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| Forums Index -> The Terror Tube -> SONG OF ICE AND FIRE coming to HBO |
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 Posted:
Thu Jan 18, 2007 1:50 pm
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Joined: 05 Jul 2006
Posts: 862
Location: Xibalba
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HBO are planning to turn George R.R. Martin's ginormous fantasy SONG OF ICE AND FIRE septology (there are seven books in the series) into a 7 season long megabudget TV series.
http://www2.variety.com/ref.asp?u=AICN&p=1MQT&sid=VR1117957532
So, never having read these books, is there any horror content in them? From what others have said it's supposedly "dark" fantasy as opposed to the candy-ass goodie-two-shoes stuff. |
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Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:38 pm
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 620
Location: WI
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I'm reserving my excitement until things progress a bit further. The rights to the books have been purchased, and the project is "under development" with only a couple of B-list producers attached at this point. The number of projects that die at this stage far outnumber the ones that get made. When shooting starts, then I'll get excited.
That said, an pay-cable (non-censoring) ongoing series is a great format for these books. Still a couple more problems. It's a 7-book series, but only 4 have been written. Worse, George RR Martin's writing seems to slowing as of late, and some fans are worrying that the end to this series may never come. If he takes the 5 years between books to finish, we don't see the end until 2021 (assuming more books aren't added to the originally planned 7). Also, given HBO's history with other period piece series (Carnivale, Deadwood, Rome), it's hard for me to believe they'd stick with this to the end, and not bail out after a couple of seasons before citing that its too expensive.
| Caterpillar wrote: | | So, never having read these books, is there any horror content in them? From what others have said it's supposedly "dark" fantasy as opposed to the candy-ass goodie-two-shoes stuff. |
SoIaF is about as far away from "candy-ass goodie-two-shoes stuff" as you can get. Even if a candy-ass goodie-two-shoes character pops up, odds are likely they'll be robbed, raped, tortured, and gorily murdered before too long. It's a hard R: sex, rape, incest, torture, mass murder, gore, sex and violence involving children. It's dark dark stuff. More akin to Shakespearean tragedy than Tolkein. Which is a problem some fantasy fans have with it -- the fantasy aspects of this are rather light. There are creatures to be sure (dragons, giants, zombies, dire wolves) and some characters have magical abilities. But mostly things are reality-based, and could just as easily have taken place in medieval Europe.
If you're a stickler for outright horror content, I don't know if there will be enough for you. Though many horrible things happen, like I said it's more like a Shakespearean tragedy. The writing in the books is outstanding, and there are several shocking scenes that will affect even the most jaded readers. You could try the first book, and see how that grabs you. If you don't like it after that (and want to read more), I think it's safe to say the series is not for you. Be warned though ... the series is not finished. The most optimistic outlook is for it not finishing until 2011 ... the pessimistic outlook is it never gets finished. The series is conceived as a giant story, so none of the books leave you in a good spot (imagine the Tolkein series ending after any of those books). I usually make a point of never starting a series like this until its completely done, but I made an exception for this because of all the raves I heard. |
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Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:08 am
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Joined: 29 Aug 2006
Posts: 701
Location: Australia
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This makes no sense to me as we're only 4 books in ... BUT - and this but warrants the use of capitals - this would be my absolute dream TV series. I can imagine nothing that would excite me more on the small box, and there's no way ASOIAF could ever be turned into a series of films. It's just too big, bad (in the good sense) and brutal.
You'll know by the end of the Prologue to the first book if you're going to like it, Catepillar. I was instantly hooked, and though things slowed a little through Book IV, it's been the best series of books I've ever had the pleasure to read.
Fuck yeah!!!!!
More info here: http://www.georgerrmartin.com/news.html
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I'll keep digging ... 'til I feel something here |
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Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:34 am
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Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 1022
Location: On... teh INTERWEB!!1!
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I'm only through 2 books so far, and I don't know how they are going to do it. I can take a lot of stuff, and while I know that historically this kind of stuff happened, the large amount of youth sex is going to make this interesting. I suppose that a lot of it could be done with clever editing, but still.
The series is pretty damn good, but yeah, it will be pushing it on the budget. Lots of over the top action, but that is after the first book. The first season should not be that bad as far as price.
I guess it is just going to be "wait and see" for me. |
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| Posted:
Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:40 am
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Dread Central Staff
Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 1305
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For anybody who contributes to this thread in a "fan" aspect...
NEVER bitch about FANGORIA putting fantasy or sci-fi in their magazine ever again.
You just did it here at Dread Central yourselves.
Fuck a sword, gimme a machete.
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When you are beautiful it's only skin deep, but when you are ugly it's all the way through. |
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| Posted:
Sat Jan 20, 2007 11:03 am
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Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 620
Location: WI
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| The Butcher wrote: | For anybody who contributes to this thread in a "fan" aspect...
NEVER bitch about FANGORIA putting fantasy or sci-fi in their magazine ever again.
You just did it here at Dread Central yourselves.
Fuck a sword, gimme a machete. |
 Wow, someone's got a bug up their butt. We already have threads in this forum for "Heroes", "Battlestar Gallactica", "Doctor Who", "Rome". There are so few horror series currently on the air, that no one seems to have a problem with discussion of other "genre" shows to get lumped in. |
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| Posted:
Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:32 pm
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Joined: 29 Dec 2006
Posts: 486
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| I love the series. Its fantastic and quite possibly one of, if not THE, best fantasy series I have ever read. There's no real good and evil here. The story is told through different POVs so we different sides of the story. So we might think one character is horrible through the opinion of another, and then its turned upside down when we get to the other's mindset. |
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