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Game of Thrones: The Movie?

by Jacob Klein
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Ah it’s that time of year again.  Spring is in the air, taxes are almost due and yes: Game of Thrones is nearly back on the air.  And with that build up and excitement comes the inevitable appearances and interviews with our favorite cast of characters.  One character in particular, George R.R Martin himself, First of His Name (I’m guessing), has been making the rounds of late.

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Responding to a question about the possible overall length of the series posed by The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet premiere for season four Martin spaketh thusly:

 “It all depends on how long the main series runs.  Do we run for seven years? Do we run for eight? Do we run for 10? The books get bigger and bigger (in scope). It might need a feature to tie things up, something with a feature budget, like $100 million for two hours. Those dragons get real big, you know.”

To put this into context there has been some speculation as of late that the HBO show would, as long feared, catch up with Mr. Martin’s writing of the novels of which Game of Thrones is based.  With no firm release date on book six, The Winds of Winter, everyone is beginning to wonder how the series will handle “spoiling” the ending of A Song of Ice and Fire on screen as opposed to on page.  Let’s break it down:

FOUR: 2014, Filmed 2013: Season four is set to cover events in Book Three, some of book four and even pulling a few elements from book five.

FIVE: 2015, Filming 2014: Season five will be a combination of book four and book five.

SIX: 2016, Filming 2015: Season six will conclude book five and require additional details from book six (most likely)

Keep in mind that the show-runners actually know more than anyone else on the planet as to how the series will conclude.  They were given each of the characters main story arcs to guard against something untimely and terrible happening to George.  But if that sixth novel is delayed beyond 2014 they’ll surely be hard-pressed to create season six next year.  And beyond that (season 7 or 8) there’s just no way (with his track record of taking 3-5 years per novel) that Martin will get that seventh novel out in time.  Do you see now why the fans are nervous?

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Another point of contention is just how many seasons the show will run.  The producers are shooting for seven while George is pulling for 8-10, allowing him more time to finish the final two books.  It’s unclear whether the gigantic cast and crew can commit to summers all over the world for 10 full years so we’ll most likely see 7 or 8 seasons of Game of Thrones but that is total speculation by this author at this point.

George also poked at the idea of creating a prequel movie based on the Dunk and Egg tales.  We explored this idea in an earlier piece but here’s what he had to say on that:

“They could be the basis for [a film],” Martin added at the post-premiere bash held at the Museum of Natural History, where a suspended giant whale cast a shadow over the crowd not unlike one of Martin’s dragons. “I have written these three stories, and I have about a dozen more.”

Warner Brothers  Studios would be the obvious choice for a possible movie deal of any kind involving Game of Thrones.  They are of the same parent company as HBO and also have experience filming the world’s greatest fantasy epics (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings).

This is all a LONG ways down the road but, of course the show carries on!  They’ll need to decide how to pace the last few seasons now to get it right.  We hope the show runs for at least 8 seasons and returns with some sort of feature film, of course!  Maybe we’re having a lemon-cake induced dream though…

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8 comments

Eleonora Iafano March 20, 2014 - 6:06 am

I agree with you, Cian. I think that 8 seasons would be ideal. 10 is stretching it out a bit too far. However, I am wondering about the possibility for extra episodes for Seasons 7 & 8? That might help, in the sense to provide proper storylines, fleshing out charatcers and arcs. 8 maximum. I am so hoping that The Winds of Winter is released in 2015. If that’s the case, then HBO will be safe for filiming Season 5 and 6. The idea of a Dunk & Egg movie would give fans a glimpse of life – pre Robert, Ned and company.

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Benjamin Neumann April 11, 2014 - 12:18 am

It’s funny how you know what is stretching it out too far when the story isn’t even finished. Get a clue.

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Eleonora Iafano April 11, 2014 - 5:53 am

We are all entitled to our opinions and views. I have read all 5 books and like many fans, am anxiously waiting for the 6th one to come out. We are all speculating as to how many seasons HBO will officially green light. Considering Book #3 has been split into 2 seasons, it could very well be that another book in the series may be split into 2 seasons.

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Lasse David Sand Østergaard March 29, 2016 - 12:58 am

On the contrary, I think 8 seasons would be the absolute minimum. The TV seasons so far needed between 1 and 2 seasons for each book, so there’s no way they can fit the last two books into one season. With seven books, and the sixth season being based on the fifth and partially sixth book, season 7 will most likely only finish book 6, and then two more seasons would be ideal for the last book, which will likely have a lot of loose ends to tie up, and few details that are unimportant enough to leave out. I like the numbers 8 and 10 better than 9, though. Season 9 seems like a weird place to stop. That’s almost 10. So they could stretch the story a bit and go to 10, or compress it a lot and only do 8. I don’t see 7 as an option.

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Cian Gaffney March 20, 2014 - 5:25 am

I honestly think George is a bit delusional as to the realities of what TV execs are capable of and willing to do, which is strange given his well documented background in TV. There’s absolutely no chance that the show will go on for 10 seasons when the producers have the end in sight for 7/8. Even more unlikely is that the show would take a break to let George catch up. And the most ludicrous idea of all is that HBO would give up the rights to their baby and let a film conclude the story. George should by all means be feeling the pressure now. The show IS going to overtake the books at this stage, there are no two ways about it.

Dunk & Egg wouldn’t be a bad idea for a film series, though.

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Benjamin Neumann April 11, 2014 - 12:19 am

First of all, with the amount of money they are making from Game of Thrones I doubt they’d have any problem keeping the buzz and subscriber numbers up for an extra year or two. Second, they and Warner Bros. are part of the same conglomerate so they wouldn’t be giving up any rights as the money would all end up in the same spot essentially. Beyond that it’s not like there’s any precedent of HBO making movies out of their series right? (Sex and the City, Entourage, etc.) This post is laughable in every sense of its being.

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Lasse David Sand Østergaard March 29, 2016 - 12:54 am

But George is not specifically saying he expects a movie. He said: “It might need a feature to tie things up, something with a feature budget, like $100 million for two hours.”
That could as well mean a big-budget double-episode to end the last season, to go out with a bang. Given how episodes already mostly just have a few scenes at each location, and actually leaves out half the main characters for every other episode (I just saw two episodes in a row where Jaime was only in one short not-very-important scene in the first of them), there’ll be way too many lose ends to tie up in one final episode. The last episode needs to be bigger. Doesn’t have to be a feature film. Can just be a feature-budget double-episode.

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SerTahu March 20, 2014 - 3:06 am

Apparently D&D said they are planning “at least seven seasons” at the premiere so the possibility of eight seasons, or even nine, is not completely off the table yet. They have, however, explicitly ruled out 10 seasons. My personal hope is for 8 seasons if they finish AFfC/ADwD in season 5, or 9 if ADwD spills over into season 6

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