HBO and George RR MartinFollow

HBO turns 'Fire' into fantasy series


HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"Fire" is the first TV project for Benioff ("Troy") and Weiss ("Halo") and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

The series will begin with the 1996 first book, "A Game of Thrones," and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season's worth of episodes. Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won't complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.

The author will co-exec produce the series along with Management 360's Guymon Casady and Created By's Vince Gerardis.

Martin's series has drawn comparisons to J.R.R. Tolkien, because both are period epics set in imagined lands. But Martin has eschewed Tolkien's good-vs.-evil theme in favor of flawed characters from seven noble families.

The book has a decidedly adult bent, with sex and violence comparable to series like "Rome" and "Deadwood."

"They tried for 50 years to make 'Lord of the Rings' as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three," Martin said. "My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you'd have to choose one or two characters."

Aside from writing the most recent draft of "Halo," Weiss recently adapted the William Gibson novel "Pattern Recognition" for WB and director Peter Weir.

Benioff and Weiss were repped by CAA and Management 360.

This sounds interesting. While I felt really letdown by the last installment of the series, due to putting all the less favorable characters together and keeping out the more interesting characters until the next book, I really enjoyed the storytelling of George RR Martin and his little world of politics. One of the best things about his style is that there is no definitive "good guy" or "bad guy" which makes what happens all the more interesting. If done well, I think this could really be a great series. Id be willing to buy HBO for season 1 to see if my attention can be caught.

T_T 4 more years till i get to finish the series~

o well, i've heard good things are worth waiting for and these books certinly are very good

Yeah, if it's on HBO don't get too attached to it.

Bastards.

Bah, the novels are *****. I traded mine off at the local book store, I couldnt even finish the third book. Utter crap.

My friend and I were just talking about this. I am glad to see it is getting done. Hopefully they don't eff them up too bad. Also, it will be interesting to see how they handle Martin's take on "a woman grown." Lots of young harlots in the book do very bad things. Shae comes to mind.



Just curious as to why you think they are crap.

Edited, Jan 19th 2007 9:42am by Mearyk

I loved the first three books, though the fourth one was rather dull (I know, I know... his publishers forced him to split his book up 'cause it was getting to big so he seperated the characters... bleh...). However, I'm sure that the fifth book (which gets back to the characters we've really been following) will be great... if ever finished it of course (he does have a habit of taking his time between books....)

I actually met Martin once at a book signing in Atlanta with the 3rd book--was only 1 of 4 people that was there when he arrived (bad advertising I guess). Got to talk to him for a bit about other writers (how cool Roger Zelazny was and how much Jack Whyte sucks) and he gave me some interesting ideas for a book I was working on about Tristan & Isolde (which got put on the backburner for other pursuits). Very nice guy.

Agreed. I hated the books, they were terrible.

aren't you a little ray of fucking sunshine?

This continuing trend in adapting fantasy novel series into movies bodes well for my future.