Awards Season

December 11, 2015 at 3:34 pm

Awards season is upon us.

The Golden Globe nominations have just been announced. And once again GAME OF THRONES is a finalist in Best Television Series – Drama. Congrats to David Benioff, Dan Weiss, HBO, and our amazing cast and crew. This year we are up against OUTLANDER, MR. ROBOT, NARCOS, and EMPIRE.

Will we win? Maybe. We’ve been nominated before, but never won — but that was true of the Emmy Awards as well, until this year, so maybe this time will prove to be the charm in the Globes as well. Actually, none of the nominees in this category have ever won, so someone is going to be taking home a Globe for the first time. I’m glad to see OUTLANDER getting some recognition, after being snubbed by the Emmys; it’s a superb show. Never watched the other three, so it’s hard to say how they stack up.

Sad to say, none of our actors were nominated. Boo, hiss. Lena Headey deserved a nod for sure, and some of our other regulars as well.

For a full list of those who were, go to:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/golden-globe-nominations-complete-list-847494

OUTLANDER did very well with noms for Tobias Menzies in Supporting Actor and Catrionia Balfe in Lead Actress, both well deserved… but the Hollywood Foreign Press should really have made it three by nominating Sam Heughan too. He was amazing as Jamie Frazier.

The film nominations were a mixed bag, in my opinion. Very pleased to see MAD MAX:FURY ROAD up for Best Drama, and Bryan Cranston nominated for his performance as Dalton Trumbo in TRUMBO… a superb film that deserves a lot more attention than it’s getting.

Also pleased to see the nominations for THE MARTIAN… but wait… THE MARTIAN is up for Best Comedy or Musical?????? Was that for Mark Watney’s toe-tapping rendition of “Get Me Home Before I Starve To Death?” Or maybe that ever popular musical number, “Growing Potatoes in Poop, Heigh Ho?” I mean, c’mon guys, a nomination is a nomination, but…

Meanwhile, on other fronts, the Writers Guild of America also announced their screenwriting nominations. GAME OF THRONES is up twice. David Benioff and Dan Weiss and Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill are up collectively as a writing staff, up against the writing staffs of MR. ROBOT, MAD MEN, BETTER CALL SAUL, and THE AMERICANS.

David and Dan are also nominated for best single episode for “Mother’s Mercy,” competing with episodes of NARCOS, THE LEFTOVERS, THE GOOD WIFE, MAD MEN, and BETTER CALL SAUL. For a complete list of finalists, go to:

http://awards.wga.org/wga-awards/nominees-winners

Finally, we also have acting nominations from the Screen Actors Guild, which can be found here:

http://variety.com/2015/film/awards/sag-award-nominations-2016-nominees-full-list-1201657169/

SAG gave GOT three nods: Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama, Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble… and Peter Dinklage for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama.

My congratulations to everyone who was nominated. You deserved it! And my condolences to all those who were not. You were robbed!

Tags: awards, television and film

More Hugo Thoughts

December 5, 2015 at 12:59 pm

Continuing the conversation I began in my Not A Post of November 2…

Last time I talked about some possible nominees for Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. This time I want to focus on Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. In other words, best television episode. (No, not officially, but that’s what it usually comes down to, and let’s ignore the silliness of nominating an Easter Egg or an acceptance speech from the previous year’s Hugos).

I was no fan of the efforts of Puppies to game the Hugo Awards last year. I don’t think I have been shy in my opinions on that subject. But I will give the Puppies this much — their efforts did break the decade-long hold that Dr. Who fandom had on the nominations in this category. I have no problem with episodes of DR. WHO being nominated, and indeed winning, mind you… and the Doctor has won plenty of times in this category over the past decade… but when four of the six finalists are from the same category, that strikes me as way unbalanced and, well, greedy. The Doctor’s fans love their show, I know, but there is a LOT of great SF and fantasy on the tube right now. Nominate DR. WHO, by all means… but leave some room for someone else, please.

(And yes, I would feel the same way if it was four episodes of GAME OF THRONES being nominated every year, rather than four episodes of DR. WHO).

Last year, for the first time in recent memory, we actually had five different series represented on the final ballot. In addition to GAME OF THRONES and DR. WHO, the two shows that had dominated the previous three years, we also had ORPHAN BLACK (the eventual winner), plus episodes of THE FLASH and GRIMM. The Puppies had something to do with that, I can’t deny that. Nonetheless, I do think it was a healthy development. I hope we have five different series represented this year as well… though maybe not the same five.

There’s a lot to choose from, actually. Yes, DR. WHO. No way to keep the Doctor off the ballot. Yes, GAME OF THRONES. I am only human, so I do hope we contend again… I’d favor “Hardhome” myself, but “Mother’s Mercy,” with Cersei’s walk of shame, could be a strong choice as well. ORPHAN BLACK is the defending champion, and should get another nod as well.

THE FLASH? Maybe. But there’s also ARROW and GOTHAM and AGENTS OF SHIELD for the comic book fans out there (I count myself as one of those), and now SUPERGIRL as well.

GRIMM was nominated last year, and is still going strong. And there’s ONCE UPON A TIME as well. That one has never gotten a nod.

However, looking beyond previous nominees, there are lots of shows out there that might be due for a bit of Hugo love. Start with the zombie triad: the very grim WALKING DEAD, the very tongue-in-cheek Z NATION, plus I, ZOMBIE. The undead are well represented.

And for horror fans, there’s also AMERICAN HORROR STORY. A perennial Emmy contender, yet it never seems to get any notice at Hugo time.

I love scary stories myself, count myself a fan of Lovecraft and Poe and Stephen King, so I’ve sampled and enjoyed most of these shows. The one I like better than any of them, though? PENNY DREADFUL. That’s the one I’ll be including on my own Hugo ballot.

I am tempted to mention THE LAST KINGDOM as well… but as much as I love it, it really isn’t eligible. A terrific show, one you should all be watching, but it’s straight historical fiction, with no fantasy elements.

However, I will mention another show that might otherwise be overlooked: OUTLANDER. Yes, it is a historical. Yes, it is a romance. But it is also a science fiction show. TIME TRAVEL, remember? Plus, it’s just flat out terrific. Great production values, first rate writing and directing, and some amazing acting… all three of the leads gave performances worthy of Emmy nods this past year, though the Academy overlooked them. I hope that fandom doesn’t make the same mistake.

Let’s spread the love. Lots of people are doing good work in television right now, and deserve some recognition. Five nominations, five different series, that’s my hope. When the time comes to make your nominations, look beyond the usual suspects.

Tags: awards, hugo awards, television

Sibel Is Coming…. Back

November 18, 2015 at 7:23 pm

Big doings at the Jean Cocteau next week.

Starting on Tuesday, when the amazing SIBEL KEKILLI visits Santa Fe once again. Last time she was here, I introduced her to margaritas and chile con queso, so of course she had to return.

GAME OF THRONES fans know Sibel best as Shae, of course, but she’s much much more than that. In her native Germany, Sibel has twice won the prestigious Lola Award (the ‘German’ Oscar) as Best Actress.

Last time she visited us, we screened the first of her Lola-winning films, her feature debut in HEAD ON. So this time it seemed only right that we show the second, WHEN WE LEAVE.

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We’ll be showing WHEN WE LEAVE only twice, on Tuesday night and again on Wednesday, and Sibel will be on hand to introduce the film and answer your questions afterward… about WHEN WE LEAVE, about GAME OF THRONES (yay Shae!), about her current starring role in the hit German crime series TATORT, about her work with Terre des Femmes, or whatever. You might even be able to persuade her to sign your GAME OF THRONES books, who knows?

Advance tickets can be purchased on the Cocteau website.

See you at the movies!

Tags: awards, films, game of thrones, jean cocteau cinema

Maybe You CAN Go Home Again…

November 11, 2015 at 1:06 pm

[… at least for a visit.

Last week I returned to my old haunts in Evanston, Illinois, to Northwestern University and the Medill School of Journalism, where I was honored with an Alumni Achievement Award. The honor meant a lot to me, as did the warm welcome I received from the faculty and students at Medill.

I also got to attend a football game at Ryan Field (it was Dyche Stadium when I was there), and witness a thrilling last-minute victory over the ~~Lannister Lions~~ Penn State Nittany Lions. Good game (though Penn State did knock out NU’s starting QB, which could bode ill for the remainder of the season). Not only did I see a win, but I got to hang out with a fellow NU alum, AND was presented with a Northwestern helmet midway through the second quarter. VERY cool.

All that was great… but the best part of the visit was getting to meet some of the students, who turned out in large numbers for all of my public events. For some reason, they all seemed a lot younger than the students I remember from 1970… but just as bright.

I had forgotten what a pretty town Evanston is, especially in autumn. The city has changed a lot since I was last there, however, as has the campus. A LOT of new buildings, everywhere. Fisk and Harris and University were still there, I was pleased to see, but surrounded on all sides by big modern buildings I don’t remember. Deering looked unchanged, though. And Tech… where I took Bergen Evans’ introduction to literature…

A lot of memories. I would have loved to wander the campus a little more and wallow in nostalgia, but alas, I could not walk a block beyond the hotel without being stopped for half a dozen selfies, so I had to put that plan aside.

(I was saddened to see that Evanston has lost all of its old movie theatres. The Varsity, the Valenica, the Evanston up by the stadium, the Coronet down by the Main Street newsstand… gone, every one of them. What a loss).

My thanks to Dean Hamm, President Shapiro, Beth Moellers, the gang at the Nerd Bar, and everyone else who helped to make my visit so special.

Tags: awards, movie theatre, travels

Back to Evanston

November 2, 2015 at 4:01 pm

I will be returning to Evanston, Illinois this weekend ~~in search of my lost youth~~ to receive an alumni award from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

I’ll also be doing an interview and Q&A open to the Northwestern community.

http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/experience/news/2015/fall/best-selling-author-george-r.-r.-martin-to-visit-medill.html

And, hey, I also get to go to a football game. I wonder if I still remember all the words to “Go, U Northwestern.”

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Tags: awards, old times

Hugo Thoughts

November 2, 2015 at 3:08 pm

Talking about sports this morning is immeasurably depressing… so I am going to talk about science fiction and the Hugo awards instead.

After several months of relative quiet, the Puppygate mess seems to be stirring again.

It is my hope — maybe a naive hope — that this time around, we can actually talk about the WORK instead of engaging in endless recrimination and name-calling. I am, I confess, not optimistic on that front, but I am going to try to do my bit, by… well, by talking about the work.

In the past, I have usually made my own Hugo recommendations only after nominations have opened. But in light of what happened last year, it seems useful to begin much sooner. To get talking about the things we like, the things we don’t like. This is especially useful in the case of the lesser known and obscure work. Drawing attention to such earlier in the process is the best way to get more fans looking at them… and unless you are aware of a work, you’re not likely to nominate it, are you? (Well, unless you’re voting a slate, and just ticking off boxes).

Let me start with the Dramatic Presentation category. Long form.

Big Hollywood movies traditionally dominate this category. I suspect it will be the same this year. The new STAR WARS comes out at year’s end, and has to be the favorite here. I have not seen it, you have not seen it, no one really knows if it will be another EMPIRE STRIKES BACK or another PHANTOM MENACE… but it’s still STAR WARS, and I suspect it will be nominated.

THE MARTIAN should also be nominated. A great adaptation of a terrific book, I actually think it has a fair chance of upsetting STAR WARS. Fans of hard SF — and there are a LOT of those — love this one, and for good reason. I loved it too. (And wish we’d been allowed to screen it at my theatre). There seems to be some confusion about whether Andy Weir is still eligible for the Campbell Award, by the way… but if he is eligible, he should certainly be nominated.

Also, there’s MAD MAX: FURY ROAD. I loved the old Mad Max movies (especially THE ROAD WARRIOR), and this one was a worthy successor. Deserves a space on the ballot for sure.

Those are the big obvious choices. But let me draw your attention to a few more obscure possibilities.

PREDESTINATION is an adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein’s classic short “All You Zombies.” It actually came out last year (we showed it at the JCC), but had little distribution. For that reason, the Sasquan business meeting voted to give it a second year of eligibility, so it is eligible again this year. It is an excellent little film, with a wonderful performance by Sarah Snook. Very faithful to RAH. If you liked the story, you should like the movie. Seek it out and give it a look.

WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS is a comedy out of New Zealand, about four vampires living together in Wellington, NZ. I saw it first in Switzerland at a film festival. It’s hilarious. Won the festival’s audience award, deservedly. Comedy is often overlooked at awards time, if there are no special categories for it. This one deserves a better fate. Not a chance in hell it will ever win a Hugo… but wouldn’t it be cool if a small, funny film like this could make the ballot?

Finally… the Long Form category is not actually limited to movies, though those do tend to dominate. So do also consider JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL, the seven-part BBC television miniseries adaptation of the Hugo-winning novel by Susannah Clarke. A lovely piece of work, I thought, and — again — faithful to the source material (a big thing with me). It should not be forgotten at nominations time.

I am not urging anyone to nominate any of these… but I am suggesting that you might want to check them out. They’re all works I enjoyed a lot. I suspect that THE MARTIAN and FURY ROAD and the yet-unseen STAR WARS are all pretty much locks for Hugo nominations regardless, but the other three, the more obscure three, are worthy efforts that might be missed, unless people seek them out. So…

Tags: awards, hugo awards, television and film

The Sexiest Woman Alive…

October 15, 2015 at 2:51 pm

… is Emilia Clarke, our own Daenerys Targaryen, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea.

It’s official. ESQUIRE magazine has proclaimed it so.

Read all about it here: http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/interviews/a38719/emilia-clarke-swa-2015/ Good interview, and lovely (and sexy) art.

Having been in Emilia’s company at numerous GAME OF THRONES event, I can only applaud ESQUIRE’s good taste. She is indeed a beautiful woman, and a terrific actresss.

Congratulations, Emilia! And applause to the fine folks at ESQUIRE.

Tags: awards, game of thrones, hbo, sex

A Birthday to Remember

September 26, 2015 at 5:50 pm

I turned 67 on September 20. So did the Emmy Awards.

Our party was on TV. Andy Samberg gave me a shout-out. HBO gave me a cake. And the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences gave me an Emmy. Well, actually they gave one to GAME OF THRONES as tv’s Best Drama, but since I’m a producer on the show, I get one of the trophies.

In case you missed the moment:
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Truth be told, I almost missed the moment myself. While I was pleased that we had been nominated once again, I did not expect us to win… and with so much to do at home, so much pressure on so many fronts, I wasn’t sure I wanted to fly out to LA again, put on a monkey suit, and sit through another loss. The first few times you are up for an Emmy it is very exciting, yes, it’s cool and glamorous and all that… but this would be my seventh time. I had been nominated, and lost, six times before; four times with GAME OF THRONES, and twice more back in the 80s with BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. No fantasy show had EVER won ‘the big one,’ the award for Best Drama, and with MAD MEN, a four-time winner, up for its final season, it did not seem likely that this would be the year. Great shows often get a valedictory award or three to celebrate their excellence after they have left the airwaves.

So I was seriously thinking of staying home this year. It was Paul Haas, my agent at WME, who changed my mind. He said he thought that GOT might have a shot this year. Yeah, yeah, I said, I’d heard that before. (I’d thought our third season, with the buzz of the Red Wedding behind it, might be the one to break through, but I’d been way wrong). Then Paul pointed out that if we did win, and I wasn’t there to be part of it, I would regret it for the rest of my life. He was right. So I came, and we won, and it was a birthday I will never forget.

Thanks, Paul.

The Emmy is sitting in my TV room right now, golden and shiny. Big thing. Very heavy. Very pretty. I smile every time I see it. (We ate the cake).

It was a great night for GAME OF THRONES, and for HBO as whole. VEEP dominated in the comedy categories, and OLIVE KITTERIDGE in miniseries… which just goes to show all of you who don’t get HBO, you are missing a lot… and as for us, we were up in five categories, and won four. David Benioff and Dan Weiss won for Writing, David Nutter for Directing, and Peter Dinklage took his second for Best Supporting Actor. All of us were pulling for Lena Headey and Emilia Clarke in Best Supporting Actress, but they lost out to Uzo Aduba from ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, whose Crazy Eyes is the most unforgettable character on an amazing and addictive show. And the came Best Drama… It IS an honor just to be nominated, yes it is. But let me tell you, winning is more fun than losing, and 1-6 beats the hell out of 1-7.

Unlike the Hugo Awards (where, if seven people jointly win some award, all of them get to yammer for as long as they like), the Emmy Awards have a strict time limit, and only one or two designated acceptors speak for the group. For us, that was David and Dan, just as it should be. They thanked a lot of people… and then ran out of time.

But there’s never enough time to thank everyone, of course. So I want to add my own thanks for some of those that D&D did not get to.

Starting with David Benioff and Dan Weiss themselves. Without them, there would be no show. Without their talent and dedication, there would certainly be no Emmy.

Also, I want to thank Bryan Cogman. He’s been there since the beginning too, the right hand man to D&D, and he’s written some of our best episodes. I am thrilled that when we finally won, it was for a year in which he’d finally snagged a “producer” credit, which meant that he got to take home a trophy as well.

And of course I want to thank Parris (so glad you were there with me, Phipps), and Paul Haas and the rest of my team at WME, and Vince Gerardis, and Kay McCauley, and Anne Groell and my team at Bantam, and Jane Johnson as my team at Voyager, and my leal minions Raya and Lenore and Jenni and Elias and Jo, and Pat (who left), and even Ty (who left even earlier).

Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank the dead. We have the best cast in television, as I have said a hundred times, and many of them were on the stage with us last Sunday. Thanks to all of them, of course, and thanks as well to Emilia and Kit and Dame Diana and Kristian and Natalie and Finn, who were off working and could not be there with us.

But there were ghosts standing behind us. Maybe you couldn’t see them, but I could feel their presence, and I know that without them none of us would have been holding Emmys. Yes, I know, I know, the award was for Season Five… but if you truly believe that the Academy voters did not take our first four seasons into account as well, then let me tell you about this lovely bridge over the Green Fork that Walder Frey would like to sell you.

No. It was the show to date that won, I believe, and our ghosts were a huge part of that. So my thanks go out to Sean Bean, to Mark Addy, to Rose Leslie, to Pedro Pascal, to Michelle Fairley, to Richard Madden, Gethin Anthony, Harry Lloyd, Ron Donachie, Mark Stanley, Esme Bianco, Kate Dickie, Jack Gleeson, Amrita Acharia, Charles Dance, Donald Sumpter, Josef Altin, Peter Vaughn, Margaret John, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Oona Chaplin, Stephen Dillane, Francis Magee, Roxanna McKee, Kerry Ingram, Ian McElhinney, Jason Momoa, and of course Sibel Kekilli… along with all the other noble and ignoble dead that I’ve certainly forgotten, and I’m sure that there’s a lot of them.

Some of you are dead in the books, others only on the show. But if it was up to me, all of you would have been up on the stage beside us. Every one of you played your part, large or show, in making GAME OF THRONES the record-smashing hit it is.

Thank you all.

Tags: awards, emmy awards, game of thrones, hbo

A New Record

September 21, 2015 at 11:16 pm

Back from the Emmy Awards in LA.

A night to remember.

GAME OF THRONES set a new record for number of wins by a series in a single year. Eight last week, and four more on Sunday. That’s twelve.

Pretty impressive haul when you line them up like that.

The previous record was nine, set by WEST WING.

Anyway… I will have more to say about the Emmys and all that, but we’ve only been home a few hours, and I’m still pretty tired (celebrating is hard work, and so is travel) so it will have to wait until tomorrow. I do have more to say, and a lot of people to thank.

For now, let it suffice to say that the Emmy looks very good in my TV room, and while it IS an honor just to be nominated (as I have been, six times before), it’s even cooler to win.

Tags: awards, emmy awards, game of thrones, hbo, television

Eight Is NOT Enough

September 15, 2015 at 5:09 pm

HBO and GAME OF THRONES dominated last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys in LA.

HBO took home 29, way more than any other network. GOT accounted for eight of those, more than any other show.

Awards were given in every category. For the full list of nominees and winners:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/creative-arts-emmys-2015-winners-822621

The rest of this year’s Emmys will be given out this Sunday. I’ll be flying out to LA once more for the ceremony. GAME OF THRONES is nominated for directing, writing, and acting… and of course, for Best Drama. So cross your fingers, cross your toes.

Meanwhile, congratulations to all of our Emmy winners from last week. Well deserved! A hearty round of applause, please… and for the losers too. Not everyone can take home the trophy, but you all did great work.