My discussion with one of the producers

[Smoldering Hound]

After watching the Big Love spots, I can already see the Game of Thrones spot:

Robert: "I vowed to kill Rhaegar for what he did to her"
Ned: "You did."
Robert: "only once"
cut to
Viseris: "I shall kill the Usurper myself, as he killed my brother Rhaegar."
cut to
Robert: "I will kill every Targaryen I can get my hands on, until they are as dead as their dragons, and then I will piss on their graves."

That'll be a sweet red herring set up overemphasizing the non-Stark/Lannister conflict, and end the "why the heck are we doing this eastern storyline anyway" question.

[The Iceman of the North]

Regarding the quotes, I don't think they should include any names or houses making them too obviously coming from ASOIAF. Cersei's line mentioning the Game of Thrones is also unfortunate, even if it's a good line. (Perhaps using lower case for "Game of Thrones" will help?)

[israfel070]

[quote name='Smoldering Hound' post='1653627' date='Jan 18 2009, 20.59']After watching the Big Love spots, I can already see the Game of Thrones spot:

Robert: "I vowed to kill Rhaegar for what he did to her"
Ned: "You did."
Robert: "only once"
cut to
Viseris: "I shall kill the Usurper myself, as he killed my brother Rhaegar."
cut to
Robert: "I will kill every Targaryen I can get my hands on, until they are as dead as their dragons, and then I will piss on their graves."

That'll be a sweet red herring set up overemphasizing the non-Stark/Lannister conflict, and end the "why the heck are we doing this eastern storyline anyway" question.[/quote]

If you advertise a hatred-to-the-death between two characters, you have to pay off on it. This would give people the impression that Robert and Viserys are the primary protagonist and antagonist. When that turned out to be inaccurate, viewers would get frustrated.

[Perin Stone]

[quote name='Brude' post='1652657' date='Jan 17 2009, 17.36'][*]Arya (face and hands bloodied, with Needle in hand) - "Stick them with the pointy end."[/quote]

Not sure that a giant poster of a bloody eight/nine year old girl is a good idea to promote the series....

[Brude]

[quote name='Perin Stone' post='1655661' date='Jan 20 2009, 15.42']Not sure that a giant poster of a bloody eight/nine year old girl is a good idea to promote the series....[/quote]
For HBO it's just fine...also it will be controversial and that's always good for ginning up interest in something.

[whiteislemaiden]

[quote name='Mike' post='1630232' date='Dec 25 2008, 10.09']Yes. American audiences ate up LOTR, and that is nothing but black and white. They want gray characters in their cop shows and their mob shows b/c that resembles real life. ASOIAF will be escapist fantasy...but only initially. Starks = good, Lannisters = evil will only hold up for a few episodes. Tyrion will challenge that notion. Daenarys (and Robert's handling of her) will challenge that notion. The Hound and Jaime will be nothing but antagonists until later in the series. That is what makes ASOIAF so endearing. Everyone is gray. Everyone. This show will be escapist fantasy until the American audience feels comfortable and then it all gets turned on its head. I hope it stays on long enough.[/quote]


If a series like "Legend of the Seeker" can hold up for as many episodes as it has, I'm sure that GoT will hold up for at least enough episodes to extinguish the black/whiteness. That's what I like about ASOIAF though -- characters seem like they are good or bad, but than Martin challenges that: only initially are characters so black and white as the Starks being good and the Lannisters being bad.

[Smoldering Hound]

[quote name='israfel070' post='1655545' date='Jan 20 2009, 11.29']If you advertise a hatred-to-the-death between two characters, you have to pay off on it. This would give people the impression that Robert and Viserys are the primary protagonist and antagonist. When that turned out to be inaccurate, viewers would get frustrated.[/quote]

That's the beauty of this series...absolutely nothing is as expected. The payoff is this is the reason Ned takes the Hand Job, to curb Robert's bloodthirstyness, and the reason Viseris sells Dany to Drogo. Red herring, red herring, red herring, baby.

[El-ahrairah]

[quote name='Brude' post='1652657' date='Jan 17 2009, 17.36'][*]Arya (face and hands bloodied, with Needle in hand) - "Stick them with the pointy end."[/quote]

That. Would. Be. Perfect. (Just make sure it's a 90-foot tall Soviet-style poster.)

[L’Age d’or]

The black and white comment made me giggle.

[Ikael]

[quote]Nice post Ikael, the above comment is making me imagine all of the bus shelter and subway platform posters of the various characters and their choice quotes (some of these are from memory, so forgive me if they are not exactly correct):

* Eddard Stark - "Winter is Coming" (or the "No, this is how it ends" line instead)
* Jamie Lannister - "The things I do for love."
* Cersei Lannister - "When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground."
* Arya (face and hands bloodied, with Needle in hand) - "Stick them with the pointy end."
* Tyrion Lannister - "That's why they made whores, for people like me."
* Daenerys Targaryan - "I will give them what they least expect, I will give them justice." [okay, it's not from the first book but it sums her up perfectly - maybe something from GoT is more appropriate][/quote]

Nice post too! Yup, it is amazing how much easy is to advertise this. But that is conventional marketing (and with cool slogans too!), and yes, it can work great. But when I thought about viral I thought about more bizarre, mindf_cking things with the cooperation of fans in order to create media coverage, say, to cover an emblematic statue with liquid nitrogene and put near a sign of "winter is coming", a parade of fans dressed up as members of the nightwatch, these kind of things. If they apply the viral model used for the promotion of "The Dark Knight" they will find freaking gold I tell you.

[Smoldering Hound]

Here's the thing about viral marketing:

Numa Numa dude may like it, but Starwars kid doesn't. Good luck figuring out which is which before the genie gets out of the bottle.

[Angalin]

[quote name='Ikael' post='1658480' date='Jan 22 2009, 13.49']Nice post too! Yup, it is amazing how much easy is to advertise this. But that is conventional marketing (and with cool slogans too!), and yes, it can work great. But when I thought about viral I thought about more bizarre, mindf_cking things with the cooperation of fans in order to create media coverage, say, to cover an emblematic statue with liquid nitrogene and put near a sign of "winter is coming", a parade of fans dressed up as members of the nightwatch, these kind of things. If they apply the viral model used for the promotion of "The Dark Knight" they will find freaking gold I tell you.[/quote]
Two things: "The Dark Knight" is about Batman. ASOIAF has nothing like the following or history or emotional investment that Batman, born 1939, has for generations of people (and not just comics fans). As well, if the promotions get too weird, they will just put off the audience that the show needs to survive and succeed. The posters are indeed mainstream, but that's who HBO needs to have watching.

[Ikael]

[quote]Two things: "The Dark Knight" is about Batman. ASOIAF has nothing like the following or history[/quote]
True. Batman is a far more recognaissable pop icon than... well, pretty much everything. Still, the approach that they used in order to promote the dark knight focused and appealed to the very niche of the fanbase (then expanded into the mainstream).

[quote]or emotional investment[/quote]
False. ASIOFAF, while of course having a way smaller following than Batman, it doesnt have fans with less of an emotional investment. There has already people one the board that have offered their services "to the cause" or have brought new readers to the series via mouth to mouth. It is a valuable resource that can (and IMHO, should) be levered used to promote the series.

[quote]As well, if the promotions get too weird, they will just put off the audience that the show needs to survive and succeed. The posters are indeed mainstream, but that's who HBO needs to have watching.[/quote]
Sure, these are not mutually exclusive things. Noone is saying that the promotion should focuse on the people that already knows the series and ignore the mainstream, but rather that it should get the people that already know the series involved in other to bring the mainstream into the series. And weirdness for the shake of weirdness is stupid, but a properly done viral campaign use bizarre (or funny or spectacular) actions in order to spark interest and curiosity (not to freak out people for the shake of advertising avant garde).

[The Anti-Targ]

[quote name='Smoldering Hound' post='1656387' date='Jan 21 2009, 18.32']... this is the reason Ned takes the Hand Job...[/quote]

:rofl:
:smileysex:

That was deliberate right? Or was it a true Freudian slip?

[Angalin]

[quote name='Ikael' post='1662024' date='Jan 25 2009, 15.58']False. ASIOFAF, while of course having a way smaller following than Batman, it doesnt have fans with less of an emotional investment.[/quote]
ASOIAF fans have an emotional investment in the series, sure; but I'd say Batman is on a different level, in part because the character has been around so long and in part because Batman is accessible from a very young age, which ASOIAF definitely is not. As well, I can talk about Batman to just about any audience and they'll know who I mean and what he stands for, but - even if the series is picked up by HBO - most people will still look blank at the mention of Starks and Lannisters.

[fitheach]

To reply to the original meaning of this thread.... If the "producer" is borderline on how she feels about this project and how many years it may take to finish- then she shouldn't be a part of it. Period.

If she isn't interested in working on a show that could possibly be a part of TV history- a show that will be remembered for years to come as an amazing series, then she should do something she finds a bit more solid.... Safer....

No one makes their name in Hollywood without taking a chance, but maybe she just wants a job.

[Ser Monte]

[quote name='fitheach' post='1674571' date='Feb 4 2009, 23.18']No one makes their name in Hollywood without taking a chance, but maybe she just wants a job.[/quote]

Well said and I second this motion.

[Rimmer]

Not worth posting a new thread over, but here's a little bit of hearsay from [url="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=15072249&posted=1#post15072249"]another board[/url]. Pretty tame, so I doubt he's just making it up:

[quote]I was at a function tonight and got a chance to talk to the President of HBO Programming for a bit. I expressed my delight at them ordering a pilot, and we chatted for a bit.

He confirmed the Ireland filming location for later this year, and he said that the script Benioff wrote is absolutely amazing. He also said that it's important for them to really focus on the characters and make sure their performance comes out because he said he doesn't look at A Game of Thrones as a special effects event but rather as a really intense character story. He mentioned that after the script was passed around, everyone at the office went and picked up the books and they're all hooked, so that bodes well. He said it's a super expensive pilot, and it's risky in the sense that if it doesn't get made in the right way, it won't be as good as potential allows it to be.

Anyway, just an update for you.[/quote]

If the people involved are this enthusiastic about it then it can't be bad.

[Myrddin]

[quote name='Rimmer' post='1715986' date='Mar 11 2009, 02.50']Not worth posting a new thread over, but here's a little bit of hearsay from [url="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=15072249&posted=1#post15072249"]another board[/url]. Pretty tame, so I doubt he's just making it up:[/quote]
I don't believe this...

You go to [i]other [/i]boards?
Does Ran know you're running around on other forums behind his back?

:stunned:


That report is the best news we've heard in a while. I'm glad they're approaching this as a character piece and that reading the pilot made everyone go out and buy the books.

Makes me wonder if the pilot script that's circling here is the real deal. It was good, but didn't blow me away, but that might just be because I know what happens next.

[Brude]

[quote name='Myrddin' post='1716284' date='Mar 11 2009, 12.30']Makes me wonder if the pilot script that's circling here is the real deal. It was good, but didn't blow me away, but that might just be because I know what happens next.[/quote]
I'm pretty certain the draft we've all seen is a first draft, but that it is real. My understanding is there have been at least two rewrites since then, so what they greenlit the project based upon might have some major differences, we don't know. I do think it's real, what we've seen. It's of a professional quality, from my experience.

This is a great bit of news, though. I'm glad to hear it.

Annoyingly, further down the thread the OP of this info says that they did cast Tyrion but he didn't catch the actor's name....GRRRRRR!!! How doth fate tempt us so.