Discussion on:

Game of Thrones: New HBO series is a feast for geeks

Link to original post:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/hiner/game-of-thrones-new-hbo-series-is-a-feast-for-geeks/8133

Seat booked, beer and pop corn on tap.
Interupt at your peril.
If they make a bollocks of it, I'll be really unhappy...

It's definitely not "bollocks." I got to screen the first few episodes and I think it's a faithful adaptation of the book. I'll be interested to see if you agree.

A damn good start. Saw nothing to complain of, aside from they could have been more scantily clad women.
The guy playing Viserys was excellent, I wanted to punch him out almost immediately.

Can't wait for episode two.

should be fantastic, even better for me as most of it was shot in Northern Ireland and I work for the boody who helped to get it here by part funding it and providing the Paint Hall studio facility (biggest in Europe)

I wonder why rigid faithfulness to the original material is so longed for when a strict following of the original can often bog down a movie. Books and movies are very different media with different dramatic needs. What works on the page doesn't always work on the screen and vice versa. Jason, you said yourself that Lord of the Rings was a great movie trilogy and I think the vast majority of people who saw it would agree with you. Part of what made it so good was the willingness to tell the story in a way that really worked in a visual and aural medium like a movie, cutting away characters and scenes because they would have interfered with the flow of the story, while retaining faithfulness to the general themes and ideas of the books. In other words: be true to the original, but don't be a slave to it. Otherwise you end up with the 1st 2 Harry Potter movies. (Probably not a totally fair example because Lord of the Rings had so many things going for it big time like great writing, cinematography, directing, terrific casting & acting, but you get the idea.)

I'm really looking forward to watching the series.

Too many movies which claim to be based on a book have absolutely nothing to do with the original story, or radically alter core elements. In such cases, disappointment could be lowered by saying the movie is loosely inspired by the book, and not using the book's title. Finer details don't always matter, excepting in cases where, say, the dialogue is more important to a book/movie than the actual storyline or even the plot.

The number of shows and movies I'd consider watching don't add up to enough savings over movies I go to in the theaters; or movies that I'd like to watch, but don't consider worth paying even a theater matinee price for.

However, I'll probably pick up the DVDs of this when it comes out.

By the way, the made for TV version of Dune was far superior to the theater version; and adhered much more closely to the book. Game of Thrones promises to likewise.

In my opinion, Peter Jackson's version of the Lord of the Rings is the best so far. But it does lack the full richness of the books, and misses, or worse, distorts, much of the background and actual story lines. Most of the casting was right on; although I'm not sure the selections for the hobbits were quite what I'd have made, although that may be a factor of how they were told to portray the hobbits rather than their native acting ability.

I'm a huge fan. I've read all the books and in fact I'm re-reading Feast for Crows to refresh myself when the new book comes out in July. HBO always does things right however I have no idea how they are going to introduce soooo many charcters to the overall plot? There are many Kingdoms and of course the Wall! The guy who plays Littlefinger has his work cut out for him. Between him my other favorites are Tyrion and the hound! George's books are borderline porno at times so I'm really curious how far of the envelope they are going to push while trying to appease the masses. I dont want porn but there are so many sexual encounters. So far the casting that I've seen visually are impressive, now we will see if they can deliver. Has anyone seen the war that George and Carlton Cuse have been waging? George ran his mouth about Lost having a bad finale and "not wanting to pull a Lost" that sparked quite the ire of Cuse. MArtin is now on the hook to make this everrything it should and could be. I with theguy my seat is booked, the beer will be cold, and the pizza will be piping hot as my home theater rocks in the world of Westoros!
ps. If I created any spoilers, my apologies.

It is most interesting to analyze how screenwriters choose to adapt dense and complicated literary works for a new medium. Ralph Bakshi attempted to film Lord of the Rings as two animated films back in the 1970s, but that effort failed rather spectacularly. It was decades before Peter Jackson managed to pull it off. Game of Thrones is going to be interesting, as the series has a devoted fan base that might be difficult to please. I'm seeing similar issues with the new filmed adaptation of Atlas Shrugged, a massive 1,200 page book far more controversial than most fanatasy epics, but with a very vocal following of loyal fans who have waited decades to see what Hollywood might do to their favorite novel. Having seen Atlas Shrugged Part 1 at a preview last week, I'm optimistic that most Rand fans will be pleasantly surprised at how skillfully the filmmakers managed to condense the story into a tight, fast-paced thriller with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger ending. Some pivotal events from the novel are inserted out of order, but this may be the only way they could have done it and set the stage for Part 2.

I was always a SciFi fan rather than Fantasy fan until sister turned me onto the Game of Thrones, et.al. With such rich characters, I have been anxiously awaiting to see how this translates to the flat-screen. I have been watching the snipppets that HBO has been posting from the show and the show's background. Several of the roles are (joyfully) played by outstanding actors who easily convey the complexity of their characters. Some have not had a 'snippet' in which they would have the opportunity to display their talents. With so much to look forward to, I shall be parked in front of the tube with a mug of mead and bowl of biscuits - let the games begin!

There is some sex in it, but one of the parts of good fantasy is getting as much real in it as you can, and horrifying as this might be, in real life people do have sex, and quite often who they have sex with does have an impact on their daily life....

Now whether this adaption will be littered with bared breasts and lift music instead of powerful characterisation, faithfulness to the book, and good acting is something those of us who've read the book await with baited breath.

Oh and it wasn't me who downvoted you, life seems to be picking on you enough as it is....

What is rubbish sex by the way, can't say I've com across it.

I'd rather doubt Martin is big on gratuitous sex wrapped in a sci-fi or fantasy facade, from the works I've read. And he wouldn't have gotten as far as he has in these genres if that were the sort of writer he is. He'd be writing vampire stories.

And I'll take your positive estimation of Game of Thrones as a recommendation, as I've never read these. Thanks.

But it's definitely one of the best sword and sorcery efforts I've ever read.
Thye've done a reprint for the tv launch as well, so it shouldnlt be difficult to get hold of.

...but I'm skeptical that people gushing about what a great job HBO does would know it. HBO has a reputation for making movies with terrific potential, but mostly they do a bang-up job of unraveling the stories at the end. If they were an airline, many of their movies would be considered "controlled flight into terrain" - i.e. crash due to pilot error.

From the comments about the TV version of Dune, I'll have to find it somewhere, as I never watched it. The movie, "Dune", horribly butchered the stories and characters to the point where I refused to watch anything else afterward. Thanks for giving me some hope for redemption.

I am a fantasy fan and I will definitely watch Game of Thrones at some point in the future, but I can't be too excited about this thing being made by HBO.