Jack Bender Slated to Direct Game of Thrones Season 6
First we had Miguel Sapochnik hinting that he was planning to make a second go of it in Westeros, since his first pair of episodes in Season 5 (“The Gift” and “Hardhome”) went over so well. Now we have confirmation of another director who will be traveling to the world George R.R. Martin created. Jack Bender, formerly of Lost and The Sopranos, will be directing two episodes of the forthcoming season.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Bender sounded slightly daunted by the challenge.
“I’m very calendar-challenged and the Game of Thrones production calendar might as well be in Chinese, it’s so complex. That’s how they achieve their extraordinary ten episodes per year.”
He says the level of complexity is unlike anything he’s ever faced in his career. Though he hasn’t received his scripts yet, he was been sent an outline while Season 5 was still on the air. As far as he knows, the writers have finished “about six or seven scripts” so far of the usual ten.
Bender has been on the radar of Benioff and Weiss for a while. He was approached earlier in the show’s run, but couldn’t make the time commitment required, due to scheduling conflicts. It’s a huge commitment too, in comparison to directing only one or two episodes of most other shows. Apparently he’ll be overseas for the full second half of the year, from July to December, before returning to work on his next project. Even though he was generally aware the commitment was long, he says he was in denial until the dates were actually handed to him.
“When my agent called and said, ‘These are the dates,’ I said ‘No, you are wrong. It’s not possible.’ But that’s how long it takes. You’re overlapping with another director. There are two full units. You are there for a long time.”
When asked for any details on who he’ll be working with, or which pair of episodes he’ll be doing, Bender wouldn’t say. I guess we’ll have to wait for the official announcement to find out.
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