HBO’s potential gripes with Thrones
There is a poster on the Westeros forums that claims to have spoken with a producer for the pilot episode of Game of Thrones. Said producer was not too enthusiastic about the project. She had a few issues and concerns regarding the viability of the series. Here is the post:
I have been asked to keep the details of this quiet, but it turns out a good friend of mine ‘may’ be working as a producer for the pilot version of game of thrones. I talked to her last night about it (i was in total fanboy shock, as you can imagine) and i have to say she wasnt enthusiastic about it.
This is essentially what im able to disclose, we discussed other aspects too, but im not posting them since she requested i didnt.
Her main issues is that the series is just too big.. and if they cut it down shes worried the story wont hold up. The other major concern she seemed to have was that the characters were in general too black and white to get emotionally invested in (at least for an american audience: see lost, sopranos etc). Of course i was immediately like ‘WTF? JAIME?? TYRION??? THE FRIGGIN HOUND???’ But unfortunately it didnt seem to change her view, and she clearly knows far more about it than me.
Anyhow, the good news is its not her decision, and hbo may make the show simply because they have no other option, but it did make me think about it all more deeply.
The question is (and i dont really post here much so i dunno if you people have already discussed this), can song of ice and fire really connect with a large enough audience? She argued that rome got the audience mostly due to the actual relevence of the historical characters, while soiaf (obviously) doesnt have this.
Winter Is Coming: I’m not really sure what this means. Assuming this source is reliable, it is a bit scary. Some of her opinions are accurate and make sense, the one about the characters being too black and white is completely off base though. I would hope that most of the people in charge at HBO realize that is not at all what this series is about. Someone over there has to have read these books right? Also whomever this producer is it sounds like she won’t be the one making the final decision. So that is good.
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