Are those dragons I see?
Yes indeed.
It’s May, which means the August 21 premiere of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is only a few months away.
And HBO has just released a new trailer, to give you another taste of what you’ll be seeing.
Enjoy.
Current Mood: 
excited
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON has a great pair of showrunners in Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik.
And it has an amazing cast as well. You’ve been reading about them for months. Matt Smith, Emma d’Arcy, Milly Alcock, Olivia Cooke, Paddy Considine, Emily Carey, Rhys Ifans, Steve Touissant, Fabien Frankel, and more, and more. You may not know their names now, but I think you will before the year ends. You will hate some of them, love some of them, mourn for some of them.
There’s another group of contributors, equally important, whose names you may not know either. But you should. Without them , there would be no show. If there was, it would certainly not be as good as I think HOUSE is going to be. Here are the folks I am talking about:
Yes… it’s the writers.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is based on my novellas “The Princess and the Queen” and “The Rogue Prince,” and other materials from my Targaryen history FIRE & BLOOD… but FIRE & BLOOD is an imaginary history, not a traditional novel. To turn it into a television series requires a lot more work than adapting a novel or short story. The scriptwriters need to make history come alive.
Ryan Condal assembled a pretty amazing team to do just that. The photograph above was taken during one of my visits to LA — the last, I think, before Covid descended on us all, and shut down my travels — when I sat down with Ryan and his writers for dinner. It was a big loud lively dinner at a long table, but the food was great and the company was greater. I loved talking dragons with the team, and I was impressed with the depth of their knowledge of my world, and their enthusiasm for the project.
The first season of HOUSE is now wrapped, and in large part thanks to the talents of our scribes. So please raise your glasses and toast our writers: Sara Hess, Gabe Fonseca, Ira Parker, Ti Mikkel, Charmaine DeGrate, Kevin Lau, and Eileen Shim. And of course Ryan Condal himself, the ringmaster and dragon tamer. Oh, and though they are not in the picture, I should also salute Claire Kiechel and Wes Tooke, who joined Ryan and Ti in the mini writer’s room that preceded this one, before there was even a pick up.
(And me, you ask? No, I did not write a script for the first season of HOUSE… part of me would have loved to, but I have been kind of busy with WINDS OF WINTER, the other THRONES successor shows, various WILD CARDS books, the WILD CARDS tv pilot for Peacock and UCP, DARK WINDS for AMC, ROADMARKS for HBO, NIGHT OF THE COOTERS and a couple other really cool Howard Waldrop projects, and… well, yeah, okay, I bought a railroad, never mind. I did co-create the series with Ryan and help give it its shape, and he and I have been in constant contact ever since).
Hollywood is a land of change, and writers are always moving around in today’s television landscape. Some of the folks in the photo above moved on to other shows and other networks before season one of HOUSE even began to film. Others have been with us all the way through the first season, and will be returning for season two (if indeed HBO gives us a season two, cross your fingers). But all of them played a part.
So here’s to the writers! Huzzah!
Current Mood: 
pleased
Exciting news out of London — I am informed that shooting has WRAPPED for the first season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON.
Yes, all ten episodes. I have seen rough cuts of a few of them, and I’m loving them. Of course, a lot more work needs to be done. Special effects, color timing, score, all the post production work.
But the writing, the directing, the acting all look terrific. I hope you will like them as much as I do. My hat is off to Ryan and Miguel and their team, and to our amazing cast.
So when will you get to see it, you ask? When will the dragons dance?
I wish I could tell you. Lots of work remains to be done, as I said, and covid makes planning difficult. This spring? Unlikely. Maybe summer? Could be. Fall? Who knows?
You’ll know when we do.
Current Mood: excited
The new year is almost at hand, and with it will come all manner of new television shows, on network, cable, and streamers.
I have got to confess, I was chuffed to read that the most anticipated new show, according to IMDB, was…
(drum roll, please)
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON!
https://movieweb.com/house-of-the-dragon-imdb-most-anticipated-original-tv-series-2022/
That’s a hell of a list to be at the top of, too. Amazon’s new Tolkien series? Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN? Marvel shows? STAR WARS shows?
Good company.
I am anticipating HOUSE OF THE DRAGON pretty eagerly myself, for what it’s worth. Okay, I am hardly objective. And I know a lot of what you will be seeing. (I, um, wrote the book). Also … mum’s the word now, don’t tell anyone… I’ve seen a rough cut of the first episode. And loved it. It’s dark, it’s powerful, it’s visceral… just the way I like my epic fantasy.
Ryan and Miguel have done an amazing job, and the cast… just as with GAME OF THRONES, most viewers will only have heard of a few of the actors, but I think you are going to fall in love with a lot of them. (Only to have your heart broken later when… but no, that would be telling).
I think the Targaryens are in very good hands.
Anticipate away. I do not think you will be disappointed.
Current Mood: excited
Yes, I know, most of you have already seen this. (What can I say? I am busy. Juggling so many balls, so many projects, posting stuff on my Not A Blog is not my highest priority, so things may always be a little bit behind here).
For the handful who have been off the internet the past few days, however… HBO has released the first official teaser/trailer for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. Here ’tis.
Enjoy.
(And yes, I love it too. Ryan and Miguel and their team are kicking ass and taking names).
Current Mood: 
happy
He is the common-born son of the steward to the Lord of Blackhaven. He has no claim to lands or titles, all he has is his honor and his skill with sword and lance.
He is a challenger, a champion, cheered by the commons, beloved of the ladies.
He is a lover (or is he?), a seducer (or is he?), a betrayer (or is he?), a breaker of hearts and a maker of kings.
FIRE & BLOOD readers know him as Ser Criston Cole.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON viewers will know him as FABIEN FRANKEL.
In some of his other roles, Frankel has been the son of Dennis Franz (NYPD BLUE) and the lover of Emilia Clarke (LAST CHRISTMAS). And now he is getting tangled up with some more Targaryens. We shall see how that goes.
Welcome to Westeros, Fabien.
And do keep that sword sharp.
Current Mood: pleased
The story broke a few days ago, and is now all over the internet: I am developing a new series for HBO, a science fiction show based on ROADMARKS, a novel by the late great Roger Zelazny. And what do you know — the story is actually true. Which is more than can be said about most of the stories about me that I stumble over these days, boys and girls. (I have said it before, and will say it again, but sometimes it seems no one listens. Do not believe everything you read).
Anyway… YES! We had not intended to announce anything yet, to be sure. Development is a long and uncertain process. Thousands of shows are pitched, hundreds of pilots are written, dozens of pilots are filmed, but only a very few of them ever get greenlit to series. There is a reason that Hollywood insiders call it “development hell.” And what’s the point of announcing projects that might never make it to air? That’s why HBO — like most other networks and streamers — prefers to keep these things quiet.
Even so, even so… you cannot win the lottery unless you buy a ticket, so we all keep playing.
Which brings me back to ROADMARKS.
DEADLINE was the first to break the story, but the best and most complete account appeared on the WERTZONE, here:
https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2021/02/hbo-developing-roger-zelaznys-roadmarks.html
My career in television started in 1985 when I adapted Roger Zelazny’s “The Last Defender of Camelot” for THE TWILIGHT ZONE. It was the first script of mine ever to be filmed (starring Richard Kiley and Jenny Agutter and a stuntman whose nose got cut off during the swordfight). Roger was a friend, a mentor, and one of the greatest science fiction writers who ever lived. He died in 1995, but his work will live for so long as people read SF and fantasy. It was an honor to be able to bring one of his stories to television. And now I am hoping we will be able to do it again.
I pitched ROADMARKS to HBO last year — along with four other SF and fantasy works (by various other writers) that I thought had the makings of great shows. They all had (and have) lots of potential, but ROADMARKS was the one they responded to. A great choice, I think. ROADMARKS is not as well as known as some of Roger’s other work, like the Amber series or LORD OF LIGHT (one of the best SF novels ever written, imnsho), but at the core of it is a simply marvelous concept: the Road that extends through all of history and even into alternate timelines, ever growing, ever changing, a road that will take you anywhere if you know how to find it. Roger’s own title for the novel was LAST EXIT TO BABYLON, which gives you a hint of the flavor of the book. In Red Dorakeen, he gave us a fascinating protagonist as well, and of course there’s also Leaves and Flowers, and the Black Decade, and some wild supporting characters and bad guys. Honestly, the concept is as big as Amber and could easily have sustained a whole series of books, though Roger only penned the one. It’s our hope that it can also sustain a dozen great seasons on HBO.
But that’s a way down the… ahem… road. Right now we just have a pilot order.
We found a great writer, though. Her name is Kalinda Vazquez. I first met her five or six years back, when we worked together on a different project, trying to turn my werewolf novella “The Skin Trade” into a series for Cinemax. That was going great for a time, till it blew up for various complex legal reasons that annoy me to this day. (See what I mean about development hell?) Maybe one day we can return to it. Afterwards, Kalinda went on to write for all sorts of other shows, including STAR TREK and THE WALKING DEAD, while I… well, most of you know what I have been doing. But I am looking forward to working with her again. Although, to be honest, it is Kalinda who will be doing most of the work from this point on. I am only an executive producer. Kalinda will be writing the pilot, and if indeed we get a series order, she will be the showrunner, presiding over the writer’s room and in charge of the whole shebang. She had a great take on Willie and Randi back then, and I think she’ll do right by Red and the Road as well.
Of course, it will be a year or two before a ROADMARKS show could possibly get on the air.
While you are waiting, let me suggest you read ROADMARKS, the novel. And then NINE PRINCES IN AMBER. LORD OF LIGHT. DOORWAYS IN THE SAND. CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS. THIS IMMORTAL. THE DREAM MASTER. Or any of the marvelous haunting evocative short stories. There was only one Roger Zelazny.
Current Mood: 
hopeful
Here’s another peek at the past, and the original pilot for GAME OF THRONES.
We shot the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo in Morocco. Ian McNeice played Illyrio Mopatis, a magister of Pentos, and I played one of the wedding guests, presumably another magister.
Both of us, alas, were left on the cutting room floor when Dany was recast and the wedding was reshot. Ian McNeice was terrific as Illyrio, by the way, but a scheduling conflict made him unavailable for the reshoot.
I never did find time to do another cameo, but I suspect the show was better for it.
If you really want to see me do a cameo, I did two for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST in the 80s, and more recently had my brilliant turns in SHARKNADO 3 and Z NATION. I made a swell zombie…
Current Mood: 
silly
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busy