George R.R. Martin's A DANCE WITH DRAGONS - Spoiled Discussion

[Winslow]

SPOILERS! A new sample Chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER.

A Victarion POV.
http://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comme...the_victarion/

There really aren't any spoilers in your link, sadly. I hope George learns to advance the damn plot.

[Roquefort Raider]

It would be great if he decided to finish the series with the next two books! Let's get to it, even if it means foregoing the POV of several supporting characters.

[Kiryu]

SPOILERS! A new sample Chapter from THE WINDS OF WINTER.

A Victarion POV.
http://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comme...the_victarion/

Just so everyone knows this is only part of that chapter. George read it live at a Q&A in Toronto but didn't have time to do the whole chapter. Also in that same interview he says that the cliffhangers from Dance get wrapped up early and the book opens with the Battle of Ice(Stannis vs Bolton) and the Battle of Fire(Mereen)

[cphilli]

Just so everyone knows this is only part of that chapter. George read it live at a Q&A in Toronto but didn't have time to do the whole chapter. Also in that same interview he says that the cliffhangers from Dance get wrapped up early and the book opens with the Battle of Ice(Stannis vs Bolton) and the Battle of Fire(Mereen)

I wonder how long it will be before it's released.

[CaptainCanada]

Martin said 2-3 years.

[cphilli]

Martin said 2-3 years.

So I'm curious what happens when HBO catches up with books.

[the_coldest_sun]

I think its already been mathed out in the TV thread but assuming Martin stays on schedule (which should be nearly possible now that the Meereenese Knot and timegap rewrite issues are taken care of), the TV show should not catch up to the book releases, at least not near enough to matter. The producers Benioff and Weiss already mentioned splitting A Storm of Swords into two seasons, and even though they mentioned combining A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons chronologically, that is still one massive book(s) so that may be split up as well. They also mentioned they are much more concerned now with adapting A Song of Ice & Fire as a whole rather than try to fit each book into specific seasons like they originally planned. They said when all said and done they hope to have 70-80 hours of the series completed that could play out as one long movie. So they're looking at roughly 8 seasons.

Loosely estimating: Since 2012 is A Clash of Kings (more or less), 2013 is A Storm of Swords part 1, 2014 is ASOS part 2, 2015 is Feast/Dance part 1, 2016 is F/D part 2. That leaves Martin to get The Winds of Winter out before 2017 (and more realistically before 2016 to give the HBO team time to prepare unless Martin gives early manuscript copies over to Dan and Dave). That is cutting it quite close but also possible. Now that last book would be a problem but I'm optimistic Martin wouldn't take as long to get that one out since he knows the ending more clearly than he knew what the middle was going to be. The last season could possibly be released simultaneously with the last book, but I may be overly optimistic with that one.

So as it stands now, there is already enough material to cover 6 seasons. This is assuming of course that the TV series even goes that far. We may not even get that much, anything can happen between now and then that can force HBO to cancel: budgets can spiral out of control, primary actors may drop out or become unavailable, too many horses could die on set, etc. I think worrying about the show catching up to the book is not much a main concern at this point. I'm sure Benioff and Weiss have a plan if it comes to that.

[cphilli]

^ Thanks!
I'm hoping they do split up the later books into more than one season and that they remain faithful to the overall story. I'm fine with HBO adding some things that we didn't see in the books I just don't want them changing the story any.

[CaptainCanada]

The producers suggested that ideally they'd want a series of around 80 episodes, which would be eight seasons. With the third book split into two seasons, that covers the first four. The fourth and fifth books will probably need to be combined into two seasons as well. That leaves two seasons left for the last two books.

[Alex]

If HBO cans it before the end, i want them to give that BS "The story reached it's logical conclusion" excuse again.
Because this time we can point to more than the fact that we felt there was more to the story.

[Vibranium]

a show like this isn't cheap to produce...so if HBO does can it, it will be due to budget issues, I think

[thwhtGuardian]

I just finished book 5, and man is the wait for part six going to kill me.

[Omega Alpha]

a show like this isn't cheap to produce...so if HBO does can it, it will be due to budget issues, I think

I don't think, they already renewed to S03, and I don't think anything we've seen in the books will be more expensive to film than Blackwater.

[the_coldest_sun]

I don't think, they already renewed to S03, and I don't think anything we've seen in the books will be more expensive to film than Blackwater.

The sackings of Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen ("Dracarys"); Drogon's grand entrance at the fighting pits; Viserion and Rhaegal laying waste to the Meereenese pyramids; those might cause some concerns later especially as the dragons grow larger.

However I think the budget mostly will become a problem not so much because of expensive single events like those I listed, but because of the characters' storylines branching out so vastly, each major character with their own supporting cast. The budget will balloon with all the locations and storylines they'll have to shoot. The single major events aren't really a problem on their own, they can probably spread them out and do one each season like they're doing with the Blackwater this season. It's when they have to have the budget for that on top of every new thing, characters, locations, special effects, etc is when it will probably be too much to handle financially.

But I'm only speculating. Benioff and Weiss may very well thought about this in advance and have if not the answer, some ideas on how to cross that bridge when they get to it.

[Blueferret]

The sackings of Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen ("Dracarys"); Drogon's grand entrance at the fighting pits; Viserion and Rhaegal laying waste to the Meereenese pyramids; those might cause some concerns later especially as the dragons grow larger.

However I think the budget mostly will become a problem not so much because of expensive single events like those I listed, but because of the characters' storylines branching out so vastly, each major character with their own supporting cast. The budget will balloon with all the locations and storylines they'll have to shoot. The single major events aren't really a problem on their own, they can probably spread them out and do one each season like they're doing with the Blackwater this season. It's when they have to have the budget for that on top of every new thing, characters, locations, special effects, etc is when it will probably be too much to handle financially.

But I'm only speculating. Benioff and Weiss may very well thought about this in advance and have if not the answer, some ideas on how to cross that bridge when they get to it.

Maybe they green screen the large stuff. Everything so far has been shot on location, who knows