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Director Sighting Sheds Light on Wolf Hill; Malpartida Wraps Up and Cáceres is Ready

Posted on by Luka Nieto
Photo: Afroditi Lyrigkou / afrolyr on Instagram
Photo: Afroditi Lyrigkou / afrolyr on Instagram

Game of Thrones wrapped up a three weeks-long shoot at Los Barruecos with an equally enormous party and now moves on to the city of Cáceres, which is ready for filming. Meanwhile, one of season seven’s directors was spotted in Belfast with certain cast members, not only situating him at the —coincidentally also three weeks-long— Wolf Hill Quarry shoot but also placing the related action sequence within the season.

Beware: There are references to season seven’s story below the cut. Spoilers ahead!

Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor was seen with Kit Harington and Iain Glen at Belfast Airport on Friday, probably leaving for the weekend before getting back to it:

As we reported, Glen and Harington, along with Rory McCann and Kristofer Hivju (as well as 300 wight extras), have all been filming at the Wolf Hill Quarry set, and Taylor’s appearance confirms the placement in the season for this huge sequence, if any doubt remained: It will be in episode six. Taylor famously directed the climactic episodes for the first season and almost half of season two, and after all these years he returns for a single yet decisive episode, the penultimate one —That is, the climactic episode in which we have been trained to expect shocking deaths and impressive battles. Think on its esteemed legacy: Baelor, Blackwater, The Rains of Castamere, The Watchers on the Wall, The Dance of Dragons (including the preceding Hardhome wouldn’t be a stretch either), and The Battle of the Bastards. It’s fair to say Alan Taylor has a lot to live up to.

Meanwhile in Spain, before any cameras roll at the Old Town of Cáceres, first they had to call it a day for the final time at Los Barruecos, in Malpartida. After a long three-week shoot, they have now wrapped up, all according to plan. Emilia Clarke arrived in the city a few days ago, presumably to film a few grounded moments for the dragonrider in this ambush she will lead against the Lannisters and Tarlys (who just sacked Highgarden); And on Friday, the cast and crew celebrated a massive wrap-up party, just as they did last year once they were done with the Battle of the Bastards shoot at Saintfield.

According to HOY, this private celebration was held at a trendy local establishment… with no less than 400 people! It seems all the cast and crew were invited. In the following pictures, we can see that —at the very least— the following talent celebrated the completion of this likely grueling sequence: Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and, last but not least, showrunner and amateur Nosferatu impersonator David Benioff:

#gameofthrones #behindthescenes #emiliaclarke #davidbenioff #greattimes #starstruck #wrapparty

Una foto publicada por Afroditi Lyrigkou (@afrolyr) el

#gameofthrones #jamielannister #nicolajcosterwaldau ???

Una foto publicada por Afroditi Lyrigkou (@afrolyr) el

Though there is no photographic evidence, HOY reports Peter Dinklage also attended the party, which lasted until 4 AM and was a huge success according to the owner. Still, earlier Dinklage did visit Alboroque, a local tapería, and we can see him with his usual sort-of-smile. I know it well, as it’s as much as I can usually muster for a photo:

Photo: Tapería Alboroque / HOY.es
Photo: Tapería Alboroque / HOY.es

The photogenic Malpartida cast continues taking photos with fans, likely for the last time. I think we’ll all miss seeing James Faulkner around… Oh, and Tom Hopper, Jerome Flynn, and Nikolaj-Coster Waldau (Is this crush on Faulkner healthy? Yes, it is.)

Let’s now take a look at the finishing touches made by the Game of Thrones set designers at the Old Town, before filming takes place next Wednesday and Thursday. The San Francisco Javier Church at Plaza de San Jorge has been given a face-lift to look less like a blindingly white Southern European building: Its walls have been painted over with a dirtier ocher color which would look right at home in King’s Landing:

The gates of the Concatedral de Santa María now have a Lannister look to them:

Every time a city’s medieval neighborhood is turned into the faux-medieval world of Westeros, there are two sets of props that will inevitably make an appearance: Ivies to make the walls look more colorful; and awnings over almost every street.

By the way, these woven mats not only look good and ensure cinematographers can rely on more varied yet controlled lighting, but they also happen to be historically accurate —Busy street-markets in ancient and medieval cities were covered with them. After all, everyday life took place on these streets, and that can be quite dangerous under the hot Southern European sun —Which works just as well for King’s Landing, I imagine.

Again, as usual, they have hidden (and, if needed, removed) anything remotely modern or specifically Spanish —Plumbing and streetlights, and historical statues and plaques:

Finally, the busiest location, the Plaza de las Veletas, is now hidden from view:

Malpartida wrapped up, Cáceres is ready, and so are we! We’ll return on December 14 at the latest with news about the two day-long filming in the city. I don’t think it’s too optimistic to expect a glimpse of the actors involved, but there is always hope we’ll get more —That we’ll get to lay our eyes on whatever they film at the Monumental City.

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Luka Nieto

54 Comments

  2. Oh man I’m so excited for the filming in Caceres ! December 14th can’t come any faster ! I’m mostly curious to see if Lena shows up there as well.
    Thanks for the amazing post Luka, I love how everyone in the cast is so cool with taking photos with fans.
    David Benioff’s vampire pose is absolutely iconic.

  8. phantomcloud:
    Apparently Kit was spotted in Caceres, anything new on it?

    There are no photos. Last we heard of him, Kit was in London, after leaving Belfast. Since then, he could have gone to Cáceres. Let’s wait and see!

  10. Peter went to the wrap party? well then that would be a first, since Benioff mentioned in the commentary of winds of winter Peter hasn’t attended a single wrap party yet.
    I suppose better late than never. 😉

  12. Really don’t know what would be Kit filming in Span. Maybe somebody mistaken him for some else, as Kit was in London probably for Critic’s Choice Awards. Probably got some filming left in Belfast.

    He’s not part of battle sequence and King’s Landing is seems unlikely given situation.

    Btw any news on Paul Kaye and Richard Dormer in Belfast? Hound is not travelling alone. Joe Dempsie for that matter.

  13. Geralt of Rivia,

    The Critics Choice Television Awards are being given out in Santa Monica, not London. He just has the weekend off. Whoever claims to have seen him in Caceres probably just mistook someone else for him.

  18. Regarding the last tweet above, “blindarse” is not the Spanish word for how you were feeling around midnight last night, but simply means shield.

  22. Matthew The Dragon knight: Outlander fans are bloody relentless XD

    heh, I would add “tasteless,” too! Seriously, this is a very silly series. My wife read a couple of the books while on a long plane flight. She describes them as storyless “bodice busters” that passed an east coast -> west coast flight. We watched the first half of the first series because, um, boredom, but we never bothered to watch any of the rest.

  23. Matthew The Dragon knight:
    https://m.facebook.com/CriticsChoiceAwards/photos/a.10150485461608937.361936.65271513936/10154322864783937/?type=3&source=48
    Outlander fans are bloody relentless XD
    Anyway Go Thrones!!!
    Unless we declare war on them lol

    Lol this is the only category of any serious awards they’ll ever win. I like Outlander, but it’s overrated af. It’s merely a glorified romance novel to me and its overly enthusiastic (mainly female) fans are a bit scary at times.

  24. Wimsey,

    They’re torture porn. They’re TERRIBLE. And yeah, other than the sex and the torture there’s not a hell of a lot of plot. And the author knows nothing about 18th century female costuming which bothers me, as I’m into costuming.

  26. Wimsey,

    Same here! Couldn’t finish the books, and watched the first season and was like nope! Enjoyed Black sails more then Outlander. It’s like they are trying to shove this show down our throats! I hope when GOT is over Westworld comes in and kicks the ugly stepsister to the curve again! Outlander is like the bridesmaid but never the bride!

  30. Flayed Potatoes,

    Haha sure. SPOILERS for Outlander S01E15 people:

    graphic male rape of a beloved character by a villain (imagine Ramsay and Jon). Couldn’t sleep afterwards, it was an awfully long, traumatizing scene.

  31. Wimsey: heh, I would add “tasteless,” too!Seriously, this is a very silly series.My wife read a couple of the books while on a long plane flight.She describes them as storyless “bodice busters” that passed an east coast -> west coast flight.We watched the first half of the first series because, um, boredom, but we never bothered to watch any of the rest.

    Agree! Think the books are well written for what they are (only got through 3). A million steps up from something like “Fifty Shades…” but still fall into the corny category for me. A struggle at times to read and an even bigger struggle to care.
    The show is visually beautiful, with beautiful people and decent acting but I kind of stopped caring about the characters, so I gave it up. The two leads are hot as f but all kinds of “meh”. The supporting cast was so much more interesting.

  32. Rhaenys Stark,

    And I don’t remember any outrage over that unlike

    the Sansa scene with Ramsay in s5 which was extremely tame in comparison. Is it because it happened to a male? Imagine if it was Claire in Jamie’s place. There is this prevalent hypocrisy with regard to fictional depiction of sexual violence against a female or male or any violence against a male when compared to rape of a woman.

  36. phantomcloud,

    Outlander does not have anything like the ratings that GoT has. Outrage will always be proportional to the number of people who watch something.

    Pigeon: I remember how much moral outrage there WASN’T over that, yet the flailing of arms and clutching of pearls regarding GoT…..yeah.

    Eh, it was just amplified by the Internet. It had zero effect on the show’s ratings, so clearly there was no real outrage. I suspect that most of the viewers are sophisticated enough to remember that until very recently in our history, everyone took it for granted that a husband could do as he pleased with his wife. The idea that a husband could sexually assault a wife is extremely new: countries with laws allowing a woman to charge her husband with rape have only appeared in the last 3-4 decades. Indeed, social conservatives in Western countries still hate those laws!

  37. Wimsey:
    phantomcloud,

    Outlander does not have anything like the ratings that GoT has.Outrage will always be proportional to the number of people who watch something.

    Eh, it was just amplified by the Internet.

    Exactly.

  42. Matthew The Dragon knight:
    GAME OF THRONES WON BEST DRAMA AT THE CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    NIIIICCCCCEEEEE!!!!!! I honestly did not think they would. This is the first time they won Drama at Critics Choice correct? I thought Stranger Things would be the new darling.

  47. If Tormund and the Hound are fighting together north of the Wall, then it goes without saying that the Hound hasn’t rushed to the aid of Sansa, as several fans would have hoped. Good for him! The threat of the Others (“white walkers” in the teevie series) is more significant than Sansa’s pretensions for dominance … well, in my opinion.

  48. zandru,

    Why must they be fighting north of the Wall? Winter is going to make much of Westeros, well, wintry: and the WW could breach the Wall at any time.

  51. Oh, DAMN. Airhead stunt. How is it that I hadn’t seen this in July? Where on EARTH was I? Thought it was real. That’s what I get for drinking and posting. :/

  53. Luka Nieto,

    Luka, I sent a request for it to be deleted just a few minutes later (hence my second comment). I was pretty woozy last night. Between 1) finishing my very last class as an undergrad, 2) finding out while writing my final exam that my husband had scored tickets to “Hamilton” in SF, and 3) going home to celebrate and having a tad too much Crispin and Jack Daniel’s, there was a temporary lapse in critical-thinking skills.

  54. I actually like Outlander, mostly. Tobias Menzies’ dual performance has been astounding. And it’s the Highlands of Scotland, fer crysakes. And Sam Heughan is hotter than any actor who’s ever been on GoT.

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