Report from GRRM’s Thrones panel

George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones panel took place today at Aussiecon 4. Now before you get too excited about any chance of major new revelations coming out of this Q&A session you should know that this panel was, by GRRM’s own admission, mostly for folks who hadn’t been following the production as closely as us. However, while most of the questions you guys had come up with in our previous post were, unfortunately, unanswerable by GRRM, there was some interesting info to come out of the panel. Jake Stormoen was there and provides some of the more interesting nuggets:

I’ve just typed up a few questions that WERE able to be asked today. I will try to ask more at the party tomorrow as well. Now, these aren’t from a transcript…they’re not word for word. They’re the answers he gave in essentially the wording he used, but I’ve written it from my notes and memory. He also mentioned that he’s really overall very pleased with the actors, especially the children. He said Maisie, Isaac, and Sophie are all amazingly talented, grounded actors. One story involved Isaac climbing to the top of these stone walls and towers with a harness on and just having no fear. Was great to see him so excited about the people breathing life into his works :)

In any case, here’s the questions and answers so far:

1) Q: To what extent are you consulted when it comes to additions or changes to the story to make sure it doesn’t create inconsistencies with what you have in store for the rest of the series? Have you had to reveal any secrets of the book series to aid in the development of the show?

A: Yes I have actually, there have been many meetings and such to discuss this and the result has been I had to share several secrets of the upcoming books In order to help out with the writing of the series itself.

2) Q: Do you think that once the show comes out and you begin watching it, It’ll influence what you write in the rest of the books? I.e. do you think you’ll be influenced by the actors and write something that maybe you wouldn’t have otherwise written?

A: My honest answer is I don’t know. I will try everything I can to not let it influence me but the fact is, I’m human and I’ll be watching the show just like everybody else and who knows what will happen? I like to think that nothing will influence what I have in store for these characters and the rest of the books.

3) Q: Are the designs for the costumes and swords and that sort of thing brand-new or are they taking it from you and existing art, posters, replicas, miniatures etc. Do you influence them? Because we know you’ve given descriptions in the books and that sort of thing… or are they being designed by artists and set designers from scratch?

A: Honestly it’s entirely brand-new. HBO has been doing it their own way with their own artists and designers because to take it from anything existing would breach copyright infringement. So for the sake of legal reasons as well as artistic pride, it’s really been done from the ground up and it will be HBO’s version of all these designs, elements, weapons and armor and that sort of thing.

4) Q: Have you seen any of the footage that’s been shot so far?

A: I’ve seen a rough cut of the pilot that was put together and I’ve been there for some shooting so far and everything that I’ve seen really looks great. I’m very excited about it–Very happy with it so far.

Winter Is Coming: While we didn’t get all of our questions answered, this report still contained some good info. Most interesting is the fact that the amount of people that know the book’s secrets has grown. Also it’s great to hear more raving about the young actors. Can’t wait to see the Stark kids on screen. It should be awesome!

If we get any more reports from this panel or subsequent meetings with GRRM, we will update this post, so stay tuned.

UPDATE: Another brief report, this one from morningsword over at the Westeros forums (thanks to morningsword also for the above pic). Here is what she had to say about the Thrones panel:

Today George talked about the HBO series, he said he wanted to show us photos that he’d taken when he was on set for some filming, but HBO wouldn’t let him because it showed the actors in costume (oh my! like we can’t imagine what they’re going to look like!) and bits of set in the background. So instead he just talked generally about the bringing his books to the screen, thought I don’t think there was particularly anything that I didn’t know. It was good to sit at his feet – literally – Jake, Neal, Mark and myself were in the very front row gazing up at him on the stage!!

• Published on 09/03/2010 at 8:30 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 5:14 PM CDT