Shooting in Spain with the stars of Game of Thrones wrapped last week, but over the weekend, a little extra filming happened in the country. We also have some Northern Ireland updates today.
Europa Press reports that filming around the Alcázar of Seville occurred October 23-24th, for more footage to be used in creating Dorne in season 6. However, no actors were present for the shooting. EP‘s sources say Dorne will have an at least equal presence in next season, compared to last year’s Dornish time.
We’ll be seeing the Long Bridge of Volantis in season 6 as well, based on other reports. According to Cordopolis.es, additional shooting without actors was done at the Roman Bridge in Córdoba yesterday. The same site was used to create the Long Bridge for season 5. Drones were used this weekend to take aerial footage of the bridge.
Thanks to Los Siete Reinos for the heads up on the weekend filming!
And in Northern Ireland filming news:
Pink GOT signs are surfacing around Shane’s Castle again. The castle located near Randalstown, Country Antrim has served as a location for Game of Thrones many times. Notably, its cellars served as the simple sept where the High Sparrow confronted Cersei in season 5. There was activity spotted at the castle back in August.
Local sources tell us the signs are still in place around the Mongeyglass set as well, where Winterfell’s exterior stands. Yesterday a fan shared a photo on Twitter, after spotting work being done on the set.
On drive home from Belfast today I stumbled across this castle set being built for Game of Thrones. Cool spot. pic.twitter.com/Fz27RuhwEp
— EMBarr Film Reviews (@EmbarrFilms) October 25, 2015
Director Daniel Sackeim is back in Belfast. He shared a photo of the H&W cranes, in the shipyard that shares space with Titanic Studios and Game of Thrones filming areas.
Also in Northern Ireland at the moment is actor Daniel Portman, who took a tour of the Bushmills Distillery and visited the Giant’s Causeway, both located in County Antrim.
Great tasting today at @BushmillsGlobal – thanks for the insight @markuscondren – had a great laugh! pic.twitter.com/5Ajh8wtBuv
— Daniel Portman (@Daniel_Portman) October 24, 2015
It’s not known if the actor was filming at the moment, though it’s rare for non-local actors to swing by N. Ireland if they aren’t shooting Game of Thrones.
Hodor
Hodor
Damn
The key news for me here is that we’ll see Volantis again, refuelling my hopes that Dany will end the season having reached Volantis, not just having abandoned Meereen 🙂
Luka Nieto,
I like that idea. I definitely want to see Dany heading to Westeros by the end of the season.
So they are doing scenery shots right now?
One scene that I’d love to have more information about is this one. A scene with 400 extras shot in August in NI in the area between Glenarm and Ballygalley, including horses. But who that was? What storyline? Since that time, we’ve learnt about a lot of Dothraki scenes and battle scenes. But this one, I think, nothing. It irritates me that I can’t place it in any plotline.
Any ideas?
Great to finally have a Daniel Portman sighting! Hopefully we will see Pod with Brienne in the riverlands. I wish we knew which actors are in Belfast right now. Especially for the northern storyline. Kit/ Sophie? Also more Cersei!
The band of outlaws are about to do some more filming:
Ricky Champ is returning to Belfast.
https://twitter.com/RickyChamp1/status/658568866335977472
I think Jóhannes Haukur Jóhanesson is on way back as well, he posted a picture from what I think is an airport.
This really brings hope that Dany will finally start making steps towards Westeros. Baby steps, but steps never the less. 🙂
Also just like with the Roman bridge, I think they will film only some establishing shots, at the Alcazar too. The actors finished filming, we have no sightings, so I think this is a resonable conclusion.
Can’t wait too see Pod again, hope nothing bad happens to him. 🙁
Luka Nieto,
Yesss. Me too.
What locations are left to be filmed? I know the iron islands but what else?
Luka Nieto,
That’s what I’m hoping too.
Really pleased that they’re working on the Moneyglass set- I sneaked around the set in August and it looked as though they’d finished with it as it was in a state of total disrepair. So looks like we’re getting more winterfell scenes 🙂
They’re going to have Dorne involved equally with all the other locations? I have no idea how everything they are filming can possibly fit into this season, it’s getting ridiculous!
Shane snow,
Ugh.
JennTheStarkarian,
I would assume once it gets all edited it will fit nicely.
JennTheStarkarian,
Equal compared too last season, not the other storylines.
Season 6 secretly 45 hours long confirmed.
No, but seriously, I know we say it most years, but they’re fitting a lot into this season! Also, yay, Daniel Portman!
Newbietothegame,
I do hope that this means longer episodes aswell. No more 53 min episode, please! 🙂
JennTheStarkarian,
“Dorne will have an at least equal presence in next season, compared to last year’s Dornish time.”
Mihnea,
If the average episode in season six was about 60 minutes instead of 55, that’d be pretty amazing. I doubt it… but it would be great.
the alcazar is so beautiful! went there this summer.
Luka Nieto,
One can dream….
Morgan,
Yeah I saw that early this morning. We can’t fit everything into one post, unfortunately. This one’s overpacked, as you can see. We’ll have another post later.
Mihnea,
I agree, give me 5 more minutes of story. Most of the time I don’t watch what the director had to say about the episode I just watched. The only time I watched after Shireen was burned.
Pod! I am so pleased with this news. Clearly, the best of my morning. Thanks so much for all the hard work from Sue and everyone!
If they’re saying equal time for Dorne as last season, then there must have been a lot of interior filming in N Ireland this year, since they seem to have only had the Dornish cast in Spain for like a week tops. Maybe lots of Sand Snake prison scenes?
Sue the Fury,
Gotcha, I should have known that you were already on top of it!
Good that they are shooting some establishing shots in Sevilla for continuity’s sake, I was worried they would use some other location after I heard the filming in Spain had ended, which would not have worked since the location was so memorable. Good thing also that the Dornish will have as much screen time as last season, the main problem with Dorne last season was the short screen time. Hopefully we get Ellaria’s execution, fire and blood speech and Dany’s arrival. I know most just can’t believe she could be arriving this season. But when you consider how much happened to her in season 1 for example and how the show likes to end characters arcs each season in some big moment I do not see why she could not be in Dorne by episode 10. It is not even that far form Volantis (which I assumed would be back after the time dedicated to it last season).
JennTheStarkarian,
Longer episodes hopefully! Actually 60 mins long instead of 51-52 mins :/
Hmmm…Pod in NI the same time the band of outlaws will be shooting…
I’ll be curious about Dorne having equal or greater time this year. Areo’s actor hinted that he wouldn’t be involved very much this year at all, so maybe it’s Sand Snakes action with minimal Doran.
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Some friends of mine were honeymooning in Northern Ireland this week. They are not GoT fans, but were visited a few sites were filming has occurred in the past. They said that GoT was filming at Giant’s Causeway a few days ago when they were there. I read this site pretty religiously, but I can’t remember reading about anything being filmed there. Can anyone offer clarification about this for me? Thanks.
Nooooooooooooooooooo! If we MUST have so much of Dorne again PLEASE have it focused on Doran, I can’t stomach the SS having the spotlight.
GO Dorne!
Seriously, as I think back to what they did in Dorne.. it was frustrating, but my problem actually lies with the Mindless Revenge plot replacing the Queenmaker book plot more that anything. That and the hype.
I try to imaging the exact amount of screentime, actors, action scenes, with a different mini Queenmaker plot and I would have suddenly loved it I think. Pussy line, awkward to choreograph weapon fight and all. It was beautiful to look at, gave Jaime something to do for a season, otherwise served it’s purpose very well.
If we can get a non-silly plot out of Dorne this season, I will fall back in love with it…
If we can have Doran scheming as the focus it’ll be perfectly fine. They just have to. The SS can’t possibly be the focus this year. I hope.
Lady Wolfsbane,
Same with me here. Just that I found the queenmaker plot equally silly. Really hoped they would have done something else then revange plot, but I guess something like this was needed for Myrcellas death.
But of course I had the fortune of going in this story with 0 expectations, so I ended mildly entertained.
Alltough I’m quite excited for Dorne this year, really looking foward too see Doran and the Sand Snakes. But just like last year, I’m going in with 0 expectations, this way theres no chance of dissapointment.
I expect Doran’s scheming will be revealed this season. And Tyene was fun last year. If the other Snakes are given a bit more development, Dorne could be all right.
And they can’t possibly have a worse fight scene than the one they had last year.
King in the North Carolina,
I have recently rewatched S5, with a friend who is new to the show, and I still don’t think that fight was that bad.
I do think it’s not one of their best fights, or even decent ones, but after rewatching S1-2 it looks just,..well..plain/common/nothing spectacular.
My friends reaction was, ”it wasn’t that great”, like mine, to be honest.
I just think people exagerate when this is concerned. It was definatly not good, but neither do I think it was the disaster some people make it out too be.
Bearded Onion,
I think either Doran or SS is a false dichotomy. They need each other for their characters to work. Doran and SS did not said one word to each other. That was my main issue last year because it contributed to the botched SS introduction and weakened Doran´s character. Dorne without real inner family conflict and without Blood and Fire speech felt just very …empty and pointless.
Mihnea,
I don’t think that “normal” fans cared that much about that scene. It is like Yara and Ramsay in S4. I think that many even forgot about that scene, but for some people on internet book fandom that was the most important scene of S4.
For me, scene with SS just happened. Nothing important, nothing revolutionary. Just another scene.
BA! I scheduled a long weekend vacation to go see the Alcazar of Seville and to go to Cordoba… in 2 weeks. Just missed them!! Damn it!
If they double back by some chance, I’ll be there and will post on twitter 😉
Mihnea,
But the crux of it was that Queenmaker WAS a plot. A misguided, silly, far too ambitious idea – but it was a plot. Mindless Revenge is only awesome if you’re Inigo Montoya… they could have had Allaria change her mind solo, last-minute when the Queenmaker got foiled by Jaime and Dorian…
Man, they do a great job with the show though. Go Dorne, I have faith!
Luka Nieto,
I’m glad that you were right. I thought they will do Volantis in S7 or they will skip that place. I hoped for S6, but thought that S7 was more likely.
mau,
Well I watched that episode with around 6 other people, and just like you said the reaction was, mostly indiferance. Mostly. 2 of them actoully liked it.
Just a quick ”ah!” when Bron got cut but otherwise no reaction. I myself was quite suprized when I came to the forums and saw the comments/reactions.
I didn’t like it, but I don’t think it was as bad as some people make it out to be.
Lady Wolfsbane,
For me the Queenmaker plot never made any sense. Killing Myrcella was simple, but effective way to start the war. We already saw that the Lannisters started the war when Cat captured Tyrion.
Mihnea,
We are obsessed with GoT. We are (over )analyzing every word or scene in the show.
Lady Wolfsbane,
Well here I am definetly biased here. To me any kind of plot/story would have been better then the queenmaker plot.
Hell I knew I would enjoy Dorne more then in the books, when I saw Arrianne was cut… and Arys and ”I am of the night”.
I don’t think revange plots are silly or bad, some of the best movies/books I saw had as focus revange. But I agree they didn’t do a very good job here.
What I know tough, is that the queenmaker plot, to me, would have been much, much worse.
mau,
Sometimes I think we are the only fandom wich hates the show it watches.
But then I remenber the LOTR forums in the early 2000s and all the hate there as well, and all the disscussions on how the story is ruined/demanged,..etc.
It seams, that we are just like every other fandom.
Mihnea,
I think that Harry Potter fandom was the worst.
mau,
Never read the HP books, and never went to one of their forums, so I can’t really give a opinion on this.
I did watched the movies, liked them quite a bit especially the last 3.
You’re somehow arguing that GRRM’s queenmaker plot was worse than Ellaria and the memesnakes trying to kidnap and kill Myrcella at the exact same time Jaime and Bronn arrived in the water gardens?
The confrontation at the greenblood where Areo kills Oakheart was entirely more satisfying that that utter shlock we got in episode 6 this season. Not only this but Doran actually seems to know what he’s about in the book and isn’t a cuck in a wheelchair outmaneuvered by Ellaria.
Then again you’re the biggest show apologist on this site so naturally you’ll eat up any D & D cliffnotes you get served every season.
Hype Man Baelish,
I like how you can’t debate/argue without insults. Like Lady Wolfsbane did, we disagreed, but politely.
Also yes to me Aero and Arys fight was a complete letdown, completly boring and pointless.
Sorry for having different tastes and opinions then you.
Mihnea,
I have not been here very long, but I have not seen anyone saying they hated the show. They might have disliked certain aspects of it.
If someone hates the show then this is the wrong place to be, in my opinion.
Newbietothegame,
There aren’t many on this forum.
Quite few to be honest, thats why I’m here.
I meant the fandom in general, not the people on this forum.
mau,
The SS fight scene didn’t bother me at all.
and I haven’t heard anyone complain about it except on this forum.
Mihnea,
54 minute episodes LOL
I feel like some people on this site are so against book snobs they end up hating the books & GRRM.
Book Snobs and Show Snobs aren’t on the opposite sides of the spectrum, they just wear different hats.
Hawk,
Now that would be trolling.
Dorne last season didn’t really bother me as much as I did some of the fans, I enjoyed the Jaime and bronn team up a lot, I really liked how it started, and the jaime and myrcella scene was a really nice touch. The sand snakes were pretty fun in my eyes. The fight scene in the garden was pretty funny, and the jail scene with bronn was great stuff. I’m glad they are coming back next season. I really want to see more of doran, and I really hope season 6 shows more of him.
According to my filming spreadsheet, October 25:
Graveyard
Ballycastle, County Antrim
Pod
Can’t wait for season 6…
Matthew The Dragon Knight,
I love Bronn and Jaime, but I always get sad when I think of them.
The only reason, or a very big reason they are togheter is that Ilyn Payne’s actor had cancer and couldn’t return.
And seeing that he is no longer on Aryas list, I don’t think he will return. 🙁
Wich is quite sad, because I really liked him in that role..
Alltough last time I read about him, it did say he beat the cancer, so there is that. 🙂
I’ll be perfectly honest in that I groaned at the Dorne plot in Season 5. It felt short-shafted and all they had to do was tweak it just enough to where it would have at the least been okay. Like moving the kidnapping to the night, for example, or just outright killing Myrcella and the Lannister retinue after their departure if that was the entire point to begin with.
That fight scene isn’t the worst thing in memory, but it was fairly poorly choreographed. The whip especially felt problematic. For a whip to be used properly as a weapon (it is quite difficult to accomplish, to be fair), there needs to be a good amount of space. Why director Jeremy Podeswa decided to fill the courtyard to make it more chaotic makes no sense to me. Also, the coincidence of Jaime and Bronn arriving just at the right time didn’t help.
That being said, I don’t hate Dorne with as much passion as some others and I look forward to seeing more of them. The slapping game and poison in the cells were good scenes, but having the Sand Snakes be given five minutes of good screentime isn’t really helpful in the overall game of things. Hopefully they heard the feedback and will tweak the Dornish stuff for next season, beginning with increased assertiveness for Doran.
The most hated movies in HP book fandom.
I have a gut feeling that
mau,
I had a feeling that was true! 🙂
Deathly Hallows part I is definitly the best of the saga, imo.
Arkash,
Yup, same here. By far my favourite.
Pod!!!!!! So good to get even a tiny glimpse of him. Prays hard he survives the season. One of my fav. secondary characters.
Luka Nieto,
Yes to your conjecture regarding Volantis. That is a very nice surprise! I hope that by the end of the season, Daenerys and Co. get out of Slaver’s Bay and set up camp in Volantis. Then onto Dorne in Season 7.
Noooo…
Deathly Hollows part 1 was the worst Movie AND Book… it had no plot, just pissy directionless young-people angst. It was the Dorne of Harry Potter… 🙂
mau,
Queenmaker wasn’t about starting a war, it was a far-fetched idea to raise sympathy and WIN a war. It wasn’t any smarter, but it had a logic to it…
I am so excited to learn we’ll get to see Volantis, again!!!
On the note of longer episodes, if each episode was about 60 minutes, instead of about 55, that’s 5 minutes per episode for 10 episodes, which means about an extra 50 minutes in total. That’s almost another episode. I’d love that soooooooooooooooooooo much. 🙂
One big problem with having such stringent time and area restraints is that it makes almost any rescue or raid scenario a joke. There is no time to show anyone lurking around, scoping the situation. The characters are shown blundering in and blundering out.
Theon’s “rescue” was a disaster because Yara had little idea what they would be up against, other that having to scale walls. Did they know what would be behind the walls? No. Yara is shown being shocked about Ramsay’s dogs, shocked that poor Theon is such a mess. Then, rather than an enraged declaration that she will return and avenge him, she declares him dead and paddles away. Disaster.
At least in Dorne, Bronn hinted at doing a bit of surveillance, but because of the restraints of the Water Gardens, they couldn’t be shown scaling walls, or lurking around in the castle. The blame is placed on Jaime wanting to improvise on site, hence the golden hand remark and the jumble that followed.
The whole “candle in the window” idea at Winterfell also goes lame because of this. Even if Brienne had seen the candle, what was she going to do? Knock at the gate and demand to scour the grounds looking for Sansa? Neither she nor Pod have ever been to Winterfell; they weren’t shown asking townspeople for a layout of the place or even finding out the room where Sansa was being kept. Best that poor old Stannis showed up when he did, else we would have seen two more flayed bodies at the gates.
So, imho. unless the production allows the time to show the gathering of intel ahead of a raid, any rescue scenario is going to be undone.
And absolutely, Yay Daniel Portman!!
Longer episodes would be a plus, seeing how much they’re adding in season 6, I wouldn’t be shocked if the episodes are longer this season. Extra five or ten minutes would be a pleasure 🙂
Well, they were not the focus last year, either. Jaime was.
The question is: on which main character will the Dorne characters focus this year?
Mihnea,
In general, book fandoms always have a lot of people who hate adaptations. People are fans of books for many reasons: and those people who are fans of the book as opposed to the story or the plot or the characters are necessarily in for a let down because books are horrible scripts.
As such, there were a lot of Tolkien fans who vociferously hated the films. They got a lot of media attention 15 years ago, and if the general public took fanboys at all seriously before that time, then that escapade killed it! (Of course, I had long heard people say that fans of books are the absolute worst judges of films: but those people tended to be real film mavens.)
Interestingly, some of the hardercore Tolkien fans were the quickest to defend the films because they had read all of Tolkien’s letters, Histories of Middle-earth, scribbles in his mathbooks, etc. Tolkien was very specific about what he thought the story was (“Death and immortality”) and how an film adaptation should proceed (wholesale cuts of things like Bombadil in order to focus more on the important things). We will never know if he would have like Jackson’s films (probably not: but Tolkien was a curmudgeon who didn’t approve of color in movies, or movies for that matter), but PJ et al. actually did take Tolkien’s advice on how to proceed!
My observation was that Prisoner was the most hated by the Hardcores. It was Rowlings’ favorite and the general audiences’ favorite, but… However, the Hardcores actually thought that the two Columbus films (i.e., the storyless costumed-readings of the books) were good. The fans seemed to like the last two films well-enough, save of course for those fans who screamed and yelled about every altered detail. That written, that type of hardcore fan also was dissatisfied with the last book: they wanted a lot more world-building and a lot more arbitrary magic; so, getting a pretty potent tale about a young man coming to grips with the notion that “good” and “evil” are quite subjective, and that people take many different paths towards ethical and unethical lives did not go well with that crowd. (There was a lot of “So, was Snape ‘good’ or ‘evil’ in the end?” stuff….)
Interestingly, it was the fans who most hated the final book who also were most up-in-arms about all the differences between the books and the films. A lot of it had to do with things that they were “sure” would be important in the future but cut from the films. As it turned out, most of those ideas (which usually were far-flung things involving Character X being Character Y in disguise, or magical powers inherent to Harry’s eyes/scar/etc. or dealing with stuff from the ancient past of Hogwarts) never were relevant. Rowling was never writing those sorts of stories: but those fans were reading the books for the magic and the fantasy, not the stories; the films (particularly after they dumped Columbus) focused on the stories.
OMG we agree again! Yay! 🙂
Prisoner of Askaban was my favorite. Alfonso Cuaron was such a breath of fresh air after Columbus. The story flowed so much better and it was telling a story. The first two movies felt over stuffed because they were caught up too much into the small details. There was no room for the characters to develop at all. I am not saying you can’t pay attention to details but there is a point where it is too much. The whole miss the forest type of situation.
Another reason: Alfonso Cuaron is an amazing director who makes great movies.
I hope we get longer episodes. They are adding a lot of storylines to this season. An extra 5 to 10 minutes can mean the difference between a good episode and an overstuffed mediocre episode. They can put Inside the Episode on the GOT Youtube channel or HBO Go/Now.
Angela,
At least there won’t have to be much exposition. The only real new places I can think of we’ll be seeing are
, and we’ve already met all the cultures. We’ll need a reminder for Bran and the II, and will need a proper introduction to
, but for the most part they can get right to the meat of things.
Do you get Inside the Episode on HBO after the airing? I only get it on On Demand.
Ah, but that describes pretty much every Chris Columbus movie!
Here is the amazing thing: Rowling wanted Terry Gilliam to direct the films! Clearly she did not want a by-the-book recitation if that was the case! (It was rumored that she pointed to the Lord of the Rings films and said: “Do something like that with my books!” However, I have no idea if that has any credence or if it is just what a lot of non “detail oriented” Harry Potter fans were thinking.)
And as people joke: if Gilliam had gotten the franchise, then we’d be getting the 3rd movie about now, and the final film would have Harry dealing with male menopause as well as finding Horcruxes.
Oh yeah. It is on HBO on Demand. I keep mixing it up when I do a rewatch of the episode. Sorry. Nevermind.
I just looked up Chris Columbus. He also did that first Percy Jackson movie. Overstuffed and missing the big picture pretty much describes that adaptation too. That seems to be his style.
I hope that rumor from Rowling is true. There is no point if it is a word for word adaptation. If you want that, then buy the HP books on Amazon. It has to work into a 2 to 2 1/2 time frame and tell the story at the same time. Everything isn’t going to make it on screen. It is going to happen.
I love Gilliam’s movies but they do take forever. Will he ever adapt Don Quixote? I mean ever. Is that just never happening? Not that I am waiting for it but I heard he wanted to an adaptation.
I agree with this. The fight wasn’t THAT bad. Maybe a lot of watchers were primed for a section of cheesy 70s-style ham fighting by the previous few minutes when all the SS solemnly chorused ‘For Oberyn’.
Dornish Pastie,
I liked them saying ”for Oberyn”…. Yeah it was a bit cheesy, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Made me think of Pedro, and think how much they must have suffered when he died…
Just like they all said ”unbowed, unbroken, unbent” in ADWD.
Didn’t find it that cheesy to be honest.
Mihnea,
Can’t edit my comment for some reason….
”Just like they all said ”unbowed, unbroken, unbent” in ADWD…..”
I didn’t really liked this line. It gave me ”we are so badass” vibes.
While ”for Oberyn” just made me a bit sad.