Production design

[Halfhand]

More crew related news, this Variety article confirms that Tatiana S. Riegel will be editing the pilot.

[Langkard]

In terms of its sprawl, I always imagined Winterfell to be on a par with The Tower of London, which is 18 acres. Multiple bailies and the Godswood could well fit into something that size. To get an idea of the walls described for Winterfell, though, the White Keep at the heart of the Tower of London is 90' tall - the outer walls are considerably smaller.

The Godswoods! I forgot to mention them in my post. The godswood at Winterfell is 3 acres of forest (opening of Catelyn's first chapter in book 1). Around that the massive sprawl of Winterfell rose up over many years. The descriptions in Bran's early chapters of him climbing about various places, as well, lead to my impression of Winterfell as a massive place. It is described in one spot as being thought to have been built in part by giants (I can't remember where that description is in tghe books, though).

It isn't every castle which exceeds what we think of as realistic sizes. Just a few. Harrenhall, of course, and Winterfell and the Red Keep are the only ones described as being huge. The rest seem more realistically sized. The Red Keep takes up one entire hill of the 3 hills of King's Landing.

Ran, I love your correlations to existing castles, by the way. Neuschwanstein for the Eyrie and Gibraltar for Casterly Rock! Did you mean Bodiam castle in East Sussex? There are pics of it which do indeed remind me of Riverrun. Just dial them to 11, indeed!

For the Red Keep, if you were to stick the Teutonic Knight's fortress of Malbork castle (originally named Marienburg) on a hill and make it larger, it gives a good impression of what the Red Keep might look like. It is made mostly of red brick and looks amazing.

For the three really big castles, Winterfell and the Red Keep and Harrenhall, think more along the lines of what some of the fortified cities of the Middle Ages looked like. The medieval fortified town of Carcassone, for instance. The castle itself is only the center part in the background in that pic. The rest is a walled, fortified town. That is what I picture for Winterfell and the Red Keep and Harrenhall. The size of a fortified town but just one large sprawling castle instead.

[Ran]

Bodiam, yes, sorry. Heh. Neuschwanstein and Gibraltar are comparisons George has made himself, and Bodiam became clear to me when I saw Nasmith's several versions of Riverrun for the world book which were clearly inspired by that particular castle.