So when can we expect to see the pilot on teevee?

[Andhaira]

Sorry if this is redundant but didn't see a thread devoted to this.

Now that we know filming will begin in October, and assuming all goes to plan and a series is commissioned, when can we expect to see the pilot? Will it be shown AFTER the entire series is underway, or shown before?

Is Feb a good estimate?

I have to say with this and Star Wars live action, things are looking very exciting for tv viewers. :)

[Sandor's Lady]

Sorry if this is redundant but didn't see a thread devoted to this.

Now that we know filming will begin in October, and assuming all goes to plan and a series is commissioned, when can we expect to see the pilot? Will it be shown AFTER the entire series is underway, or shown before?

Is Feb a good estimate?

I have to say with this and Star Wars live action, things are looking very exciting for tv viewers. :)

I would say Feb is probably a decent guess. The last article I read - the one announcing the location in N. Ireland - said they planned to film in Fall of this year, and hoped to release the pilot on HBO late winter/early spring next year.

However - since we've yet to get any news as to who the director is, whether any of the major parts have been cast, etc, I'd say that's more of a guess and less of a solid deadline.

[The Mance]

Has there ever been any rhyme or reason to the starting dates of HBO seasons?

[Parris]

Sorry if this is redundant but didn't see a thread devoted to this.

Now that we know filming will begin in October, and assuming all goes to plan and a series is commissioned, when can we expect to see the pilot? Will it be shown AFTER the entire series is underway, or shown before?

Is Feb a good estimate?

Before I give you my opinion, let me once again state I know nothing about the internal workings of the AGoT production or HBO beyond what is in public, and some casual knowledge picked up over the years George worked in Hollywood and the people we know in the industry.

It would be very very very unlikely to see the pilot on HBO in the early months of 2010.

1) post production usually takes a couple of months. All indications are that HBO is taking some time deciding what the new pilots in development will become productions with a full season order. Even after seeing the completed pilot, it could take several months to make a decision to greenlight AGoT.

2) If the show is ordered for a full season, there's scripts to write, production to plan, actors to schedule, key grips to hire, sets to build, CGI to create, costumes to sew, locations to finalize, and then the episodes have to be shot. I can see HBO starting the season if 5-6 episodes are in the can if they really love it and there's some scheduling problems or failing series, but IIRC, that's not their SOP. They often wait until all the episodes have been shot before starting scheduling and promotion. This series is going to cost a frak of a lot of money, and there likely will be a big promotion campaign before it airs.

So I don't expect the series to start airing on HBO any earlier than the summer of 2010, and that's being very very optimistic.

Waiting Is.

[quigon87]

Before I give you my opinion, let me once again state I know nothing about the internal workings of the AGoT production or HBO beyond what is in public, and some casual knowledge picked up over the years George worked in Hollywood and the people we know in the industry.

It would be very very very unlikely to see the pilot on HBO in the early months of 2010.

1) post production usually takes a couple of months. All indications are that HBO is taking some time deciding what the new pilots in development will become productions with a full season order. Even after seeing the completed pilot, it could take several months to make a decision to greenlight AGoT.

2) If the show is ordered for a full season, there's scripts to write, production to plan, actors to schedule, key grips to hire, sets to build, CGI to create, costumes to sew, locations to finalize, and then the episodes have to be shot. I can see HBO starting the season if 5-6 episodes are in the can if they really love it and there's some scheduling problems or failing series, but IIRC, that's not their SOP. They often wait until all the episodes have been shot before starting scheduling and promotion. This series is going to cost a frak of a lot of money, and there likely will be a big promotion campaign before it airs.

So I don't expect the series to start airing on HBO any earlier than the summer of 2010, and that's being very very optimistic.

Waiting Is.

Im with this guy, expect fall 2010 realistically...

[Aoede]

Estimate: http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/2009/...-is-virtue.html

Supporting evidence: http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/2009/...tue-part-2.html

Bam.

[Parris]

Estimate: http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/2009/...-is-virtue.html

Supporting evidence: http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/2009/...tue-part-2.html

Bam.

No. Not a Bam. That's speculation of the highest order. I appreciate that fans are eager to see the results of the pilot, and yearn for an immediate HBO pickup, but that's not the vibe I'm getting off information - actual information - from news reports, interviews and other sources.

The problem with thinking that a filmed pilot means nearly instantaneous gratification is that it will lead to intense anticipation and then major disappointment.

Everything that I know about this production and how filming a one hour per episode television series is done indicates that even if HBO totally falls in love with the production, even if they've got Sean Bean, Dinklage and Nicole Kidman lined up to do parts, I just don't see AGoT hitting the airways before summer 2010 (very unlikely), and I think fall of 2010, maybe even winter of 2010 - 2011 are the best ballpark dates we can hope for at this time. that may change because there's so many variables in getting this pilot shot and then, the Seven willing, green lighted for a full season.

But what do I know.

I'm only the author's Mud Clerk.

[Andhaira]

Hey glad to see you are doing well Parris. :)

Anyhow, even summer of 2010 is good. Its only a year away and we will have plenty of spoilers, stills, juicy gossip etc to tide us until then.

From what I gather, the sooner the series is greenlit the sooner we can see the pilot. However, the question in my mind is that wil HBO air the pilot before the series begins its production or after? Maybe they intend to release the pilot and the first episode together, which could mean we will have to wait until 2011.

By the way Parris, are you and George looking forward to the Star Wars Live Action tv series? (which is scheduled to hit tv in 2011)

[Parris]

Hey glad to see you are doing well Parris. :)

Anyhow, even summer of 2010 is good. Its only a year away and we will have plenty of spoilers, stills, juicy gossip etc to tide us until then.

From what I gather, the sooner the series is greenlit the sooner we can see the pilot. However, the question in my mind is that wil HBO air the pilot before the series begins its production or after? Maybe they intend to release the pilot and the first episode together, which could mean we will have to wait until 2011.

By the way Parris, are you and George looking forward to the Star Wars Live Action tv series? (which is scheduled to hit tv in 2011)

AFAIK, it would be very unlikely that they would show the pilot long before the entire season was ready to be aired. If after seeing the pilot HBO immediately (by which I mean within a month or two) greenlights a full order (and they might not: sometimes a studio will order the producers to write a few more scripts to see how the show develops before making the final decision. Or they might fire the entire staff and cast and start over. Or they might think that the damn thing is just too complicated and cancel the project outright), I expect that we won't be seeing the pilot until the series starts at its regularly scheduled time. Maybe they'll love it so much that the first episode is longer than one hour, but I doubt that they would start with the pilot and then not show any more episodes for months. Like I said before, this is an expensive project, there will be a big promotion campaign, they'll want to hit the viewer right between the eyes and keep each and every one of them hooked and waiting impatiently for the next week's episode. So I don't expect the pilot to be seen until HBO is ready to put the entire season on the schedule, and then they'd run the entire season one episode every week for 13 weeks.

I wish I could be more optimistic, but everything I know about how HBO schedules, how long it takes to put a big production into motion and sustain it until the project is complete indicates to me that the pilot would not be shown until the series is ready to be aired, and that means we won't see AGoT on HBO until mid-2010 or later. And I think probably later.

As for a live action "Star Wars": hadn't heard anything about this, and my greatest concern is that Lucas would have control over the writers to such a degree that all the juice would be squeezed out of the mythos once more.

Of course, we're so busy right now, we're still not sure when we'll see "Wolverine", let along the new ST movie!

Yes, I'm already looking forward to my real live personal vacation with the clan and family in Ireland. If I can just get the house back in order in the next 7 weeks!

[Aoede]

No. Not a Bam. That's speculation of the highest order. I appreciate that fans are eager to see the results of the pilot, and yearn for an immediate HBO pickup, but that's not the vibe I'm getting off information - actual information - from news reports, interviews and other sources.

The problem with thinking that a filmed pilot means nearly instantaneous gratification is that it will lead to intense anticipation and then major disappointment.

Everything that I know about this production and how filming a one hour per episode television series is done indicates that even if HBO totally falls in love with the production, even if they've got Sean Bean, Dinklage and Nicole Kidman lined up to do parts, I just don't see AGoT hitting the airways before summer 2010 (very unlikely), and I think fall of 2010, maybe even winter of 2010 - 2011 are the best ballpark dates we can hope for at this time. that may change because there's so many variables in getting this pilot shot and then, the Seven willing, green lighted for a full season.

But what do I know.

I'm only the author's Mud Clerk.

...

Did you even read what I linked? WiC predicted early 2011 -- early 2010 for the decision, not the release -- and cited that HBO wanted to take its time. Please don't quote and rebut if you have no idea what you're quoting or rebutting.

[Sis Who Swears]

...

Did you even read what I linked? WiC predicted early 2011 -- early 2010 for the decision, not the release -- and cited that HBO wanted to take its time. Please don't quote and rebut if you have no idea what you're quoting or rebutting.

Um... EPIC FAIL. :rolleyes:

I would personally take the word of the author's wife over yours any day. ;)

[Aoede]

Um... EPIC FAIL. :rolleyes:

I would personally take the word of the author's wife over yours any day. ;)

Um... even more epic fail. What I said was that she erroneously assumed that I had linked to something which predicted an early airing, whereas the link was actually in agreement with what she just posted. Evidently you didn't read the the link or my follow-up post.

And a further note -- that's not "my" word. I don't know anything about television production, let alone anything specifically about AGoT's schedule.

Lesson: the reading comes before the rebuttal.

[Parris]

...

Did you even read what I linked? WiC predicted early 2011 -- early 2010 for the decision, not the release -- and cited that HBO wanted to take its time. Please don't quote and rebut if you have no idea what you're quoting or rebutting.

I read WiC occasionally, and had read the first post at WiC before your link, I just don't agree with his speculations, maybe I misread those two posts, but my read was that he was expecting a speedy decision on greenlighting the project that would result in seeing the premiere of AGoT:the series by late 2010 or early 2011. The original question of this thread was when the pilot would be shown, and my opinion is that the pilot would not be seen on HBO until the series was on the schedule, as the first episode, and that the production of the first series was well underway or completed. I base this opinion on what I know of what it takes to produce a one hour drama, which, ya know, my partner did on two different television series and his very own pilot for "Doorways", news, interviews and other sources. That's what I meant by the post I wrote.

I appreciate the delight of speculation on the internet, but I don't want to see people get all bent of shape expecting some sort of miracle occurring during the production of a very expensive pilot that results in the show being green lighted before B&W have 10 minutes of film in the can. That might happen with someone like David Milch, a known and proven creator and producer of series (despite his periods of addictions that impacted his shows), but this production team does not yet have that sort of record. This is a relatively new genre to be presented in television series format, and I expect HBO to be more cautious in making the final decision on the fate of AGoT than in a more contemporary genre, even one that breaks boundaries like The Sopranos did for mobster stories and Sex & the City for chick-lit rom-coms.

the referred WiC post says they expect a decision by early 2010, I don't see that happening anywhere near as quickly as that, and my opinion is, you know, based on available facts and personal experiences while people I knew worked on television shows, wrote and produced their own pilots and a host of other variables I don't bother to go into, like what happens if the world economy keeps spiraling down, if the currency exchange between dollars and sterling or euro gets so out of whacked a US based production can't afford to use Northern Ireland for filming, what if they hate the CGI? Or want a different actor in a major role that demands a reshoot of principal photography for half the script? What if there's a change in the power structure at HBO? The new regime rarely wants to see their predecessors projects succeed. Principal shooting is expected take take 4 weeks. Then there's post, and screening for execs, maybe some sort of testing with audiences, maybe not as hideous as Q testing, but who knows what processes will be in place in another year at HBO. Given what I know about production of one hour dramas and scheduling on HBO, I don't see AGoT:the series premiering until mid to late 2011.

Those are some of the reasons I don't agree with the WiC posts, and tried to answer the question as I understood it.

Sorry if you thought I was not reading every link and not being clearer in what I wrote. I'm not editing as closely as I usually do right now and usually I do a polish or two before I write any post of length. If my 'rebuttal' to you seemed harsh, that was not my intent.

[Brude]

I don't want to see people get all bent of shape expecting some sort of miracle occurring during the production of a very expensive pilot that results in the show being green lighted before B&W have 10 minutes of film in the can. That might happen with someone like David Milch, a known and proven creator and producer of series (despite his periods of addictions that impacted his shows), but this production team does not yet have that sort of record.

Much in the same vane, people keep holding out "Band of Brothers," a full mini-series that was greenlit just based on the scripts, as what we can expect but that was a situation where you had Spielberg and Tom Hanks producing, and utilizing the same production team that had just had gigantic success with "Saving Private Ryan." The decision making process for that and for a new team like AGoT has will not be the same. One is a no-brainer, really; the other is a big risk no matter how good the pilot script might be.

Principal shooting is expected take take 4 weeks.

Wow, that's rather long for 60 minutes of TV, but I guess once they are up and running shoots will get easier and some episodes that have a bit less pagentry and maybe fewer locations can be done faster. Otherwise we'll have 12 solid months of principle photography for a 12 episode season if every episode is like that.

[Halfhand]

Parris, Just want to jump in and clarify my position here. I had originally indulged in some, admittedly, wild speculation about the series possibly being picked up prior to shooting the pilot. This has always been wild speculation and I tried to clarify it as such in each of my blog and forum posts.

The two posts Aoede linked to were me coming back to reality. The second one especially, where I quoted an article on Sue Nagle, the President of HBO, where she basically stated that they are planning on waiting for pilot completion on each of "The Big 3" drama pilots (Treme, Boardwalk Empire and Thrones) before making a decision.

Once the pilot is in the can though, I think a decision could come quickly. The first post Aoede linked to was in reference to HBO's decision making process. In the article I linked to in that one, it stated that HBO plans on making a decision on the Treme pilot approximately 3-4 weeks after the pilot is completed. One of the producers even states that HBO doesn't take as long to reach a decision as most networks. That is why I was thinking that Feb 2010 would be a good guess as to when we might get a decision from HBO regarding the series.

As to the topic at hand, of course the pilot would not be seen until the full season is ready. When might that be? I think Parris' estimate of fall 2011 the best bet.

EDIT: Parris, is that 4 weeks of principal photography confirmed? Or are just guessing at that? I hadn't heard anywhere how long the filming was supposed to last, just that the whole thing was expected to last 10 weeks, so I am very interested in finding out if that is a confirmed time frame. If you could give us exact dates that would be even better. :D

[Werthead]

Also, the vibe I was getting was that the pilot was for HBO's internal consumption only and wouldn't necessarily be 'complete' (maybe animatics instead of full CGI shots, temp music instead of a completed soundtrack etc). When they give the okay for Season 1 to go ahead, the pilot would be then either finished or, if recasting or substantial rewriting had taken place after HBO had viewed the pilot, filmed a second time as the 'official' Episode 1. I believe HBO has done this a couple of times in the past, treating the pilot as a 'proof of concept' rather than an actual, transmittable episode. Some network shows have also done this, such as Buffy, whose 'proof-of-concept' pilot featured a somewhat different cast and some different ideas to the final series.

Either way, the pilot will not be transmitted independently or released on DVD a year ahead of the rest of the series (as Caprica recently did), as HBO just don't do that, and this isn't a stand-alone episode which can sit by itself (can you imagine leaving people on that cliffhanger for a year?). My guess would be that we see the series transmitted either in late 2010 or, more likely, early 2011. That would tie in the promotion better (if "Winter is coming," isn't the tagline, I'll eat my hat as GRRM and Benioff have both effectively said it should be) and allow HBO a good couple of months after live-action shooting of the entire first season is complete to do post and marketing assuming they can re-mount production quickly in early 2010 after a go order is given, which is definitely not set in stone.

If the series gets a dream cast, but then half of them disappear off on other projects after the pilot, it's entirely possible that production would be delayed by anything up to several months to regroup them for the full first season, in which case we start looking at mid-2011 or, uncomfortably, even later. HBO's new, much more careful and budget-conscious approach to making television seems to mean that they're already-lengthy gestation periods for shows could become even longer in the future, and AGoT could suffer/benefit from that (more likely benefit, I think).

[Brude]

So, while the good news about Dinklage and Tom McCarthy has been announced in The Reporter, in Variety it was announced that Treme, the new show by "The Wire" creator David Simon has been ordered to series. That's a fast pick-up, but Simon of course created one of HBO's crown jewels with "The Wire." Even though the show never had great ratings, it is probably the artistic high point of, well, all television ever in the history of the Universe.

[Hostarius]

I think you guys are forgetting the inevitable leak of the pilot.

[Andhaira]

Well I am not so sure the pilot could be leaked before its shown, though I do not know much about such things. I know that video games are leaked before release though, so maybe tv shows as well.

If the pilot is leaked on torrent sites though, I doubt it will affect the shows premiere on tv. (Ratings wise at least.)

[Silverstar]

Is the BBC still involved in all of this? Everything I've been reading recently has been calling it an HBO series, as opposed to a joint project, yet I hadn't heard anything about the BBC thing falling through.

If it's still a joint project in some ways, is that likely to speed things up due to more money or slow things down at all, with regards to ordering a full season? For example, if HBO likes the pilot, and the BBC isn't so keen, or vice versa?

Or is that not the way these kind of jointly-funded projects work?

<- knows very little about this kind of thing.