Game of Thrones (HBO pilot) casting news

[yagathai]

Peter Dinklage being cast as Tyrion is, of course, excellent news. The director... I'm going to withhold judgement until I see what he does with the material. It might be gorgeous, or it might be an Ang-Lee-doing-The-Hulk-type disaster.

Comments

[harrytheheir.livejournal.com]

I had the same thought. I haven't seen The Station Agent, and while The Visitor wasn't really that great, I think that spoke more to his failings as a writer than as a director. I think having a director who is attuned to the rhythms of a smaller, more intimate story _could_ be a good idea, if it's the right director.

In any case, he'll probably have less influence than Ang Lee did over The Hulk, just because the nature of television gives much more influence to the showrunners. Benioff and Weiss will be running this particular show.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

The Station Agent was great, but... nothing in it tells me that this is the guy I want to see directing an epic battle against otherworldly undead obsidianphobic beings of pure evil, with dragons on top. Unless the script is filled with "and then Tyrion mopes for an hour or so", I'm not super-hopeful.

[harrytheheir.livejournal.com]

He's only signed up for the pilot, though. He'll have the initial fight in the prologue, but other than that, there aren't a lot of action scenes. (Bran's fall doesn't qualify, I don't think.) Even that initial fight shouldn't be terribly complicated visually. What he'll have to do primarily is establish the character relationships, of which there will be a bunch: Ned-Robert, Ned-Jon, Jon-Robb, Bran-Jon, Bran-Ned, Ned-Catelyn, Tyrion-Cersei, Tyrion-Jaime, etc., etc. For that, I think you'd want somebody with his kind of resume; which is not to say that I think he's the right choice specifically.

When the big battle scenes come up later in the season, they can get Felix Alcala or somebody like that.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

No, you're right, and besides he could be a Peter-Jackson-directs-Heavenly-Creatures-type revelation.

[hippoiathanatoi.livejournal.com]

It's just TV. He's directing the pilot, he might direct two or three more episodes, but it's really unlikely he's going to be directing every single episode. Far as I know, there's not a TV show on television that has a single director.

For the pilot, I think he could be a very good choice, given that it's low on drama and high on squeezing in as much character interaction and detail as possible.

The Station Agent is a lovely, quiet little film, BTW. Haven't seen the other. But I did see he received an Independent Spirit Award for direction for The Visitor, so maybe there's some good qualities there.

[harrytheheir.livejournal.com]

It's just TV. He's directing the pilot, he might direct two or three more episodes, but it's really unlikely he's going to be directing every single episode. Far as I know, there's not a TV show on television that has a single director.

I think multi-camera sitcoms do. I think every episode of How I Met Your Mother was directed by Pamela Fryman.

[hippoiathanatoi.livejournal.com]

Did not know that. Interesting. (Also, amusingly, Linda just wrapped up subtitling an episode of "How I Met..." The one featuring Canadian Sex Acts (http://www.canadiansexacts.org))

Now I'll have to see if there are any dramatic series which have a single director over a season.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

That was a good episode.

[harrytheheir.livejournal.com]

That might happen, but I would be surprised. From Ron Moore's commentaries for BSG, it sounds like while one director is filming episode A, another needs to be prepping episode B. Multi-camera sitcoms are different, I think, because they take less time to film: all four cameras are running at the same time, so an episode of Cheers or something would be filmed on a single day.

[hippoiathanatoi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my understanding with regards to drama series. Fair point about the difference in how sitcoms are produced.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

PS Fix the board.

;)

[grumpymonkey.livejournal.com]

I've always felt the Fire and Ice story wasn't as much about the grand, over-arching plots as the interactions and relationships of the characters who witness and take part in them. I'd much rather see someone get the characters and relationships right and do a 'meh' job with the rest than to get the big stuff right and make the characters into caricatures or stiffs.

[harrytheheir.livejournal.com]

I think that's true. But I don't think that they have to make a choice between those two.

[darknbitter.livejournal.com]

I presume you saw GRRM's announcement

Peter Dinklage to play Tyrion

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

I saw the announcement that came before his, yes. Why else would you think I made this post?

[darknbitter.livejournal.com]

ehh once again why I shouldn't read LJ at work, I forgot what you actually posted by the time I was able to respond...
oh look, gravity in action!

[revsaintmichael.livejournal.com]

Howard'll be bummed that Danny didn't get the role.

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

Clearly he wasn't short enough.