George R.R. Martin talks translating books to television (Video)
On February 27th, George R.R. Martin visited the Texas A&M campus to donate a first-edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. During the visit, the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series from which HBO’s Game of Thrones was spawned, talked about the transition from the pages of his books to the television screen. Martin also talked about what it was like starting out as a writer, all the way to where he is now, in his career.
Watch the video and see what he had to say about character deaths in Season 5, after the jump.
George R.R. Martin
The Houston Chronicle was on hand, at the A&M campus, during Martin’s visit, and captured the video. The Chron also took away some interesting facts from the visit like that GRRM re-reads Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings every two years.
He also gave advice to aspiring writers, which was to “keep your day job”. The author talked about how his career had crashed and burned on three separate occasions.
Martin’s next donations to Texas A&M’s Cushing Memorial Library will be some of his earliest writings, which will include an Encyclopedia of Space, complete with drawings of aliens and planets that he had imagined as a young author.
The recurring theme here seems to be that there will be some surprise deaths in Season 5.
“There’s going to be some surprise deaths. Characters are going to die and some of them are characters who are not dead in the books. But they’re going to be dead on the screen. So nobody is safe. Nobody is safe.”
This isn’t the first time that GRRM has warned Game of Thrones fans about surprising deaths. In early February, Martin said something very similar to the sentiments he echoed while at Texas A&M.
“People are going to die who don’t die in the books, so even the book readers will be unhappy. So everybody better be on their toes. David and D.B. are even bloodier than I am.”
All signs seem to be pointing to the possibility of more than a few surprising deaths for this upcoming season on Game of Thrones. Speculation has already begun on who will be meeting the Stranger in Season 5, which will be one of those rare times that fans of the books will be on the same pace as fans of just the show. Unsullied unite!
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