loyal to them because if it was anything less, he would have gone South. I think in Jon’s head – and this is where I’ve had to piece it together myself as to what his future plans are – I think he does want to avenge his father. He does want to join his brother eventually, and he wants to tie his position in the Night’s Watch into being able to do those things, to take his revenge on Joffrey. How he’s going to do that, I don’t think he knows yet, but he’s adamant that he will, sometime in the future. His main priority at the moment has to be with his commander and his mission North of the Wall. He hides from everyone, but he has a burning ambition to go South and to join his brother’s war, but he can’t do that yet.’
O
ORIGINAL PILOT
When news of the cast was announced, a quick glance at the many forums, message boards and comment sections underneath the stories saw just how excited – if slightly bemused – the fans were about it. ‘This is really happening, isn’t it?’ wrote one, an opinion that echoed sentiments all over the internet.
In October 2009, the unthinkable had happened – the unfilmable novel was being filmed. Lasting nearly a month, the pilot was shot in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco.
When a show interests a TV network, they usually commission a pilot episode just to see exactly what they will be getting. A script and excited producers can only go so far; until they see it with their own eyes, there will always be a touch of scepticism and hands wrapped around the budget. It’s rare that a series will be commissioned without a pilot first, and it’s unlikely that, even if it gets a series commission, the pilot that is shown to executives will be exactly the same as the one that makes it to the viewers.
Executives scrawl notes and demands, and changes often happen. A cast member can be replaced, whether it’s because it didn’t work out or, as is the usual case, their schedules make it impossible. It’s one thing to clear space in your diary for a month, but, as it can take up to a year for executives to finally agree on whether a show gets the go ahead, it’s unfair to point fingers at those who agree to another job while waiting for the series to finally get the green light. That is certainly what happened with Game of Thrones .
The original pilot was directed by The Wire actor Thomas McCarthy. He had impressed with his indie film Station Agent , which starred Peter Dinklage. Weiss and Benioff were delighted to land him, but, when they came to reshoot the pilot, he ended up making indie wrestling film Win Win , and was replaced by Tim Van Patten.
‘I did a lot of the casting,’ McCarthy said to AVCLUB.com . ‘I think we did some good work. But they’ve had to reshoot and rethink so much of it since I left, and I’ve had no involvement in that because of Win Win . I finished that right before Thanksgiving and went into Win Win over the holiday, so I literally had a week or two of downtime. I turned in an early cut, and they had to recast, and I think they rethought. You know, they’re taking on this huge book, and they rethought how to get into it and how to set it up. They had to change some locations, and they did quite a bit of work on it since I left. I’d like to think I had some impact on it, but I don’t think much of that is mine anymore.’
Benioff spoke about McCarthy to bullz-eye.com while making the original pilot, ‘Well, Tom’s really smart, for one thing, so talking to him about the project got us excited about his vision for it, and I loved his movies. I think we both loved his movies and the way he works with actors.
And, you know, the feeling was the other way to go was potentially to get someone who was known for doing the big effects things and the lavish spectacles, and, for us, what made this story we weren’t going to try to compete with Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings . There’s no way we could.
O
ORIGINAL PILOT
When news of the cast was announced, a quick glance at the many forums, message boards and comment sections underneath the stories saw just how excited – if slightly bemused – the fans were about it. ‘This is really happening, isn’t it?’ wrote one, an opinion that echoed sentiments all over the internet.
In October 2009, the unthinkable had happened – the unfilmable novel was being filmed. Lasting nearly a month, the pilot was shot in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco.
When a show interests a TV network, they usually commission a pilot episode just to see exactly what they will be getting. A script and excited producers can only go so far; until they see it with their own eyes, there will always be a touch of scepticism and hands wrapped around the budget. It’s rare that a series will be commissioned without a pilot first, and it’s unlikely that, even if it gets a series commission, the pilot that is shown to executives will be exactly the same as the one that makes it to the viewers.
Executives scrawl notes and demands, and changes often happen. A cast member can be replaced, whether it’s because it didn’t work out or, as is the usual case, their schedules make it impossible. It’s one thing to clear space in your diary for a month, but, as it can take up to a year for executives to finally agree on whether a show gets the go ahead, it’s unfair to point fingers at those who agree to another job while waiting for the series to finally get the green light. That is certainly what happened with Game of Thrones .
The original pilot was directed by The Wire actor Thomas McCarthy. He had impressed with his indie film Station Agent , which starred Peter Dinklage. Weiss and Benioff were delighted to land him, but, when they came to reshoot the pilot, he ended up making indie wrestling film Win Win , and was replaced by Tim Van Patten.
‘I did a lot of the casting,’ McCarthy said to AVCLUB.com . ‘I think we did some good work. But they’ve had to reshoot and rethink so much of it since I left, and I’ve had no involvement in that because of Win Win . I finished that right before Thanksgiving and went into Win Win over the holiday, so I literally had a week or two of downtime. I turned in an early cut, and they had to recast, and I think they rethought. You know, they’re taking on this huge book, and they rethought how to get into it and how to set it up. They had to change some locations, and they did quite a bit of work on it since I left. I’d like to think I had some impact on it, but I don’t think much of that is mine anymore.’
Benioff spoke about McCarthy to bullz-eye.com while making the original pilot, ‘Well, Tom’s really smart, for one thing, so talking to him about the project got us excited about his vision for it, and I loved his movies. I think we both loved his movies and the way he works with actors.
And, you know, the feeling was the other way to go was potentially to get someone who was known for doing the big effects things and the lavish spectacles, and, for us, what made this story we weren’t going to try to compete with Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings . There’s no way we could.
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