Rolling Rolling Rolling

April 7, 2025 at 10:25 am

I’m glad that I was finally able to blog about worldcon and the Alfies. We got back from Europe in the middle of August, and it was my original hope to have that one up by the end of the month. HOO HA! Too much trip, too little time.

And a lot has been going on since then.

IN THE LOST LANDS, adapted from my 1972 Grey Alys story, was released on March 7. We had a full house at the Jean Cocteau for the premiere. I’ve heard that it will hit streaming on April 8, but I don’t know if that date is locked in yet.

Something else is going to be happening on April 8 as well. (Or maybe on April 9). No, I am not announcing the completion of THE WINDS OF WINTER, the sixth volume of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE. Please don’t start any rumors to that effect. I am so tired of having to issue denials every time some offhand comment of mine, most having nothing to do with WINDS, somehow convinces half the internet that the book is imminent. It’s not. No. (Maybe I need to stop making offhand comments)

So calm down. (Until April 8, anyway. Then you can get excited all over again, but for an entirely different reason.

The third season of DARK WINDS, based on Tony Hillerman’s classic tales of Navajo detectives Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, made its debut on AMC and AMC+ on March 9, to strong ratings and even stronger reviews. One critic said its past time to give Zahn McClarnon an Emmy. I can only agree. DW has eight episode this season (up from six for seasons 1 and 2). We’ll have eight episodes in season four as well… and filming has already started filming. Zahn himself is directing episode one! We’re all excited about that. Kiowa, Bernadette, Chris Eyre, Stephen Paul Judd, New Mexico’s amazing landscapes… lots of reasons to watch this one, if you haven’t done so already. As for those two guys playing chess in the jail cell in episode one… yes, could be one was the Sundance Kid, but t’other hombre… some guy from the Twilight Zone?

DARK WINDS is shooting just north of Santa Fe, at Camel Rock Studios. Meanwhile, over in London, season three of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON has also started filming. You’ll be getting eight episodes of that one too. Hitting the air in 2026, best guess.

A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS will come first. Six episodes, the HBO adaptation of the first Dunk & Egg novella, “The Hedge Knight.” I just watched it again last week, the latest cuts. It’s looking good, I think. I love it lots, but I’m not one to judge. Meantime, in London Towne, Ira Parker and his team are huddled together beating out “The Sworn Sword,” the second Dunk and Egg adventure. It is such a joy to see the characters come alive, so vividly. Watching them makes me want to start writing the next novella tomorrow… but of course, I can’t. Too many other things to do.

Oh, I should mention THE IRON THRONE. The play, not the chair. I caught up on that when I was in London last month. We do not have a theatre yet, or a cast, or a date… but they are making progress, and everyone is very excited. I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t. Not quite yet. But we’re getting close and closer. I am hoping we’ll know a lot more by year’s end.

I also visited the Dickens house when I was in London. That was great too. Love Dickens. I need to read more of his books, though, so I bought four more of them when I was there.

And before I forget: the Milk of the Poppy is now open. (Like half a year late, but that’s the story of my life, I think). It’s in Santa Fe, just behind Beastly Books and around the corner from the Jean Cocteau Cinema.

Read all about it:

https://www.milkofthepoppybar.com/

https://sfreporter.com/food/the-fork/new-stuff-we-learned-about-george-rr-martin%E2%80%99s-new-bar-milk-o/

https://www.abqjournal.com/lifestyle/article_33310b62-eceb-11ef-9b69-8326c024bbf7.html

No, you won’t find me tending bar in Milk of the Poppy, but you may catch me having a drink from time to time. Seven save me, there are days I really need one.

Tags: movies, television, television and film, travels

The Adaptation Tango

May 24, 2024 at 9:05 am

A few years back, Neil Gaiman and I did a joint event in New York City, when we were both in town.

It was a lot of fun, as events with Neil always are. We told some funny stories, talked about books and comics, about SANDMAN and WILD CARDS and days at cons… and touched on some serious topics too.

I would like to upload a video of the event if I could, but I am not sure one exists. If anyone was recording us, I have never seen the tape. But VARIETY had the best report of the session.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/george-rr-martin-neil-gaiman-hate-hollywood-changing-source-material-1235416651/

That was all back in 2022, but very little has changed since then. If anything, things have gotten worse. Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and “make them their own.” It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or… well, anyone. No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and “improve” on it. “The book is the book, the film is the film,” they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own.

They never make it better, though. Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.

Once in a while, though, we do get a really good adaptation of a really good book, and when that happens , it deserves applause.

I can came across one of those instances recently, when I binged the new FX version of SHOGUN.

Must confess, I was dubious when I first heard they were making another version of the Clavell novel. It has been a long time, a long long LONG time, but I read the book when it first came out in the late 70s and was mightily impressed. (I really need to give it a reread one of these days, but there are so many books, so little time). And the 1980 miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain as the Anjin was a landmark of long form television, right up with with ROOTS; why do it over again, when that version was so good?

I am glad they did, though. The new SHOGUN is superb. Better than Chamberlain’s version, you ask? Hmmm, I don’t know. I have not watched the 1980 miniseries since, well, 1980. That one was great too. The fascinating thing is that while the old and new versions have some significant differences — the subtitles that make the Japanese dialogue intelligible to English speaking viewers being the biggest — they are both faithful to the Clavell novel in their own way. I think the author would have been pleased. Both old and new screenwriters did honor to the source material, and gave us terrific adaptations, resisting the impulse to “make it their own.”

But don’t take my word for it. Watch it yourself.

Acting, directing, set design, costume… it’s all splendid here. Along with the writing.

And if SHOGUN is a big enough hit, maybe the same team will adapt some of Clavell’s other novels.

Current Mood: thoughtful

Tags: adaptation, television and film, writing

A Visit to Old Blighty

December 6, 2023 at 8:58 am

I have been busy catching up these past couple of weeks, dealing with the thousand-odd emails that accumulated while I was over the Pond in London Towne for two-and-a-half weeks. (Most of that was spam, though, and quickly dealt with).

It was a busy trip. I have not been to London since before the Dublin Worldcon a few years ago. That trip was largely for fun, this one was mostly work… though we did find time to see a few plays on the West End. CABARET was amazing, but oh, so dark. I love love love the film version with Liza Minelli, one of my favorite films of all time, but the stage production has a whole different feel. Brilliant, but gut wrenching, especially considering the times we are living through right now. We also caught the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE. A wonderful book, but so much of it depends on internal monologue and Neil’s rich, evocative prose that I wondered how they could possibly bring it to the stage. I need not have worried. They did a masterful job. I hear they may be bringing it to Broadway soon. If so, don’t miss it. Finally, we went to see THE MOUSE TRAP, the Agatha Christie whodunit that has been playing on the West End since 1952. That was a fun evening as well.

And since we are talking theatre… one of the meetings I had in London was with Dominick and Duncan, the director and scriptwriter of our own stage play, the one we have been working on for the past few years. Originally we were calling it HARRENHAL, but we have now settled on THE IRON THRONE as a title… until we think of something better. Regardless, things are coming well, I think, and we are hopeful of being able to open in late 2024. Maybe. But you never know. There’s still a lot of work to be done.

I also found time to meet with my British publisher, and my other British publisher, to talk WILD CARDS and A SONG OF ICE & FIRE and (of course) THE WINDS OF WINTER.

And… of course, of course… I also spent three days with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. Starting with a visit to the studio where HOT D is being shot. (I had originally planned to visit there months ago, but the WGA strike put an end to that, and instead I stayed here in Santa Fe, working on WINDS OF WINTER and walking a picket line). All I have to say about that is… ohmigod! I am no stranger to film sets. I have worked off and on in television and film since 1986, where I joined the staff of the TWILIGHT ZONE revival at CBS. I still recall the rush where I saw them building Stonehenge on the sound stage behind my office, for an episode I’d written. And of course I visited the GAME OF THRONES shoots in Belfast, Scotland, Morocco, and Malta. Those were incredible too. But nothing I have ever seen can compare with the Red Keep and Dragonstone sets they have built at Leavesden Studios in London. HUGE, stunning, and so damned real that I felt as if I had gone through a time portal to medieval Westeros. I love castles and have visited dozens of actual medieval castles, keeps, and towers in my time, and none of the real castles I’ve ever seen can hold a candle… or a torch… to our Red Keep.

It was not all tromping through sets, though. I also spent two days locked in a room with Ryan Condal and his writing staff (Sara Hess, Ti Mikkel, David Hancock, and Philippa Goslett) talking about the third and fourth seasons of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. They were lively, fun discussions, and we got some good work done… though two days was not nearly enough. There is so much ground to cover that I am not sure twenty days would have been enough.

The highlight of the trip, though, had to be the sneak preview that Ryan gave me of the first two episodes of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, season two. (Rough cuts, of course). Of course, I am hardly objective when talking about anything based on my own work… but I have to say, I thought both episodes were just great. (And they are not even finished yet). Dark, mind you. Very dark. They may make you cry. (I did not cry myself, but one of my friends did). Powerful, emotional, gut-wrenching, heart rending. Just the sort of thing I like. (What can I say? I was weaned on Shakespeare, and love the tragedies and history plays best of all).

We also got to spent Halloween in London. My minions made me dress up. They are very bossy minions.

Also got to spend some time over there with friends old and new: Lisa Tuttle, Paul Cornell, Meredith Glynn, Jane Johnson, Mark Lawrence, Maisie Williams.

A lovely trip, all in all. We even got to see some fireworks on the Fifth of November.

But now I am back, and there is so much work to be done.

Current Mood: tired tired

Tags: television and film, theatre, travel

Actors Join the Strike!

July 22, 2023 at 9:02 am

Those of you who have been following the news out of Hollywood will already know that SAG-AFTRA, the actor’s union, has gone on strike, joining the Writers Guild of America (WGA). We have been striking since May 2. If you’re in LA or NYC or… sometimes… here in Santa Fe, you may have seen our picket lines. The pickets have gotten bigger since the actors joined us, and you may see some familiar faces holding signs.

Fran Drescher, president of SAG-AFTRA, gave a rousing speech when the announcing the strike.

Not much I can add to that, except “AMEN.”

The SAG contract ended on June 30, but the actors gave AMPTP every chance to reach an equitable agreement by extending negotiations to July 12. That proved to be a futile gesture. The studios did not move an inch from their previous positions, and still refuse to address some of the most important issues on the table, including AI and payments and residuals from streaming. They gave the actors no choice but to walk.

As for the writers… well, the studios are not even TALKING to us. All negotiations between AMPTP and the WGA shut down back in May when the strike started. It is hard to reach any agreement when the other side won’t even come to the table.

I joined the WGA in 1986 and have been through several strikes with them. We made gains in all of them, but some issues are more important than others… and this year’s strike is the most important of my lifetime. An unnamed producer was quoted last week saying the AMPTP strategy was to stand fast until the writers started losing their homes and apartments, which gives you a hint of what we’re facing.

But we ARE facing it. I have never seen such unity in the Guilds; the strike authorization votes for both SAG and WGA were as close to unanimous as we are ever likely to see.

No one can be certain where we go from here, but I have a bad feeling that this strike will be long and bitter. It may get as bad as the infamous 1985 strike, though I hope not.

You may be wondering how all this has affected me and my own projects.

Well, the second season of DARK WINDS wrapped before either strike began. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee will be returning to television on July 30, on AMC and AMC+. Union members will not be participating in any promotions, however… at least the actors and writers won’t (you may see some directors, since the DGA settled and signed a deal with the studios). The DARK WINDS premieres that AMC had scheduled for New York and LA have both been cancelled.

San Diego Comicon is being held as usual, but virtually all the big television and film promotions that usually occur there have been cancelled, after the stars and writers all pulled out. SDCC may need to return to its roots, and focus on comic books and the writers and artists who produce them. (Excelsior!).

I have been on several pickets here in New Mexico. So far as I know, all the shows shooting here have shut down. So have most of the films and television shows shooting in LA. The studios can stockpile scripts, but they can’t stockpile the actors.

(No, that’s not me).

One of the few shows till shooting is HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, as you may have read. That’s true. I am told the second season is half done. ALL of the scripts had been finished months before the WGA strike began. No writing has been done since, to the best of my knowledge. HOT D is shot mostly in London (and a little bit in Wales, Spain, and various other locations), which is why filming has continued. The actors are members of the British union, Equity, not SAG-AFTRA, and though Equity strongly supports their American cousins (they have a big rally planned to show that support), British law forbids them from staging a sympathy strike. If they walk, they have no protection against being fired for breach of contract, or even sued.

((Honestly, I was shocked to hear that. One of the two major UK political parties, Labour, has its roots in the trade union movement. How in the world could they have allowed such anti-labor regulations to be enacted? Seems to me that Labour Party really needs to do a better job of protecting the right to strike)).

As for me personally, my overall deal with HBO was suspended on June 1.

I still have plenty to do, of course. In that, I am one of the lucky ones. (These strikes are not really about name writers or producers or showrunners, most of whom are fine; we’re striking for the entry level writers, the story editors, the students hoping to break in, the actor who has four lines, the guy working his first staff job who dreams of creating his own show one day, as I did back in the 80s).

Last week we had a great meeting with the producers on THE IRON THRONE, the stage play we’ve been working on the past few years. The scripts for that one are coming along well, and it’s got me very excited. SAG-AFTRA covers television and film, but not the stage, so the strike has no impact there. Maybe we will even be able to bring the show to the West End by… well, no, better not say, do not want to jinx the project.

I have also been editing a couple new Wild Cards books. PAIRING UP just came out, but we’re still working on SLEEPER STRADDLE and HOUSE RULES for Bantam.

And, yes, yes, of course, I’ve been working on WINDS OF WINTER. Almost every day. Writing, rewriting, editing, writing some more. Making steady progress. Not as fast as I would like.. .certainly not as fast as YOU would like… but progress nonetheless.

It keeps me out of trouble.

So that’s the latest from the front lines. I hope we will have your support. HONK if you see us picketing… and NEVER cross a picket line… and maybe we will be able to get this settled quickly. Before we all lose our houses….

Tags: SAG-AFTRA, television and film, writers guild of america

STRIKE!

May 7, 2023 at 9:45 am

The writers’ strike is on.

No one wanted this — no writer with an ounce of sense, anyway — but the producers and the studios and the networks and the streamers gave us no choice. The Guild negotiated right up to the final deadline on May 1, but it takes two to tango. In the waning hours of May 1, the Writers Guild of America declared a strike. The action began on May 2. There are pickets in front of every studio lot and sound stage in LA, and many in other cities as well. Get used to them. I expect they will be there for a long time.

I am not in LA, so I cannot walk a picket line as I did in 1988, but I want to go on the record with my full and complete and unequivocal support of my Guild.

How long will the strike last? No idea. Maybe the AMPTP members will come to their senses tomorrow and offer some meaningful concessions, and the whole thing can be wrapped up next week. I would not bet the ranch on that, however. I have been through several of these since I first started writing for television and film in 1986. The 1988 strike, the first I was a part of, lasted 22 weeks, the longest in Hollywood history. The 2007-2008 strike, the most recent, went for 100 days. This one may go longer. The issues are more important, imnsho, and I have never seen the Guild so united as it is now.

Writers’ strikes tend to be longer than other labor actions. That’s the nature of the beast. My father was a longshoreman. When the ILA went out on strike, work on the docks shut down at once. The ships did not get unloaded. The trucks did not move. The cranes froze in place, the fork lifts stayed where they were when their drivers walked off, the bananas rotted in the holds. It does not work that way with writing. Everyone has seen this storm coming a long way off… and accordingly, studios and streamers and networks have been stockpiling scripts for months. As of May 2, the pens are down and the computer screens have gone dark all across Hollywood, but production will continue so long as there are scripts to shoot. The proviso being, of course, that those scripts must be shot EXACTLY as they were as of midnight on May 1. Not a word can be changed, cut, added, not a scene can be altered. All that requires writing… and from now until the strike ends, the writers will be on picket lines, not on sets.

(Many of you will be wondering, rightfully, about the impact of the strike on my own shows. The second season of DARK WINDS wrapped several months ago. Post production has been completed on five of the six episodes, and will soon be done on the last. The show will likely air sometime this summer on AMC. No decision on the third season will be made until after the strike. Peacock has passed on WILD CARDS, alas. A pity. We will try to place it elsewhere, but not until the strike is over. The writer’s room on A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS: THE HEDGE KNIGHT has closed for the duration. Ira Parker and his incredible staff of young talents are on the picket lines. Across the ocean, the second season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON started filming April 11 and will continue in London and Wales. The scripts for the eight s2 episodes were all finished months ago, long before the strike began, Every episode has gone through four or five drafts and numerous rounds of revisions, to address HBO notes, my notes, budget concerns, etc. There will be no further revisions. The writers have done their jobs; the rest is in the hands of the directors, cast and crew… and of course the dragons).

((Some of you, I fear, may be having anxiety attacks just now, on the mistaken assumption that this strike affects WINDS OF WINTER. You can relax. The WGA is a union of film and television writers. It has nothing to do with novels, short stories, or any other form of prose fiction, nor comic books and graphic novels, nor stage plays, nor the editing of collections and anthologies I have on-going projects in all those areas, and that work continues unabated. And WINDS continues to be priority number one)).

I am not going to try to explain the issues at stake here on my Not A Blog. Others have done that far better than I could. Whistle up Google and you will find dozens of stories on the internet detailing what the Guild is asking for on behalf of the writers it represents. The details are there, for those of you who are interested in going more deeply into the disputes. Needless to say, money is a big part of it. The move from broadcast and cable to streaming has severely impacted residuals for writers (and directors and actors as well). Television seasons have been shrinking; from 22 episodes on network, to 13 on cable, to 10, and now to 8 and 6. Since writers are often paid by the episode, that’s hurt too. Writer incomes are down across the board. The details are in the news stories.

And there are other issues, one of which I think is especially important. So important that I think it deserves its own post. Look for that tomorrow. For today, let me close by saying I am very heartened by the support we’ve received from the Teamsters and the other unions, and from many individual members of SAG and the DGA as well. I hope we will have the support of all of you reading them as well: the viewers, the fans, the people we are making these shows for.

It could be a long fight, but with you on our side, we cannot lose.

Current Mood: determined

Tags: television and film, WGA, writing

Stuff and Nonsense

December 28, 2022 at 2:21 pm

Another Christmas has come and gone, and the New Year looms just ahead. Where the hell does all the time go?

I did take a few days off for the holidays, I confess. Shame on me, I guess. But now I am back in the salt mine, working… working on so many bloody things, my head may soon explode. Yes, WINDS OF WINTER, yes, yes. And HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, season two. And several of the other successor shows that we’re developing with HBO. (Some of those are moving faster than others, as is always the case with development. None have been greenlit yet, though we are hoping… maybe soon. A couple have been shelved, but I would not agree that they are dead. You can take something off the shelf as easily as you can put it on the shelf. All the changes at HBO Max have impacted us, certainly). We are also still developing the Wild Cards tv series for Peacock, based (largely) on FORT FREAK. And I have Wild Cards books to edit. Oh, and did I forget WINDS OF WINTER? No, of course I didn’t. But if I ever did, I know you folks will remind me.

There’s also the railroad, the bookstore, and the theatre. Thankfully, I have great people doing most of the work on those.

I was on the road, in New York City and Chicago, from late October through the middle of November, promoting the new illustrated book, RISE OF THE DRAGON. I was doing a series of blog posts about the trip, you will recall. The interview with David Anthony Durham, the visit to Kevin Smith’s theatre in Jersey, my appearance on the Colbert Show. You can find links to all of those down below.

I wasn’t FINISHED, though. I also did a talk with Neil Gaiman at the Symphony Space in NYC. I cannot link to that one, alas. There were reporters present, however, and there have been a number of stories online about our discussion about adaptations… a subject we both have strong opinions on. Neil and I talked about a lot of things as well. It was a fun event. I had dinners with Vincent d’Onofrio and Joe Tracz and my friends at Tor/ Macmillan and Random House/ Bantam as well, and saw a few Broadway shows (DEATH OF A SALESMAN, THE MUSIC MAN, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, and SIX, fyi). Then I flew off to Chicago for a presentation at Northwestern… which DOES deserve its own post, so I will try to get to that soon.

Since I do not travel with a computer, I returned home to 2000 emails. Took me a while to catch up, even though 1500 of them were spam.

I taped all the games the Jets and Giants played while I was on the road, and tried to avoid hearing the scores (not entirely successfully). Turns out both teams did pretty well while I was travelling (and not watching). Since I have been back, however… well, this past week the G-Men lost a heartbreaker to the Vikings, and the Jets failed to turn up for their game against the Jags. (Please, Mike White, get well soon). Life is meaningless and full of pain. Clearly, the Football Gods hate me. Maybe they are pissed off about WINDS being so late too…

I meant to say a few words about some TV shows and movies we’ve enjoyed. I can see why THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN is getting so much acclaim, even though there aren’t any banshees in it. Brilliant performances by Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. A powerful story, one I will long remember… but damn, so sad. I see people calling it a comedy. Really? OK, but that’s dark humor. Parris and I have also been enjoying EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO. Not a new show, I gather, but it was new to us. (So much good TV right now). I hope there’s more coming of that one. We were very happy to hear that SANDMAN has been renewed for a second season. Took them long enough, but better late than never. And watching WHITE LOTUS 2 on HBO made me want to go visit Sicily… but I won’t, not until WINDS is done and delivered, I promised.

We also watched some holiday favorites. Several versions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, A CHRISTMAS STORY, and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE. And yes, I get it, life would really have been horrible for a lot of people if George Bailey had never been born… but hey, am I the only one who thinks that Potterville looks a lot livelier at night than Bedford Falls?

We haven’t seen the new AVATAR yet, but it’s high on our list. So is BABYLON, though that one is getting mixed reviews.

Oh, and awards season is at hand, and congratulations are due to HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and Emma d’Arcy for their Golden Globes nominations, and to Milly Alcock, Matt Smith, and the show for the Critic’s Choice Award nods. Well deserved. Finger and toes crossed for all of them. But hey, when the Emmy nominations come out, I will be hoping that Paddy Considine, Steve Toussaint. Olivia Cooke, and Emily Carey get some love as well. They were all extraordinary.

I also want to thank all my fans and readers, who made RISE OF THE DRAGON such a success. We have been hitting bestseller lists all over the world, I am pleased to say. I hope all of you enjoyed the art as much as I did. (And if you have not snagged a copy yet, autographed copies are still available from Beastly Books in Santa Fe. The Strand in NYC may have some signed copies left as well, though I would not bet on that).

Current Mood: busy busy

Tags: everyday life, television and film, travels

Random Musings

October 11, 2022 at 10:43 am

I see that my mighty minions have posted about my upcoming events in New York City later in the month. Yay, minions!

Those of you who enjoy my football posts (yes, I know that is not all of you)… I have been watching the games… and enjoying them, since both the Giants and the Jets have been winning. The Jets had another miracle last minute victory last week, and on Sunday they just crushed the Fins. And the G-Men won a couple of nail biters, including a victory over the Packers in London that was as shocking to me as it must have been to Aaron Rodgers. I had almost forgotten how good it feels to win. So life is magical and full of joy… right now, at any rate.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON has helped brighten my Sundays as well. I mean, I cannot really review the show, that would be crazy, I am hardly objective… but I do want to commend Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik and the cast and crew for the work they’ve done. Sunday’s episode, “Lord of the Tides,” was everything I hoped it should be. Kudos to Eileen Shim, the scriptwriter, to Geeta Patel, the director, to our incredible cast… and particularly to Paddy Considine, for his portrayal of King Viserys, the First of His Name. The character he created (with Ryan and Sara and Ti and the rest of our writers) for the show is so much more powerful and tragic and fully-fleshed than my own version in FIRE & BLOOD that I am half tempted to go back and rip up those chapters and rewrite the whole history of his reign. Paddy deserves an Emmy for this episode alone. If he doesn’t get one, hey, there’s no justice. Meanwhile, I am going to give Archmaester Gyldayn a smack for leaving out so much good stuff.

(No, I am not really going to rewrite FIRE & BLOOD, that was a jape). ((And no, I am not going to assault Archmaester Glydayn, who does not actually exist. I made him up)).

There’s a lot more I would love to blog about, but I do not have the time…

There’s a website called THE WRAP that has a couple cool interviews with Ryan Condal, including one where he spoke about our supposed rivalry with RINGS OF POWER… which mostly exists in the media. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiI47jH99b6AhWVMDQIHeE0Cg4QFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewrap.com%2Fhouse-of-the-dragon-rings-of-power-rivalry-ryan-condal%2F&usg=AOvVaw2s5NQfsv28MZaXoSiQOsWU

Ryan says pretty much the same thing I said in that interview with THE INDEPENDENT a few months back. Nothing would please him more than to see both shows succeed. Me too. I am a fantasy fan, and I want more fantasy on television, and nothing would accomplish that more than a couple of big hits. THE WITCHER, SHADOW & BONE, WHEEL OF TIME… and THE SANDMAN, a glorious adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s groundbreaking comic series… those are a good start, but I want more. I want Tad Williams, I want Joe Abercrombie, I want Patrick Rothfuss, I want a good adaptation of Le Guin’s Earthsea books, I want Alan Garner, I want Robin Hobb… oh, the list is long, I could go on and on… and would if I did not have a zillion other things to do. Most of all, I want Roger Zelazny’s NINE PRINCES IN AMBER. I will never understand why Corwin and his siblings are not starring in their own show. And hey, if epic fantasy continues to do well, maybe we will finally get that. A boy can dream.

I wanted to address the “time jumps” in the HOUSE OF THE DRAGON too. Not with any kind of official “statement,” but with some musings on the subject. There’s a lot to be said. I do not have the time to say it now, though. Maybe in my next blog, or the one after that… or maybe never, since work keeps piling up.

Very briefly, however, I think Ryan has handled the “jumps” very well, and I love love love both the younger Alicent and Rhaenyra and the adult versions, and the actresses who play them. (Truth be told, we have an incredible cast, and I love all of them). Do I wish we’d had more time to explore the relationship between Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin, the marriage of Daemon and Laena and their time in Pentos, the birth of various and sundry children (and YES, Alicent gave Viserys four children, three sons and a daughter, their youngest son Daeron is down in Oldtown, we just did not have the time to work him in this season), and everything else we had to skip? Sure.

But there are only so many minutes in an episode (more on HBO than on the network shows I once wrote for), and only so many episodes in a season. Fewer and fewer as time goes by, it seems. When I was a boy, shows had 39 episodes a season. By the time I was writing for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, it was down to 22. Cable shrunk that even further. THE SOPRANOS had 13 episodes per season, but just a few years later, GAME OF THRONES had only 10 (and not even that, those last two seasons). If HOUSE OF THE DRAGON had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to “time jump” over… though that would have risked having some viewers complain that the show was too “slow,” that “nothing happened.” As it is, I am thrilled that we still have 10 hours every season to tell our tale. (RINGS OF POWER has only 8, as you may have noticed, and my AMC show DARK WINDS is doing 6 episode seasons). I hope that will continue to be true. It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish.

But right now, Ryan Condal’s focus is on HOT D season two, and mine is on THE WINDS OF WINTER.

Current Mood: busy busy

Tags: jean cocteau cinema, movies, nfl, television, television and film

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