GRRM at LepreCon

George R. R. Martin was a guest of honor at LepreCon this weekend, where he had the usual reading followed by a Q & A. WiC reader Lord Ned’s Head was there on Friday and Saturday and was kind enough to provide reports from the con. Here is the Game of Thrones-related info to come out of this weekend’s events.

Regarding the HBO series, George mentioned that casting calls are currently going on in New York, LA, London, Dublin and Australia. When asked about how writing for TV has changed since his last television efforts, he mentioned that one of the things he struggled with on episode 8 was getting used to a computer program called Final Draft that is apparently an industry standard. One of the funnier moments was when someone asked him about character cuts. He said that numerous smaller characters would either be cut completely or possibly physically referenced in the background without lines. He listed the Nights Watch as examples. Jon and Sam would be the largest roles. Then possibly Grenn and Pyp might have a few lines. Toad, Rast and others may or may not have small lines after that. Finally he mentioned that Desmond (Guardsman at Winterfell) has been cut. He then said “So those Desmond fans out there are fucked”.

Now for the big scoop (at least imo). I asked him to please give us some insight as to whether Syrio Forel is alive or dead. He chuckled and said that Syrio was alive in the [HBO] series at least because he had written some scenes for him in episode 8!!!!!! Whew! That puts a lot of doubt to rest in my mind!

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I went to George’s spotlight today too. It was more focused on GRRM as a writer as opposed to GRRM author of the new HBO series A Game of Thrones, but I think I have some more news. He mentioned that he was looking over casting tapes for LF, Varys, Barristan, and Renly among others, but he didn’t list any of the talent they were looking at. I’m not certain if we had Barristan and Renly listed as in the series but according to his interview they are both in.

Winter Is Coming: Looks like we can continue to add to the list of characters that are confirmed to be in the show. I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve heard about Barristan and Syrio definitely being in. And we have our first confirmed character cut, Desmond, guardsmen at Winterfell. And, honestly, I have no idea who that is! It seems that, by now, any worries one may have had about major characters, or even most of the minor ones, being cut should be put to rest.

[Thanks again to Lord Ned’s Head for the reports!]

• Published on 05/16/2010 at 2:17 PM CDT
• Last updated on 05/20/2010 at 4:27 PM CDT