England - Advancements in digital effects have made it possible to conjure up the incredible magic we see in "Game of Thrones," for example Daenerys' dragon. But, as always it is the stories underneath and their emotional underpinnings that are so fundamental to capturing the crowds. The adventures and the worlds they visit are often so complicated that Hollywood's creativeness sometimes need more time to connect with motion picture and television audiences. Brilliant casting, gripping stories, and stunning creativity all work to make the New Age fairy tale for grown-ups, "Game of Thrones," as successful on television as George R.R. Martin's print version "A Song of Ice and Fire" that inspired HBO's show "Game of Thrones."
The success is good, though, there is some tension between HBO's interpretation of the "Thrones" dream and George R.R. Martin's. The "Thrones" averages more than 18 million viewers per episode and this season surpassed "The Sopranos" as HBO's most-watched series. With the show climbing the ratings chart, in a recent telephone interview with Dana Jennings of the New York Times, George R.R. Martin talked about the transition from print in "A Song of Ice and Fire," to television in HBO's "Game of Thrones." Mr. Martin said, the transition to television has not been difficult "because they have done a wonderful job of it", referring to HBO's "Game of Thrones" team that created the series for HBO. One thing that would make Mr. Martin happier was if his creation had more elbow room on HBO. Each season HBO runs 10 chapters. "I wish we had more episodes", he said speaking from his home in Santa Fe, N.M. "I'd love to have 13 episodes. With 13 episodes we could include smaller scenes that we had to cut, scenes that make the story deeper and richer." As for those missing scenes Mr. Martin cited a scene from the first novel, "A Game of Thrones," that didn't make it into Season One. The Starks are traveling to King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, with the royal family. The sisters Sansa and Arya Stark are invited to tea and lemon cakes with Queen Cersei, but Arya wants to go hunt for rubies with the butcher's boy. And the sisters argue about it. Mr. Martin says, he misses the scene because it adds texture and helps establish, early on, the characters and the relationship between them. Though not in the show, the scene was used as part of the successful auditions for Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, and Maisie Williams, who is Arya. Though he has worked in television before, as a story editor for "The Twilight Zone" on CBS in 1986, and a writer producer with "Beauty and the Beast" which debuted on CBS in 1987. "There was some frustration when you have to fight the Hollywood power equation." The Hollywood power equation in television is the television network and the production studio that has hard ware to produce the project (trucks, lights, cameras, cables, etc.). Mr. Martin is always concerned about the ration of action pages to total page count, and says "I cannot fathom how you could fit so much action in to so few pages. In the "Ice and Fire" series, Mr. Martin has been all about lots of action and lots of pages - some 5,000 and counting so far - starting in 1996, when "A Game of Thrones" was published. It has plenty of fantasy elements, in many ways it's more like an epic 19th - century novel with fantasy filigree on the pages, often more Tolstoy than Tolkien. Mr. Martin said he never imagined it could be tailored for TV. There are those who would have bee pleased if it hadn't come to HBO. With "Thrones" increased popularity, some critics have complained about the show's depictions of sexual violence. Mr. Martin says, it was an inescapable aspect of the "Thrones" ear-world. "Rape and sexual violence have been part of every war fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day." "To omit them from a narrative centered on war and power would have been fundamentally false and dishonest." Mr. Martin was quick to point out in this latest interview that his role with the HBO series was secondary. He's a co-executive producer and has written one episode each season. He says, he tries not to fret over television revisions. "But", he said, "small changes can lead to big changes." The musician Marillion, from Season One is maimed - his tongue plucked out - at the whim of King Joffrey and then vanishes from the show. This isn't the case in the book, where he served as the fall guy in Lord Petyr Baelish's murder of Lysa Arryn (shown on HBO this season). "So, that has to be changed" for the TV version. Of Lysa Arryn's murder, Mr. Martin said "The butterfly effects are accumulating." One crucial element that could be better is the portrayal of the cruel throne and monumental Iron Throne. It's not the Iron Throne I see when I'm working on "THE WINDS OF WINTER." It's not the Iron Throne I want my reader's to see. The way the throne is described in the books...HUGE, hulking, black and twisted, with steep iron stairs in front, the high seat from which the king looks DOWN on everyone in the court room. My throne is a hunched beast looming over the throne room, ugly and asymmetric...the HBO throne is none of those things.
But what about his dream, his vision? Has HBO fulfilled it? He said he was pleased over all by the costume and set designs and special effects. See also, ww.hbo.com.
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