Filming Ended Already/

[Brude]

They won't shoot any more episodes until they make a decision on the series, that is the entire purpose of shooting a pilot. Otherwise, if they decide not to greenlight the show, they will be spending a fortune on more episodes that will never be recouped; from a business standpoint it would just be throwing good money after bad. The best we can hope for is some sort of earlier decision because what they are seeing up to that point is just so good already, but I think that is extremely unlikely.

[Werthead]

If it does get greenlit in March. They could have episodes out easily for September/October.

But we know that 1) They won't be shooting until May/June assuming pick-up, and 2) That the shoot will be for 30 weeks, taking them into December, and 3) That HBO always complete shooting in its entirety and are well into post production on the last episodes of a season before showing the first episode.

September/October is completely impossible at this time. They'd reach the season finale before they'd even shot it if they did that.

January 2011 is the earliest they could most likely show the series, and even that is looking a little optimistic now. I'm thinking it might be March/April 2011, maybe even advertised as an 'event' series taking the slot that The Pacific will be filling in spring 2010.

[fitheach]

January 2011 is the earliest they could most likely show the series, and even that is looking a little optimistic now. I'm thinking it might be March/April 2011, maybe even advertised as an 'event' series taking the slot that The Pacific will be filling in spring 2010.

Spring 2011? A year and half? Do you really think they'll wait that long to premier a show that's getting so much attention right now? I said this before, waiting that long may be a mistake since there is so much press already.

But, maybe they will. Its HBO, they can and do what they want (thinking of the 2 year lag in Sopranos seasons).

I'd be intertested in knowing what the TV critics feel about a possible Spring 2011 air date... There's been so much hype and now it's a whole lotta waiting.

[Ran]

It's well-established that HBO doesn't air things until they pretty much have it all filmed.

If they order a season in March, they take ~6-8 months to film, they're done with post on all episode 1-2 months after that, so they're done right about the end of 2010.. A January release makes sense, but I can see them holding it for later. What do they care that it sits around awhile? It's not like this buzz is going to be able to last the year it takes to film + post this.

Things will necessarily have to quiet down. I expect HBO will try to keep things at a low broil during the production -- a news item or two worth mentioning per month, some set pictures, that sort of thing -- but it's not going to be anything like it is now.

FWIW, when I asked several critics, they all felt 2011 seemed likeliest. Most were thinking just scooting into January or so, but I don't see what's so awful about it being 2-3 months later.

[Padraig]

Most were thinking just scooting into January or so, but I don't see what's so awful about it being 2-3 months later.

Yup. Waiting 3 months or 15 months would be meaningful but that is not the case. Waiting a year or up to a year and a half isn't going to make much of a difference when it comes to excitement. A month before the (hoped for) premiere, people will be hyped either way. :)

[fitheach]

It's well-established that HBO doesn't air things until they pretty much have it all filmed.

If they order a season in March, they take ~6-8 months to film, they're done with post on all episode 1-2 months after that, so they're done right about the end of 2010.. A January release makes sense, but I can see them holding it for later. What do they care that it sits around awhile? It's not like this buzz is going to be able to last the year it takes to film + post this.

Things will necessarily have to quiet down. I expect HBO will try to keep things at a low broil during the production -- a news item or two worth mentioning per month, some set pictures, that sort of thing -- but it's not going to be anything like it is now.

FWIW, when I asked several critics, they all felt 2011 seemed likeliest. Most were thinking just scooting into January or so, but I don't see what's so awful about it being 2-3 months later.

Will they be doing post while shooting? Doesn't make sense not to, otherwise it would be more like 3-4 months or more of editing.

Speak for yourself about the wait. :bawl:

[Ran]

Yes, post-production will take place simultaneously with filming, but there's still going to be some weeks at the end where they're catching everything up. And it's not necessarily synchronous -- if they do a big set of visual effects shots for the battle at the Green Fork, the rendering and so on for that might be one of the last things they get wrapped up even though it'd fall in the 10th-11th episode.

[Werthead]

I think my point was more that it may not be possible to show the series earlier than January 2011, and they may decide on Spring 2011 to give them a little bit more elbow and post-production room.

And as I said on WiC, there's a lot of hype in the fanbase, but only a muted buzz outside of it. A few influential American TV bloggers (but interestingly no major British ones yet) have talked about it a few times but 99% of the audience the show needs to attract to survive are completely ignorant of the project at the moment. What's hype in our little bubble of fandom isn't worth a hill of beans in the general viewing audience world ;)

It's also worth pointing out that HBO completed filming The Pacific in the autumn of 2008 and it's not being shown on television until April 2010, and that's a massive, big-budget, 'event' series produced by Hanks and Spielberg and the sequel to one of HBO's most successful-ever television projects. If they can decide not to show that until 18 months after the cameras stop rolling, they can certainly hold back on a lower-key project like GoT for just a couple of months after they finish the filming process.

[Tyrone Biggums]

I just woke up from a dream where this show got delayed until the release of DWD, which apparently got announced that it won't be completed till 2012 and on the way to pick up DWD on the day it came out the end of the world started...

Then I woke up and came on here. Just thought i'd mention that.

But anyways, does anyone think that they MIGHT just delay the show until DWD is done? It would help with the advertising and hype, especially if it becomes a top seller (which you all know it will) and makes the news and so forth, who can then talk about the upcoming HBO show (if it gets greenlit).

[Padraig]

But anyways, does anyone think that they MIGHT just delay the show until DWD is done?

Nope. Most of the hoped for audience will never hear of the book and be oblivious to how well it does sales-wise.

Instead it will work the other way round. The publishers will take advantage of the TV show.

[Ser Mos]

Two more factors that I haven't seen mentioned about the "when will they televise it?" question just occurred to me. First off, there's no reason that the season has to be filmed and post-produced in the book order. Once you have the cast, sets, and scripts in order you could technically start filming the final episode of the Season on the first day of the shoot. Especially since the final episodes are more likely to require extra post-production time. So having an extra special effects-laden season finale is no reason to delay a season.

That's the happy thought. The less-happy thought concerns those scripts. Adapting a book for the screen is no simple matter and I doubt the writers of the pilot have completed more then simple outlines of season 1 at this time. I'd imagine HBO will want at least the first 4-6 episodes scripted by the time they start shooting. There's no telling how long that will take. And the fact that they might not finish the final episode's script until much later might cancel out the good news from the last paragraph.

[Ran]

I believe 2-3 episodes besides the pilot are already scripted.

[Renasko]

Will the series being picked up be based on the quality of those scripts, (as well as the pilot), or will it not even be a factor?

[Ran]

I can't say with certainty, but I'd speculate that yes, they would matter for the final decision. I can't see HBO wanting to base a decision solely on a first episode and an outline. They'd want to see that the writers have a strong grasp of how to adapt the narrative to hour-long segments with sufficient plot and character beats to keep the viewers hooked.