Christoph Waltz would be awesome as Littlefinger, from what I remember of the character. Doesn't quite look like I imagine Littlefinger to, but that's not really a big deal.

 

Grand Maester Pycelle is to be played by Roy Dotrice

I read the books before watching Inglorious Basterdsm and as I was watching the begging, I thought to myself: Holy Shit, that's exactly how Littlefinger acts.

More casting news

Yesterday, GRRM mentioned a couple of clues on his blog about a potential casting.

Now over on Winter is Coming, the commentators figured out those clues within 6 or 7 comments, since Roy Dotrice fought in World War II, played the father in Beauty and the Beast (a show that George used to write and produce for), played Zeus in Hercules (TV show), and King Balor in Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Today, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire series confirmed that the man who narrates the audiobooks to his series has officially been cast as Grand Maester Pycelle.

Martin mentions Dotrice's work on the audiobooks and his familiarity, which leads me to believe that he had a hand in this casting. Combined with his words on Dotrice's casting, I believe that GRRM might have exerted a bit of of that co-executive producer influence to get Dotrice involved in the show. Here is what George had to say on the casting.
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Now, I'm not personally familiar with any of our new Pycelle's work, so I looked him up on Youtube. I found that the man is a pretty good actor and has some versatility to him as I saw him perform in a comedic role, pay a tough father, and even act as a coach. But you can judge for yourselves by going here.

---------- Post automerged 06-24-2010 at 03:32 PM ---------- Previous post was 06-23-2010 at 08:51 PM ----------

I was right, we are set to get a casting announcement for Littlefinger soon. In the update announcing Dotrice's casting, Martin had this to say.

Harper Lee is the guy who wrote the classic To Kill a Mockingbird. How does that tie into Game of Thrones casting? Littlefinger uses the mockingbird on his crest. I pray to sweet baby Jesus that they got a terrific actor for Baeliesh. I know guys like Waltz and Norton are just pipedreams, but a guy like Emerson or West shouldn't be out of the question.

 

Couple of new teasers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAZzCFPcLoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjY6QnOPcoI&feature=channel

Getting seriously excited for this.

However, GRRM's size is worrying. I'm now genuinely concerned he will die before the series is finished. If this occurs, we may have to rely on the TV series to finish it off for us, from his notes.

Also, the woman cast as Catelyn Stark was also cast as Mrs. Granger in Deathly Hallows.

Cersei is Leonidas's Queen from 300. We've got peter Dinklage for Tyrion, which is pretty good. Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) looks suitably hot (she's my favourite character at the moment, Jon coming in a close second). Check out the second link above for how hot she looks (1:24).

 

I'm not convinced they would - I can't see the TV show closely following the later books. I found them heavy going because by that point there were so many different characters, half of whom I didn't really care about. I don't think they'll get a literal translation onto the TV screen, so I suspect that by that point the two would have diverged quite significantly.

I would prefer him not to die just yet though. Despite what I just said about the later books, I'm still keen to read the remaining ones. I don't like not finding out an ending after I've started a series.

She'll do.

 

That said, GRRM dying before he finished the series would be perfectly appropriate, given the nature of the series.

 

Something similar happened with Robert Jorden; died before completing. Weird considering his story was always based around the theme of it never ending. Besides weird it was nerd-rage worthy.

GRRM doing the same would suck as bad, and could happen.

As to the show. I don't think it would diverge at all, but probably just concentrate on a few POV's, while other events get mentioned but not actually shown. I hope one of those POV's is Arya's and Tyrion's; two of my absolute favorites.

 

Sacrilege.

/filler

 

At least he had time to write down his plans for how it was going to end and get Brandon Sanderson to finish it off. I gave up on that series a few books back, but I hear Sanderson's doing a pretty good job.

I'm not totally sure on this idea of leaving notes though; Dune hasn't gone wonderfully since Frank Herbert's death.

 

It's not like they die intentionally to leave it for others to finish. but if worst comes to worst, I prefer it that they leave notes so that other writers can finish the work. They may or may not do a good job of doing so but it would be better then leaving the work unfinished.

 

Damn you all to hell! I come here expecting a release date for the next book and i find you all talking about the author's death, yes i know he's fucking old and a dick but come on.

Anyway my wrath has been sated by the youtube links, the actor playing Tyrion better be up to the task and Emilia is looking hot. Though i never pictured Ned Stark as Sean Bean but now i cant see him as anything else. Oooh is that Lena Headey?

I have to admit they have a really good set of talent for this adaptation and i hope they dont fuck it up but if GRRM dies then it might be the only source for a suitable conclusion to the series, or if he leaves enough notes for someone else.

 

If it helps, A Dance With Dragons supposedly only has a few chapters left that should be completed before the new year.

Supposedly.

 

Fuck that noise. In my copy of Feast, there's a note from him that said some of the book was already written, pages and pages, but he just concentrated on a few characters. The others would be along in the next book.

"One year from now.(I devoutly hope.)" That was back in 05'. I love the story and his writing style to death, but he's been promising this book for far too long. I know I can't say shit about how long it takes to write, but I think five years, plus whatever he already had, should be plenty of time.

/rage.

 

Apparently you haven't seen this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6a1y1pc-GQ

 

LOL. Pretty funny, but it doesn't negate my point. If you start on a multi-book project, it's not unreasonable for those supporting you to expect you to continue it in a timely manner. Three years is my personal belief between each book; enough to tackle other projects or take a few long breaks.

Again, this is spoken in ignorance to writing a book, but I've seen other authors, with matching length and quality, manage it. Why not him?

 

I don't know much about GRRM, but what if he as many writers (not to mention almost every fanfiction writer) grew bored of this particular story? Can you imagine how much pain it casts him to finish it when he planned not one, but three more books?

As for a tv-show, I'm looking forward to it. There is so little good fantasy on tv and it has a potential to be quite epic.

 

As a fanfiction writer, I would drop the story with a "I'm sorry, grew tired of it." Kind of like nmb. Understandable and we lament. That's his choice and his hobby.

This is GRRM job. There's a distinction. I've worked at jobs I hated, but kept doing it because I needed money. Different situation here, but I've little sympathy for the pain he has to endure for being bored with a story when he started it. Didn't like it taking so long, don't plan a six book series.

Of course, I'm now sounded like an entitled asshole, so I'm going to leave this with: I'm frustrated and want the story to be completed because I enjoy it a lot and wish he would continue it. It's hard to invest that much of my time and money into a series that seems to be on hiatus for that long.

 

THIS!

If he really doesnt like doing it, he should come out and say "Fuck this shit, the series ended at book four and use your fucking imaginations to create an ending you would be happy with. Fuck you all!", well to be honest i'm pissed either way.

 

The only thing that would really irritate me is if the tv series caught up to the books. Last book took him 5 years, the current one we're waiting on has been 5 years. I mean seriously, I hope he's been working on a buffer for books 6/7 or something.

 

I doubt the story will ever end in any way stories normally do. It'd be against the theme of the books. In some ways, it doesn't matter where he just randomly leaves off the story, because it won't ever tie itself up in a nice neat way. There will always be more people plotting; new generations of people who seek power or revenge.