Tag Archives: HBO

“True Blood” Musical Being Developed

Leave a reply

true-blood-logo2

The HBO series “True Blood” is entering its final season but that doesn’t mean it is over for good. No, not a movie. A MUSICAL! The news comes from the mouth of composer Nathan Barr who has written the scores for every season the show.

“This was something that I pitched to HBO and [show creator] Alan Ball,” said composer Barr.

According to Barr, the musical will focus on telepath and perpetual death and destruction magnet, Sookie Stackhouse, (portrayed by Anna Paquin in the HBO series). However, Barr is aware that after seven seasons of wild twists and turns it will be difficult to trim the story down to one stage production.

“I think we’re really going to try to return to the roots of the show,” Barr commented.

Stephen Moyer, who portrays Bill Compton in the series opposite Paquin, also revealed that helped Barr put together some samples of the True Blood musical presented to HBO and Ball.

Barr plans to present a workshop version of the musical in about a year from now. He is hopeful that it will make it its way to Broadway but that “there’s no guarantees.” He added, “But I think the direction we’re heading in is really exciting.”

GRRM Speaks Out About Game of Thrones Rape Scene

Leave a reply

 

GOT-Jaime-Cersei_1280-610x343

Earlier this season we saw a scene in HBO’s “Game of Thrones” that differed significantly from the source material. It called into question the showrunners adaptation skills of the novels drew ire from the fans. Novel series author, George R.R. Martin even spoke out about the scene differences.

In the scene in the show, we see Jaime Lannister rape his sister Cersei next to the corpse of their incest-bred son, Joffrey. In the novel, there is not even the slightest hint of rape. Martin responded to the changed scene in his LiveJournal account saying:

As for your question… I think the “butterfly effect” that I have spoken of so often was at work here. In the novels, Jaime is not present at Joffrey’s death, and indeed, Cersei has been fearful that he is dead himself, that she has lost both the son and the father/ lover/ brother. And then suddenly Jaime is there before her. Maimed and changed, but Jaime nonetheless. Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her.

The whole dynamic is different in the show, where Jaime has been back for weeks at the least, maybe longer, and he and Cersei have been in each other’s company on numerous occasions, often quarreling. The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently. But that’s just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection.

Also, I was writing the scene from Jaime’s POV, so the reader is inside his head, hearing his thoughts. On the TV show, the camera is necessarily external. You don’t know what anyone is thinking or feeling, just what they are saying and doing.

If the show had retained some of Cersei’s dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression — but that dialogue was very much shaped by the circumstances of the books, delivered by a woman who is seeing her lover again for the first time after a long while apart during which she feared he was dead. I am not sure it would have worked with the new timeline.

That’s really all I can say on this issue. The scene was always intended to be disturbing… but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons.

Game of Thrones: Season 5 Casting Tons of New Characters

Leave a reply

game-of-thrones

While it seems like every new season (and every new book for that matter) of “Game of Thrones” sees dozens and dozens of new characters added, next year’s season 5 will get a whole new region , along with its inhabitants, added to the cast.

Warning: there are some various potential spoilers for non-book readers below. 

According to WinterisComing.net (and leaks from their undisclosed source), we know that the following characters from the books are currently looking for casting.

Prince Doran Martell

  • Doran is described as the major new player this year, appearing in multiple episodes. The fiftysomething prince uses a wheelchair, is reclusive and rules wisely. It appears the show is looking to continue the trend it started with Pedro Pascal, and cast Latino actors for the Martell clan.

Prince Trystane Martell

  • Trystane, the handsome fiance of Princess Myrcella, is being aged up to 18.

Areo Hotah

  • Doran’s personal bodyguard will appear throughout the season, assisting the prince with his duties. The show is particularly looking for a black actor to fill the role.

The show is also casting for the “Sand Snakes” – i.e. Oberyn’s bastard daughters.

Obara Sand

  • The eldest and most athletic Sand Snake will be having a major fight scene with a series regular character — not one who crosses her path in the books. This is an interesting change.

Nymeria Sand

  • Nymeria is described as ‘mixed race,’ with her father being the fairer (Oberyn) and her mother being darker skinned. The second oldest of these Sand Snakes, she’s beautiful, emotional and very strong.

Tyene Sand

  • The youngest of the Sand Snakes that we meet uses her wits and seductive powers and is less of a physical fighter than the other Sand Snakes. She is just as deadly as her sisters, however, but her weapon is poison.

The rest of Westeros and Essos are also getting some new faces including,

High Sparrow

  • The books’ pious head of a religious movement will be appearing in several episodes in season 5.

Septa Unella

  • The show is looking for a character actress to play the imposing and unrelenting septa who spends a lot of time with a major series character next year.

Maggy the Frog

  • A fortune teller in “A Feast for Crows” she’ll be in one episode next year.

Lollys Stokeworth

  • In ‘Mockingbird,’ Bronn announced his intention to marry Lollys, whom Tyrion considers ‘dimwitted.’ It looks like the sellsword will still be around next year.

Yezzan

  • A sleazy Meereenese slave owner.

The Waif

  • The strange child from the books that Arya encounters will likely be played by an older actress, one in her later teens, and we understand the show is specifically looking for a woman of East Asian descent for the part.

Darren Aronofsky to Bring Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy to HBO

Leave a reply

maddaddam1

Darren Aronofsky is heading to HBO with the miniseries adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s trilogy “MaddAddam.” Aronofsky could also be planning to direct as well.

“MaddAddam” was initially published in 2003. It is “speculative fiction” trilogy that first began with “Oryx and Crake”. It was followed by “The Year of the Flood” in 2009 and “MaddAddam” in 2013. “Oryx and Cake” is officially described as follows:

The narrator of Atwood’s riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes – into his own past, and back to Crake’s high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.

Aronofsky is set to produce through his Protozoa Pictures alongside Brandi-Ann Milbradt and Ari Handel. Atwood herself is attached to serve as consulting producer.

True Blood Releases Final Season Poster

Leave a reply

TrueBlood-Poster

The final season of HBO’s “True Blood” is almost here and we have the first official poster for season 7. You can see the poster above!

The series is based on “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in northwestern Louisiana. The series centers on the adventures of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress with an otherworldly quality.

“True Blood” season 7 will be the final season with 10 episodes premiering on Sunday, June 22.

Along with Paquin, “True Blood” also stars Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Alexander Skarsgård, Chris Bauer, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Lauren Bowles, Anna Camp, Nelsan Ellis, Lucy Griffiths, Rutger Hauer, Arliss Howard, Rob Kazinsky, Todd Lowe, Joe Manganiello, Michael McMillian, Kelly Overton, Robert Patrick, Carrie Preston, and Deborah Ann Woll.

The show explores several contemporary issues, such as the struggle for equal rights, discrimination and violence against minorities and homosexuals, the problems of drug addiction, the power of faith and religion, the control/influence of the media, the quest for identity, and the importance of family.

HBO Announces Premiere Dates for True Blood’s Final Season and Damon Lindelof’s The Leftovers

Leave a reply

true-blood-logo2

HBO has announced several premiere dates for the next few months. Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof’s end times drama, “The Leftovers,” will debut its 10-episode first season immediately following the Season 4 finale for Game of Thrones on Sunday, June 15 at 10 PM ET/PT. “True Blood” will kick off its seventh and final season (also 10 episodes) on June 22 at 9 PM.

“The Leftovers” is described as a “an original look at The Rapture… because it’s not entirely clear The Rapture happened.” It is based on Tom Perrotta’s novel of the same name.

This Sunday, just before “Game of Thrones'” 9 PM premier, HBO will air teasers for both “The Leftovers” and “True Blood.” You can see the teaser trailers below:

George R.R. Martin Wants to End “Game of Thrones” on the Big Screen

Leave a reply

A-Song-of-Ice-and-Fire-Volumes-1-5-Box-Set

“A Song of Ice and Fire” author George R.R. Martin recently told the Hollywood Reporter that there are currently discussions to end the HBO series, “Game of Thrones” with a film rather than with the television series.

The long running fantasy novel series was originally planned as a seven-part series, the latest installment being “A Dance with Dragons,” published in July 2011. Meanwhile, the HBO show is premiering its fourth season, this Sunday, April 6, which is said to begin by adapting the latter part of the third book. That means that the show could catch up with the books fairly soon not to mention that the actors are aging faster than the series is progressing.

Martin told the trade at the Lincoln Center premiere for the fourth season last night that the show may run longer than the books:

“It all depends on how long the main series runs. Do we run for seven years? Do we run for eight? Do we run for 10? The books get bigger and bigger (in scope). It might need a feature to tie things up, something with a feature budget, like $100 million for two hours. Those dragons get real big, you know.”

According to THR, we might also see more adaptation from Martin as his three prequel novellas, “Tales of Dunk and Egg,” set in Westeros 90 years before the events in “Game of Thrones,” are also being considered for a film adaptation. The prequel’s characters including Ser Duncan the Tall are somehow related as direct ancestors to those in “Thrones,” according to the author, though he won’t reveal how.

Game of Thrones to Wrap Up After “Seven or Eight Seasons”

Leave a reply

vanityfairgameofthrones1

With the fourth season of “Game of Thrones” literally just around the corner, Vanity Fair recently did a spread featuring the cast and news about the series.

There has been a lot of debate regarding what will happen when the series catches up with the novel series which is notoriously slow running. Show co-creator David Benioff says:

“Last year we went out to Santa Fe for a week to sit down with him [Martin] and just talk through where things are going, because we don’t know if we are going to catch up and where exactly that would be. If you know the ending, then you can lay the groundwork for it. And so we want to know how everything ends. We want to be able to set things up. So we just sat down with him and literally went through every character.”

Series author, George R.R. Martin also added,

“I can give them the broad strokes of what I intend to write, but the details aren’t there yet. I’m hopeful that I can not let them catch up with me.”

Benioff and co-creator D. B. Weiss revealed they would like to wrap it up after seven or eight seasons.

“It doesn’t just keep on going because it can. I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that.”

HBO to Debut Ryan Murphy’s The Normal Heart on May 25

Leave a reply

600full-the-normal-heart-poster

“The Normal Heart” is scheduled to debut on HBO, Sunday, May 25th. The project is based on the groundbreaking Tony Award-winning play of the same name, written by Larry Kramer. It was directed by Ryan Murphy.

The story follows the onset of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation’s sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.

“The Normal Heart” stars Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, Taylor Kitsch, Jim Parsons and Julia Roberts, the drama also stars Alfred Molina, Joe Mantello, Jonathan Groff, Denis O’Hare, Stephen Spinella, Corey Stoll, Finn Wittrock and BD Wong.

Roberts plays Dr. Emma Brookner, the paraplegic physician who treats several of the earliest victims of the disease. Ruffalo portrays Ned Weeks, who witnesses first-hand the mysterious disease that has begun to claim the lives of many in his gay community and starts to seek answers. Bomer plays Felix Turner, a reporter who becomes Ned’s lover.

Go on the Set of Game of Thrones Season 4

Leave a reply

s4-premiere

HBO has officially released a new behind the scenes video for the upcoming fourth season of “Game of Thrones.”

The fourth season will premiere on Sunday, April 6 at 9 p.m. Based on the popular book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin, the hit Emmy-winning fantasy series chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom.

Members of the ensemble cast include Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington, Natalie Dormer, Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner. The executive producers are David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger and Bernadette Caulfield, and co-executive producers are Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis and George R.R. Martin.

You can watch the behind the scenes video below: