For all of you out there waiting for some casting hints… alas, it appears that Froggy will not be able to pluck his magic twanger here until next month.

Which is not to say that no one will be cast. In fact, half a dozen roles (some major, some minor) have already been cast — that is to say, after watching dozens of audition tapes for every role, D&D have chosen the actors they want. That’s the first step of the process (actually, it’s the third or fourth step, if you go all the way back to the start, which begins with Nina Gold winnowing through hundreds of resumes and eight-by-ten glossies and speaking to dozens of agents. but it’s the first step that involves me). The second step is submitting the choice to HBO for approval. Once the actor or actress is approved, the third and final step is negotiating the deal and getting a contract signed.

Needless to say, I can only unleash Froggy to torment you when all three steps have been completed. It would be pretty embarassing to announce a casting only to have to retract because we could not close the deal. That does not happen often, mind you… but it DOES happen. Every deal is unique and negotiations can often drag on. Every agent wants to get the best possible deal for his or her client, understandably.

As I write, well, we have sent five or six choices to HBO for approval, and I’m given to understand that all of them have been approved, so now we are in the throes of hammering out terms with each of those actors. I’d hoped that two or three of the deals would be set by now, so I could give you madmen a few hints (which you would then solve in twelve seconds, but that’s beside the point)… but that hasn’t happened.

And tomorrow morning I leave for Poland, and will not be posting here often, if at all. Some of our castings may firm up as early as next week, but I won’t be around to hint at them, so expect HBO will announce the players on its own website… or perhaps through some of the TV journalists who have been following the show so faithfully. So watch the web pages and TV columns of HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, TIME, THE DAILY BEAST, AOL, etc for announcements about the second season. And Froggy will return when I do.

Speaking of my trip… maybe it is good that I am getting out of the country, with “Baelor” scheduled to air tonight. Those of you who have read the novel will have a good idea of what’s happening this week, just from the title (but PLEASE don’t discuss it here, unless you want your post deleted), but there are millions of viewers who have no idea and some of them may soon be turning up on my virtual doorstep with virtual pitchforks and torches.

It does give me pause to realize there are only two more episodes left in season one. Tonight and next week, and we are done. So many years of development to get to this point — contracts and options, endless negotiations, writing, rewriting, re-rewriting, casting, shooting the pilot, waiting for pickup, more casting, location scouts, shooting the series, all the build-up and promotion and previews and trailers and teasers and then finally we are on the air, and WHAM, ten weeks and it is over. Those ten weeks have flashed by in a blur. We do have the second season, of course. We start filming in July, and the start date is rushing at us like a freight train… but it is going to feel odd not to have a new episode to watch, two Sundays from now.

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