The thing that ’s really striking when you watch HBO ’s Game of Thrones television system serial is how closely it sticks to George R.R. Martin ’s original book . We talked to manufacturer D.B. Weiss and David Benioff about how they made it mold .
We were lucky enough to be on a group discussion call with Weiss and Benioff , along with some other reporters . ( We ’ve watch a few episodes of Game of Thrones already , and we ’ll have our spoiler - free reaction next week . ) The producers told us about how they were able to bring such a close reconstruction of the Scripture to the blind , and whether there might be more modification in playscript two .
pocket-size spoilers ahead …
The one thing they stressed , over and over again , is that they want the boob tube series to be as close to the books as potential — they really know the account book , ever since they read them twelvemonth ago , and were full of turmoil about the prospects of bringing their favorite scenes to the filmdom . “ By and large , fans of the volume are going to find a faithful personification here , where the first scenes of the show are pretty confining to the first scenes of the book , and so are the last scene , ” says Benioff .
That said , they were willing to summate some scenes here and there and make a few changes to make the storey work well on the covert .
Changes in the first few sequence
There are emphatically some scenes that were lend in the first few episodes , that are just there to spell out out some stuff that would be cleared to you if you were reading the books , but does n’t of necessity hail across on screenland .
And then there are also some added scene , just because the producers saw how their actors were portraying some key roles and were eager to see those actors do more — and in some case , they need to see certain characters interacting more than they do in the books . Like , what would happen if Jon Snow and Jaime Lannister had a conversation ? They also wanted to see what the two schemers , Varys and Littlefinger , would babble about if they were alone together .
Also , one run into change in the first couple of episode is to Catelyn Stark , Ned Stark ’s wife , who powerfully oppose her husband becoming the Hand of the King in the television version . The producer just matt-up it worked intimately that way . They also cut the line where Catelyntells Jon Snow “ it should have been you ” — actor Michelle Fairley makes Catelyn ’s feelings about Jon clear enough without needing to say that communication channel of dialogue .
Season two might make more alteration
fall in that Game of Thrones ’ fellow HBO show , True Blood , has taken a fairish amount of liberties with the Charlaine Harris books , we were curious to have it away if Benioff and Weiss might eventually diverge from the source material . For example , True Blood kept the character of Lafayette alive long after he was all in in the book .
Benioff said they “ would n’t make any guarantees about anything , ” but reiterate that they ’re passionate about being straight to the books . At the same time , Weiss pointed out that they could n’t possibly have the barf budget to include all of the character who release up in A Clash of King , the second book . Already , they ’ve had to abridge or immix some small characters in the first ledger , but in the 2d season they might actually have to cut some comparatively major characters just to avert having a form of yard .
Also , Weiss single out Robb Stark as one type who does n’t have quite as big a use in the second Scripture as in the first Holy Writ — but when you see Richard Madden ’s performance as Robb , “ you realize you jazz this character that Richard has contribute to life . ” So the idea of putting Robb “ on the back burner ” in season two becomes really difficult to contemplate , and they may terminate up blow up his role moderately .
add together Weiss : “ Nothing is set in stone , and mayhap somebody who does n’t make it all the way through the book will get to cling around a flake longer ” on TV . ( He was n’t speaking about Robb in finicky when he said that , though . )
Benioff also said that if they ’re lucky enough to get reincarnate , the first few seasons would “ about map out onto the book . ” But feed that the third book is so much tenacious than the first two , they might have to give it up somehow . “ This would be a great trouble to have , ” joked Benioff . And since the fourth and fifth books take place concurrently , they could be restructured somehow . Eventually , they ’d like to end up with seven or eight seasons for the seven book of account .
cast Game of Thrones
Weiss and Benioff explain that the only two actor they were pose on in advance were Sean Bean as Ned Stark and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister . Sean Bean allow for a “ center of sobriety ” to the first time of year as Ned Stark ’s probe of his foster male parent ’s death provides “ the spine of the story , ” suppose Benioff . “ fortunately , we had Sean at the substance of it , who can convey more with a look than many people can with a monologue . ”
Dinklage , meanwhile , was long the pet for Tyrion — and he agreed , as long as he did n’t have to tire a byssus . Stereotypically , dwarves always have beards , and Dinklage was eager to buck the trend — and avoid having to wear an uncomfortable outgrowth all the metre .
Other than that , they looked at 100 to 200 people for each role . Martin was a huge help in looking at hearing tapes from his home in Santa Fe , NM .
And the hardest part was finding children who could carry so much of the heavy spectacular material from the book — ordinarily , child actors are kept at the fringe of stories , being cunning on the sidelines . But the child in Game of Thrones have to deal with some intense , grownup stuff , and some grievous - duty brutality . In Maisie Williams ( Arya ) , Isaac Hempstead - Wright ( Bran ) and the other kids , they were lucky enough to find newfangled thespian who could bring a realness . “ You see so many Hollywood child and they ’re kind of poise and they ’ve contract their mannerisms worked out . There ’s nothing existent about them , they find preternaturally cute , ” said Benioff . But the minor worker in Thrones “ delivered beyond our imagination . ”
Weiss and Benioff also praised Emilia Clarke ( Daenerys ) and Jason Momoa ( Khal Drogo ) for plow with intense gender in scenes that were really traumatic for the actor to play . There ’s one setting in particular , when Drogo is “ savaging ” Daenerys , and she ’s star at her dragon ’s eggs , and the camera zooms in on her face and you may see all the thing that are going through her question .
The unaired pilot
in the beginning , the producers shot a cowcatcher that was immensely dissimilar than what ’s ending up on television receiver . We were curious to ask them about what change .
Among other thing : Two roles were recast ( Catelyn and Daenerys ) . The Dothraki scenes were earlier shot in Morocco , using leftover band from Ridley Scott ’s Kingdom of Heaven , but it made more sense to reshoot them in Malta , which looked more like the coastal metropolis of Pentos .
But also , they take to do some rewrite to make some of the relationships from the Holy Writ well-defined on the screen . They watched their original with some of their friends , who were n’t familiar with the book , and at the end of the hour their friends had no cue that Jaime and Cersei were brother and sis . So they had to do a lot of work to clear up the relationships in the show . “ One of the main things we addressed in our rescript of the pilot was clarity , making sure everyone who was watch could realize the canonical relationships enough ” to get tangle up in the story , say Weiss .
Other random choice morsel
Other stuff and nonsense we also learned :
The direwolves in the first time of year are “ play ” by Northern Inuit frank , but in the second season they ’ll have to find a way to play the full - sized direwolf experience .
The credit sequence , panning across an interactive - looking mapping of Westeros , will modify as different motor inn wax and lessen and hit grandness , over the course of the season .
The Holy Writ were originally pitch to Weiss and Benioff as a picture , which would have had to sharpen on only one fibre and tone down the sex activity and violence for a PG-13 evaluation .
Some of the battles later in the season may not be quite as huge or sweeping on screenland as they are in the book , because of budgetary constraints .
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