So, I decided to type this up on a couple slow day when I had nothing better to do (yeah, the time would probably have been better spent writing out another update for my timeline, but I’ve hit a writer’s block on that front). This really isn’t a full-fledged timeline or anything; it’s more a popular culture-based project in the vein of Glen’s Star Wars Prequels. [1]
Without further ado, I present to you my idea for a film series based George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga.
…
The year is 2005. Peter Jackson was on top of the world. His Lord of the Rings film series had been a hit beyond his wildest dreams, netting nearly $3 billion at the international box office and winning a plethora of awards (Jackson personally won three Oscars for his work on the trilogy). [2] His next directorial effort, a high-profile remake of King Kong, was due out later that year. After that, Jackson was going to spend a few years producing other peoples’ projects. He was already slated to work as executive producer for an adaptation of the Halo video game series [3], with newcomer Neill Blomkamp to helm the science fiction epic. A remake of The Dam Busters was on the horizon, along with, more distantly, a movie based on The Hobbit. Jackson was quickly becoming the Spielberg of a new generation.
Enter George R.R. Martin. A prolific writer of genre fiction, his latest project was what was now being dubbed A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, where the seasons last for years, an ancient evil is awakening, and a nasty war of succession is brewing in the Seven Kingdoms. The first several books in the series had steadily built up popularity as time went on, and the newest installment, A Feast for Crows, would be released that at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. It was then that Martin’s literary agent, upon reading an article about Peter Jackson’s dabbling in the role of producer, decided to send the director a collection of the first three novels in the series.
Of course, Jackson was being approached to produce and/or direct a multitude of projects at the time, and it was only by pure coincidence he became interested in A Song of Ice and Fire. Late in 2005, a flight from New Zealand to California he was planning to board was unexpectedly delayed. With no alternatives available, he was stuck in the airport for several hours. One of the items in his briefcase was the copy of A Game of Thrones he had received from the pitch, which Jackson decided to start reading. He was only a few chapters in when he became intrigued. “I felt if we made it right, it could really be kind of an all-grown-up Lord of the Rings, you see,” he later commented. Several days later, Jackson contacted Martin through his agent, to discuss the possibility of producing a film series based on A Song of Ice and Fire. The author enthusiastically agreed, as long as he would be able to write the first draft of each film.
They needed a studio on board for distribution purposes, so Jackson began negotiations with several of the major ones (unlike many directors, he was not “married” to any particular studio: he worked with New Line for The Lord of the Rings, Universal for King Kong, and was working with Columbia for Halo). Some executives were leery of the idea of producing a big-budgeted film series that would almost certainly garner an R-rating due to the amount of violence and sexuality it would exhibit. However, Jackson’s previous success persuaded Universal to option the project.
Of course, Jackson wasn’t directing. He wanted to produce the project, sure, but after the exhaustion of filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong essentially back-to-back, he wanted to resign himself to producing for the next few years, though he was open to the possibility of helming a smaller-scale film. [4] Fortunately, he had just the man in mind to direct.
Guillermo del Toro was pretty much the perfect choice in Jackson’s eyes. His Hellboy movie was surprisingly good, and he had used the momentum from its success to get his pet project, a Spanish-language film called Pan’s Labyrinth, off the ground. While he had declined Jackson’s offer to direct Halo, the two had kept in touch, and Jackson had kept del Toro in mind to possibly direct The Hobbit whenever it got off the ground, due to his love of the fantasy genre. However, del Toro was less a fan of “high” fantasy than he was of “low” fantasy, and he almost brushed aside Jackson’s new offer. After reading A Game of Thrones, however, he decided he “liked what Mr. Martin had done with standard sword-and-sorcery, subverting it…”. In particular, del Toro was tempted by the prospect of directing a large-scale fantasy film (he always regretted the fact that he couldn’t make room in the relatively meager budget of Pan’s Labyrinth to include dragons, one of his favorite fantasy creatures). Not only that, but the fact that he could make it as dark and violent as he pleased tempted him. He would have to either let someone else direct the sequel to Hellboy or just wait several years to finish it, but in the end it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Finally, in mid-2006, Guillermo del Toro committed himself to directing the first several films in the Ice and Fire saga, before bowing out and letting others helm the rest of the series. As it was the first installment of the book series, A Game of Thrones would be the first movie produced.
In late 2006, Universal Studios official greenlit The Ice and Fire Saga: A Game of Thrones (soon colloquially called “Game of Thrones”) with a tentative budget of $120 million. Weta Workshop and its sister company, Weta Digital, would be working on the design of the series. The release was scheduled for late 2008, and Universal had already approved several sequels to be filmed back-to-back with the first installment, in what was admittedly a bit of a risk, even with Jackson’s involvement. Now it was time to place the finishing touches on the story and fill out the cast…
[1] In fact, I first pitched this concept in that thread, and if Glen wants engage in some canon welding and merge these continuities together...
[2] All for The Return of the King. He won the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 76th Academy Awards.
[3] Which may or may not actually happen in this timeline, as opposed to being stuck in development hell. It’s not important for the story at this point, though.
[4] In our timeline, that became The Lovely Bones.
---
Thoughts?
Without further ado, I present to you my idea for a film series based George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga.
…
The year is 2005. Peter Jackson was on top of the world. His Lord of the Rings film series had been a hit beyond his wildest dreams, netting nearly $3 billion at the international box office and winning a plethora of awards (Jackson personally won three Oscars for his work on the trilogy). [2] His next directorial effort, a high-profile remake of King Kong, was due out later that year. After that, Jackson was going to spend a few years producing other peoples’ projects. He was already slated to work as executive producer for an adaptation of the Halo video game series [3], with newcomer Neill Blomkamp to helm the science fiction epic. A remake of The Dam Busters was on the horizon, along with, more distantly, a movie based on The Hobbit. Jackson was quickly becoming the Spielberg of a new generation.
Enter George R.R. Martin. A prolific writer of genre fiction, his latest project was what was now being dubbed A Song of Ice and Fire, an epic fantasy series set in the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos, where the seasons last for years, an ancient evil is awakening, and a nasty war of succession is brewing in the Seven Kingdoms. The first several books in the series had steadily built up popularity as time went on, and the newest installment, A Feast for Crows, would be released that at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. It was then that Martin’s literary agent, upon reading an article about Peter Jackson’s dabbling in the role of producer, decided to send the director a collection of the first three novels in the series.
Of course, Jackson was being approached to produce and/or direct a multitude of projects at the time, and it was only by pure coincidence he became interested in A Song of Ice and Fire. Late in 2005, a flight from New Zealand to California he was planning to board was unexpectedly delayed. With no alternatives available, he was stuck in the airport for several hours. One of the items in his briefcase was the copy of A Game of Thrones he had received from the pitch, which Jackson decided to start reading. He was only a few chapters in when he became intrigued. “I felt if we made it right, it could really be kind of an all-grown-up Lord of the Rings, you see,” he later commented. Several days later, Jackson contacted Martin through his agent, to discuss the possibility of producing a film series based on A Song of Ice and Fire. The author enthusiastically agreed, as long as he would be able to write the first draft of each film.
They needed a studio on board for distribution purposes, so Jackson began negotiations with several of the major ones (unlike many directors, he was not “married” to any particular studio: he worked with New Line for The Lord of the Rings, Universal for King Kong, and was working with Columbia for Halo). Some executives were leery of the idea of producing a big-budgeted film series that would almost certainly garner an R-rating due to the amount of violence and sexuality it would exhibit. However, Jackson’s previous success persuaded Universal to option the project.
Of course, Jackson wasn’t directing. He wanted to produce the project, sure, but after the exhaustion of filming The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong essentially back-to-back, he wanted to resign himself to producing for the next few years, though he was open to the possibility of helming a smaller-scale film. [4] Fortunately, he had just the man in mind to direct.
Guillermo del Toro was pretty much the perfect choice in Jackson’s eyes. His Hellboy movie was surprisingly good, and he had used the momentum from its success to get his pet project, a Spanish-language film called Pan’s Labyrinth, off the ground. While he had declined Jackson’s offer to direct Halo, the two had kept in touch, and Jackson had kept del Toro in mind to possibly direct The Hobbit whenever it got off the ground, due to his love of the fantasy genre. However, del Toro was less a fan of “high” fantasy than he was of “low” fantasy, and he almost brushed aside Jackson’s new offer. After reading A Game of Thrones, however, he decided he “liked what Mr. Martin had done with standard sword-and-sorcery, subverting it…”. In particular, del Toro was tempted by the prospect of directing a large-scale fantasy film (he always regretted the fact that he couldn’t make room in the relatively meager budget of Pan’s Labyrinth to include dragons, one of his favorite fantasy creatures). Not only that, but the fact that he could make it as dark and violent as he pleased tempted him. He would have to either let someone else direct the sequel to Hellboy or just wait several years to finish it, but in the end it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Finally, in mid-2006, Guillermo del Toro committed himself to directing the first several films in the Ice and Fire saga, before bowing out and letting others helm the rest of the series. As it was the first installment of the book series, A Game of Thrones would be the first movie produced.
In late 2006, Universal Studios official greenlit The Ice and Fire Saga: A Game of Thrones (soon colloquially called “Game of Thrones”) with a tentative budget of $120 million. Weta Workshop and its sister company, Weta Digital, would be working on the design of the series. The release was scheduled for late 2008, and Universal had already approved several sequels to be filmed back-to-back with the first installment, in what was admittedly a bit of a risk, even with Jackson’s involvement. Now it was time to place the finishing touches on the story and fill out the cast…
[1] In fact, I first pitched this concept in that thread, and if Glen wants engage in some canon welding and merge these continuities together...
[2] All for The Return of the King. He won the awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 76th Academy Awards.
[3] Which may or may not actually happen in this timeline, as opposed to being stuck in development hell. It’s not important for the story at this point, though.
[4] In our timeline, that became The Lovely Bones.
---
Thoughts?
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