The Hollywood Reporter

[Niphredil]

YEAH OH YEAH!!!

Congrats Benioff, Weiss, and GRRM! :cheers: Suddenly, this year can't go by fast enough. I'll look forward to watching every episode and then logging on here to discuss them to death!

[Tears of Lys]

Fantastic news! Can't wait... but I'll have to.

Congrats to all involved.

[Padraig]

In principle you're right, of course, but we've got the added problem of very young characters and their actors.

Well there is plenty of material available for them to keep a normal annual schedule for several years. They can move the timeline a bit faster so that characters age faster a little also.

[Sekhmet]

So, it looks like some details were changed like his horse changing from black to white, etc.

The horse is a gray, despite the title "My Dancing White Horses" by the famed Alois Podhajsky.

Gray horses start out dark and fade to white. Lippizans are grays, which is why folks think they're white. There's a gene in gray horses which cause the hair follicles to lose their color, much like humans.

There are some albino horses which tend to have a lot of problems and usually die as foals. There are "few spot" appaloosas. There are pintos (piebalds and skewbalds) which may be mainly white.

But most "white" horses are gray, like Gandalf's horse Shadowfax (who was pretty old and sway backed).

It's funny, if some gray horses live long enough, they start to regain their color.

-a service announcement from your local horse person (of which I suspect there are quite a few here).

[Ran]

It's Will's horse, just described as a gelding, IIRC, and not Waymar's black destrier... so, so far, okay.

Except, Linda swears the head makes it look like it's an Arabian, or has a lot of Arabian in it. What the heck is a Dornish sand steed doing as a ranger's mount north of the Wall? ;)

[Anya, Vengeance Demon]

It's Will's horse, just described as a gelding, IIRC, and not Waymar's black destrier... so, so far, okay.

Except, Linda swears the head makes it look like it's an Arabian, or has a lot of Arabian in it. What the heck is a Dornish sand steed doing as a ranger's mount north of the Wall? ;)

That Dornish sand steed was found poaching in Prince Doran's woods. :P

And thanks for the clarification on the shooting schedule. I am curious to see what they decide.

[Sekhmet]

Unfortunately, shows across the pond have very bad records.

Shows like Spooks (and perhaps Dr. Who) are drastically cut when shown on A&E and BBC America. They're cut to fit into an hour time frame.

I hear that Rome was even more heinously cut when shown to the British public. Episodes combined in a mosh pit of trash.

So, downloading may contribute to a mess, but what the networks do with the shows is even worse, probably contributing to the bit torrenting going on.

For the record, the only shows we've bit torrented lately are Spooks (MI-5 in the US) and Hex. They just got so badly whacked! In fact, I'm waiting for the DVDs for Spooks 6 with Richard Armitage.

[Sekhmet]

Except, Linda swears the head makes it look like it's an Arabian, or has a lot of Arabian in it. What the heck is a Dornish sand steed doing as a ranger's mount north of the Wall? ;)

Could be Arabian, hard to tell from the angle of the shot.

Could also be Andalusian, which are very popular film steeds. Many of the LOTR horses were Andalusians.

But most modern "breeds" have some Arab in their bloodlines. Even thoroughbreds all descend from the Goldophin Arabian, the Darley Arabian and the Byerley Turk.

Let's face it. Film makers are not going to be concerned about the horses to the detail of GRRM's descriptions. Is it safe for a neophyte to ride and can it do it's job are the concerns.

[Vacuum]

@ Ran

Dunno if this is the right place to post this but w/e

Just thought you might wanna change the "Game of Thrones: The Series" subforum comment. "The pilot will go into production, but more than that is not decided yet." :)

'cause, thank god, more than that is decided now! :D

[Prince of the North]

It looks nothing like JCB, and it's not him. The caption says Will, who is played by Bronson Webb, who it does look like. So I guess Waymar may still have a black horse.

Where's this caption of the photo everyone's referring to?

Ah, okay. I was going to say that HBO's publicity sheet with the image only captions it as the "Opening scene". But yes, it's right to conclude that it's Bronson Webb as Will.

Alright, thanks for setting me straight everyone but last night I saw a picture caption saying it was JCB and had to then go to Winteriscoming.net to see who JCB was cast as. I don't go to Winteriscoming.net very often and didn't know who JCB was prior so I didn't just pull it outta my ass :) Now, of course, I can't find that picture caption again. Could the caption that is there now about it being Will have replaced the incorrect one? I don't know and it's really much ado about nothing. I had simply assumed it was Waymar when I first saw the picture and then was told it was Gared, and I was fine with that, and now I find out that it's Will which makes perfect sense. No matter who it is I still think the picture looks great! Looks like the cold, dangerous, wilds of the North to me! ;)

[Ran]

I admit I had the text wrong when I first posted the image, and later corrected it. I was typing a hundred miles a minute just then, with the flood of tweets and posts and reports. Heh.

But yeah, it's Will. :)

[Prince of the North]

I admit I had the text wrong when I first posted the image, and later corrected it. I was typing a hundred miles a minute just then, with the flood of tweets and posts and reports. Heh.

But yeah, it's Will. :)

Thanks Ran! As I said, much ado about nothing really. I'm just glad to learn that I was not seeing things that weren't actually there (with the JCB thing);) It's a great picture and great news!

[adamsputnik]

You bloody ripper! Great stuff HBO.

[Ran]

Thanks, Vacuum. Now corrected. :)

[kungtotte]

I may have squeeee'd a little bit when I heard the news.

But don't tell anyone.

[Rockroi]

This is great news and I am really happy for George RR Martin and Paris. This was well earned good news. I hope the series is a worthy reflection of Martin's amazing story.

And now for some gratuitous emoticons.

:grouphug:

:bowdown: :bowdown:

:cheers: :drunk:

:) :) :)

[Gilgafresh the Bling]

This is fantastic!!!

It would seem that Cloud Nine is getting a little crowded.

A visit to (an inflationary) Cloud Ten is but one more announcement away. ;)

[moirne]

So damn exciting! I can't wait until June when we get all sorts of pictures from filming and set reports! And the rest of the casting :)

[Starkess]

Yay! I finally get some validation in the money sink that has been my subscription to HBO to date.

:cheers:

[Watermark]

I don't know what was it that made my heart stop, the news itself or the shot :) Oh, Lord :)

The next thought I enjoy right now is that we have some exciting months ahead to discover step by step the rest of the cast :)