quality show to watch while waiting for Mad Men and GOT.
I love the Arkady/Oleg scenes. However, I’m a little worried about the Paige plot line; we don’t need an ’80s version of Dana Brody.
True – Cersei’s long free-flowing hairstyle resembles Leia’s from Return of the Jedi, when Leia was hiding in the Ewok village. Cersei’s hairstyles alter between that and the elaborate ones worn by Natalie Portman.
Wimsey,
Respectfully I disagree that history innately makes for bad stories. As long as the story is about good characters it could take place in an historical context or fantasy. I don’t think a story about a historical figure is good because everyone knows the ending, but a story about a nonfamous person in a historical context? Could make for a very good story.
mariamb,
Interesting Dana Brody reference. I’m really fascinated about the 2nd generation nurturing program in The Americans. Imho, Paige is perfect for that….initially naive but curious and not stupid. A bit o’ Sansa, perhaps? I especially like how they are going through a progressive church scenario to enhance the mother-daughter-kgb connection. It’s very eerie….everything is on edge this season. They can’t trust anyone. Total anti-hero plotlines. Unique.
The other guy“Grey Worm / Missandei romance, so good, like why didn’t GRRM think of that ?”
Maybe because in the book she’s 10 years old?
Is that a Goosebumps shirt?
Hodor’s Bastard,
Interesting parallel between Paige and Sansa. Teenage story lines often go horribly wrong in contemporary drama; I will reserve judgement until I see a few more episodes. I think that I would prefer the progressive church youth group to be explored further.
To all going to the IMAX showings tonight: enjoy and report back. I’m booked for a pre Super Bowl showing on Sunday.
Fuarkk are there more tickets?!
HOLY SHITBALLS! THE IMAX experience was fucking awesome. Just saw it. Best creative/business/marketing move ever!!!!!
The Castle Black horn warning of the wildling attack was simply stunning to hear. Neil Marshall’s wonderful piece of art was simply made for the huge screen. Everything about the wall in both episodes was gorgeous and larger than life. Even the Harryhausen skeletons came across much improved (although I’ll still grumble). Cersei NEEDS to be on the huge screen.
I know now why D&D looked the way they do in the video. They are humbled by the transformation of their work. It is truly jaw-dropping. Folks…you need to see this.
And the trailer was stunning as well. I am so pumped right now!
See it!!!
You are sticking your head above the parapet there, Iulsida considering some book fans seem to think that GRRM is the ONLY writer who has written about morally “grey” characters. Not true of course. He DOES write about morally complex personnages but he is not the only writer who ever did so. Morally complex characters have existed ever since human beings figured out how to write, back in the days of papyrus etc – and before that in the oral tradition I would imagine. I think GRRM has to be given kudos for imagining the world of Westeros and Essos though; indeed without his books there would be no GoT TV show. It is possible to like both the show AND the books as I do (though there have been some bits of some episodes of the show that I have liked less, as I have liked some parts of the books more than other parts).
I just went to see Watchers on the Wall / The Children in IMAX, and it was fantastic. The big screen and sound does so much for the show, especially for the battle scenes in Episode 9, which were a bit underwhelming on the small screen. Incredibly worthwhile experience. And I’d forgotten how good The Children is. No, the Tyrion scene wasn’t identical to the books, but it was powerful nonetheless.
If Weiss and Benioff decide to show episodes of Season 5 in theatres as well as on HBO when they air, I’ll be thrilled (and out of a lot of money). At the very least, I want to see you-know-what scene with Dany [I don’t know how to use spoiler tags on this site] on the big screen, as soon as possible after it airs. I’m expecting it to be at least on a par with anything Hollywood’s done in the last year.