Friday, November 14, 2008

The Game's Afoot

Good news for fans of George R.R. Martin. No, he still hasn't finished writing A Dance with Dragons, the next book of his incredibly good, yet frustratingly incomplete epic fantasy series. But HBO, who has long held the option to transform the series into a television show, has decided to go ahead and film a pilot episode.

As the article notes, several other pilots will be contending with this potential series (named A Game of Thrones, for the first book) for an actual slot on the air. But it's still reason to be optimistic.

The best thing, of course, would be for the project to actually make it to a full-fledged series. Oh, not just for the prospect of seeing such wonderful books brought to life in a format that actually allows the story to be told well, but because the series should serve to light a fire under the author.

See, the plan is for each season of the show to adapt one book of the series. If the show is successful enough to keep running, that means on the fifth year after it begins, they'll be needing that fifth book to be completed so it can be adapted. A year after that, and book six will be on deck. And one year after that, the seventh (and at this point, thought to be final) book will be up.

George R.R. Martin is a man that has worked in television before. He respects that the writing has to get done in that medium -- you can't just let there be nothing to film next week. So I would hope this finally gives him the push he needs to pick up his writing pace.

I'll be watching for HBO's reaction to the pilot with great interest.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought I heard through the gravepine that Martin himself would do the writing on the series.
Wouldn't that, well, considerably slow down his writing on the books?

(Not that I give a damn, as I've never read any of his books. But I know you've been quite frustrated with his slow pace for a great number of years now...)

FKL

DrHeimlich said...

He has indicated in the past that envisioned writing one or two episodes a season. (Presumably, pivotal ones like the finale.) Yes, it would slow his writing down somewhat. No doubt consulting on the series in any capacity would slow him down to some degree. But I think the fact remains that the fuse would be lit... the series would HAVE to be done in seven years.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and by the way, screw you and your title for making me think that, finally, you'd written an entry about Sherlock Holmes.

Damn it.

FKL