Inside HBO’s Game of Thrones: Seasons 1 & 2

194 Pages·2012·64.53 MB·English

by  Bryan Cogman

i n s i d e h b o ’s
TM
b r y a n c o g m a n
Preface by george r. r. martin ♦ Foreword by david benioff & d. b. weiss
Ackno wledgmen ts
Working on this extraordinary series with such passionate and gifted people—the
phrase “dream come true” doesn’t do it justice. So thanks first to David Benioff and
D. B. Weiss, my bosses, mentors, and friends, who gave me the incredible opportu-
nity not only to write for Game of Thrones but also to put together this special book.
And, of course, thanks to George R. R. Martin for creating these fantastic worlds
and vivid characters—my continual hope is that we do his books proud.
Thanks also to Gemma Jackson, Michele Clapton, and all the GoT cast and
crew, past and present, who graciously took the time (in the midst of a hectic season
two production schedule) to share their thoughts on the show. And apologies to
those interviewed who didn’t make it into the book—we had only so much space!
Thanks to co-producer Greg Spence, postproduction coordinator Martin Mahon,
concept artists Ashleigh Jeffers and Kim Pope, art department coordinator Joanne
Hall, and unit photographer Helen Sloan for their invaluable help in gathering the art
for this book. And a big, big, big thank you to Lucy Caird, the book would have been
nearly impossible, if not for her heroic work in scheduling the cast and crew interviews.
Finally, my undying gratitude to my wife, Mandy, for her enduring patience,
counsel, and love.
— B r y a n C o g m a n
Special thanks to James Cost0s, Stacey Abiraj, Josh Goodstadt, Janis Fein,
Cara Grabowski, Robin Eisgrau, and Vicky Lavergne.
Game of Thrones series photographs by Nick Briggs, Ashleigh Jeffers,
Paul Schiraldi, Helen Sloan, and Oliver Upton.
Costume illustrations by Michele Clapton and Kimberly Pope.
Concept art by Julian Caldow, Marc Homes, Gavin Jones,
Tobias Mannewitz, Kimberly Pope, and William Simpson.
www.hbo.com
Copyright © 2012 by HOME BOX OFFICE, INC.
All rights reserved. HBO and related trademarks are the property of
Home Box Office, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-4521-1991-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data available
under ISBN 978-1-4521-1010-3
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Table of Contents
4 .......Preface: From Page to Screen by 105 .....Margaery & Loras Tyrell
George R. R. Martin 106 .....Littlefinger (Petyr Baelish)
6 .......Foreword: Seven Questions with 107 . . . .Varys
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss 110 .....Brienne of Tarth
111 .....Bronn
8 . . . . . .I The Wall 113 .....Battle of the Blackwater
Episode 209: “Blackwater”
15 ......White Walkers: A Brief History
17 ......The Prologue
118 . . . . .IV Westeros
Episode 101: “Winter Is Coming”
21 ......The Night’s Watch: A Brief History 120 .....House Greyjoy: A Brief History
22 ......Designing the Wall and Castle Black 122 .....Creating Pyke
27 ......Costuming the Night’s Watch 127 .....Theon Greyjoy
28 ......Jon Snow 130 .....House Arryn: A Brief History
31 ......Samwell Tarly 132 .....Creating the Eyrie
32 ......Beyond the Wall 134 .....The Riverlands: A Brief History
136 .....Dragonstone: A Brief History
36 . . . . .II Winterfell 138 .....Creating Dragonstone
141 .....Stannis Baratheon
38 ......House Stark: A Brief History
142 .....Melisandre
40 ......Creating Winterfell
143 .....Davos Seaworth
44 ......Costuming Winterfell
47 ......Eddard “Ned” Stark
144 . . . .V Essos
51 ......Catelyn Stark
52 ......Robb Stark 146 .....Essos: A Brief History
55 ......Sansa, Arya, and Bran 148 .....Creating Essos
152 .....House Targaryen: A Brief History
60 . . . . .III King’s Landing 155 .....Daenerys Targaryen
158 .....Costuming Dany
62 ......King’s Landing: A Brief History
161 .....Viserys Targaryen
64 ......Creating King’s Landing
162 .....The Crowning of Viserys
69 ......The Iron Throne
Episode 106: “A Golden Crown”
70 ......Costuming King’s Landing
166 .....Jorah Mormont
72 ......House Lannister: A Brief History
169 .....Khal Drogo
75 .......Tywin Lannister
174 .....Creating the Dothraki Language
76 ......Cersei Lannister
176 .....The Birth of Dragons
81 ......Costuming Cersei
Episode 110: “Fire and Blood”
82 ......Jaime Lannister
180 .....Qarth & The Red Waste
84 ......Ned vs. Jaime
183 .....Costuming Qarth
Episode 105: “The Wolf and the Lion”
87 ......Tyrion Lannister
184 .....Behind the Scenes
90 ......House Baratheon: A Brief History
93 ......Robert Baratheon 188 .....A Game of Pranks
94 ......Joffrey Baratheon
190 .....Epilogue: Reflections on
98 ......Ned’s Execution
Game of Thrones
Episode 109: “Baelor”
105 .....Renly Baratheon
P R E F A C E : F R O M P A G E T O S C R E E N
by George R.R. Martin
of sixty minutes (for premium cable) or
about forty-five minutes (for a network
show). There’s more flexibility with a feature
film, but even there, you had best come in
around two hours. Go over three hours, and
the studios are certain to start cutting. But
most novels simply have too much story for
these time frames. Produce a direct scene-
for-scene, line-for-line adaptation, and you’ll
end up with something too long for either
flatscreen or Cineplex. And the problem is
compounded when your source material is an
epic fantasy. Lord of the Rings was broken into
three volumes because the book that Tolkien
delivered was three times as long as most
novels published in the 1950s. And my own
books, like almost all contemporary fanta-
sies, are a deal longer than Tolkien’s.
Budget and shooting schedules also
have a major impact on what can and cannot
be done when moving from page to screen.
It is easy for someone like me to write of a
George R. R. Martin on the Game of Thrones set in Belfast. stupendous feasting hall with a hundred
hearths, large enough to seat a thousand
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are brave Moving from page to screen is never easy. knights, each in his own heraldic finery. But
men or mad men. They’d have to be to take A novelist has techniques and devices at pity the poor producers who have to repro-
on a job like bringing A Game of Thrones (and his command that are not available to the duce that on screen. First, they have to build
the rest of my massive epic fantasy series A scriptwriter: internal dialogue, unreliable this gigantic set, with all those hearths (“Do
Song of Ice and Fire) to television. narrators, first-person and tight third-person we really need a hundred? Could we have,
There is no more hazardous task in points of view, flashbacks, expository narra- say, six?”). Then they have to find a thousand
Hollywood than trying to make a popular or tive, and a host of others. As a novelist, I extras to fill those benches. Then they have
critically acclaimed book into a television strive to put my readers inside the heads of to set the costume designer to work sketch-
series or feature film. Hollywood Boulevard my characters, make them privy to their ing out a thousand heraldic surcoats, after
is lined with the skulls and bleached bones thoughts, let them see the world through which they need to fit the extras and sew the
of all those who have tried and failed . . . their eyes. But the camera stands outside costumes and . . . well, you get the idea.
and for every known failure, there are a the character, so the viewpoint is of neces- Alternatively, the producers can try to do it
hundred you have never heard of, because sity external rather than internal. Aside all with CGI. A wonderful resource, CGI,
the adaptations were abandoned some- from voice-overs (always an intrusion, I but that’s costly and time-consuming as well.
where along the way, often after years of think, a crutch at best), the scriptwriter And the budget is the budget, whether it is
development and dozens of scripts. must depend on the director and the cast to one million dollars or one hundred million.
Now, a story is a story is a story, but convey the depths of emotion, subtleties of Over the course of my career, I’ve worked
each medium has its own way of telling that thought, and contradictions of character both sides of the great divide between page
story. A film, a television show, a book, a that a novelist can simply tell the reader and screen. When I first broke into print in
comic, each has its own strengths and weak- about in clear, straightforward prose. the early 1970s, it was as a novelist and short
nesses, things it does well, things it does There are certain practical challenges as story writer, working exclusively with prose.
poorly, things that it can hardly do at all. well. A television drama has a running time By the 1980s, some producers and studios
[4] I n s i d e H B O ’ s G a m e o f T h r o n e s
had noticed me, and I had my first experi- whole imaginary world and a cast of thou- when it came to producing quality, adult tele-
ences with my work being optioned, adapted, sands. Absolutely unfilmable, of course. No vision. But it couldn’t be as a movie-for-
and (in a couple of cases) even filmed. I studio or network would ever touch a story television or even a miniseries. It would have
started writing scripts myself in the middle like this, I knew. These would be good to be a full-on series, with an entire season
of that decade, initially for the CBS revival books, maybe great books, but that was all devoted to each novel. The only problem was,
of The Twilight Zone, and I found myself they’d ever be. (Ah, the irony . . .) HBO had never done fantasy nor shown any
adapting stories by other writers. I went on It was about the time A Clash of Kings interest in the genre. It would never happen.
to work for three years as a writer/producer was published that we first began to hear And then I met David Benioff and Dan
on the television series Beauty and the Beast, from producers and screenwriters inter- Weiss, at a lunch set up by my agent Vince
and then for five years in development (more ested in optioning the series (Clash was the Gerardis at the Palm in Los Angeles. It
commonly known as “development hell”), second volume but the first to hit the best- started as a lunch and ended after dinner,
writing television pilots and feature films, seller lists). I was skeptical. My agents and I and it turned out that David and Dan had
most of which were never made. fielded a few phone calls, took a few meet- the same dream I did, of doing A Song of Ice
All told, I spent the best part of a ings, listened to the proposals . . . but I and Fire as a series on HBO. “You’re mad,” I
decade in Hollywood. I think I did some remained dubious. They were all talking told them. “It’s too big. It’s too complicated.
good work, but coming from the world of about doing A Song of Ice and Fire—all of it, It’s too expensive. HBO doesn’t do fantasy.”
prose, as I did, I was constantly smashing up all seven books, including the ones I had not The two madmen were undeterred.
against the walls of what was possible in written yet—as a feature film. No doubt They loved the story and were convinced
film and television. “George, this is great,” they were inspired by the huge success of that they could bring it to the screen. So I
the studio would say, whenever I turned in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films and let them try.
the first draft of a new script, “but it would hoped to duplicate that. I had been inspired Best call I ever made.
cost five times our budget to shoot what’s by Jackson’s work as well, but I knew the As I write, the first season of Game of
on the page. You need to lose ten pages . . . same approach would never work for my Thrones has come and gone, to great popular
cut twelve characters . . . turn this huge battle own fantasies. My series was too big, too and critical acclaim, including Emmy® and
Golden Globe® nominations, and wins for
Peter Dinklage for his performance as Tyrion
“You’re mad,” I told them . “It’s too big . Lannister. Writers, producers, directors, cos-
tumers, special effects designers, stuntmen,
It’s too complicated . It’s too expensive .”
and many more have been recognized for
their outstanding work by their peers. Film-
ing on the second season has been completed,
scene into a duel . . . get down from twelve complex. Just one of my volumes was as long and the new episodes are now in post. And
matte paintings to two. . . .” Et cetera. as all three of Professor Tolkien’s. It took the series and the books alike have become a
And I would. That was the job. But I three films to do justice to the Lord of the part of our cultural zeitgeist, with references
always preferred those early, unproduceable Rings. It would take twenty to do A Song of and tips of the hat from other shows as
first drafts of mine to the final shooting Ice and Fire, and there wasn’t a studio in the diverse as The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory,
scripts, and after ten years in the industry, I world mad enough to commit to that. Parks and Recreation, Castle, and Chuck.
was tired of reining myself in. It was that, as Still, the conversations did get me No one is more pleased or astonished
much as anything else, that led me to return thinking about how my story could possibly than I am. Pretty damn good for a story
to prose, my first love, in the 1990s. The be brought from page to screen. Television that I was once convinced could never
result was A Game of Thrones and its sequels was the only way to go, I realized. Not a make that jump from page to screen.
(five books published to date, two more network series; that would never fly. Net- How did they do it, you ask?
planned and on the way). I had spent years work budgets were simply not high enough, Bryan Cogman has been part of this
pitching, writing, and developing concepts and their censors would choke on all the journey from the very beginning. He was the
for television, all eminently doable for TV sex and violence in the novels. At best you’d first person David and Dan hired when they
budgets. Now I wanted to put all that get bowdlerized versions, weak tea instead got the green light, and he’s lived most of the
behind me, to pull out all the stops. Huge of strong mead. A long miniseries might last few years in Westeros. I’ll let him tell you.
castles, vast dramatic landscapes, deserts work, something on the order of Roots or Like David and Dan, he knew this job
and mountains and swamps, dragons, dire- Shogun, but the networks weren’t making was dangerous when he took it.
wolves, gigantic battles with thousands to a those kinds of epic minis anymore.
side, glittering armor, gorgeous heraldry, It would have to be HBO, I decided. — g e o r g e r . r . m a r t i n
swordfights and tournaments, characters The people who’d made The Sopranos, Dead- Santa Fe, New Mexico
who were complicated, conflicted, flawed, a wood, Rome. No one else even came close January 27, 2012
P r e f a c e [5]
F O R E W O R D
Seven Questions with David Benioff & D. B. Weiss
As executive producers and head writers, David Benioff and D. B. (Dan) Weiss share the helm on
Game of Thrones. They became friends some sixteen years ago when they met while studying Irish
literature at Trinity College in Dublin. In the years that followed, they each achieved success
as novelists and feature-film screenwriters, but they hadn’t found a good project to collaborate
on until they came across George R. R. Martin’s epic fantasy saga A Song of Ice and Fire.
BRYAN COGMAN: What was your first
encounter with George R. R. Martin’s books?
D. B. WEISS: I first encountered the
books as a truly massive stack of paper sit-
ting on the floor beside David’s front door.
They literally looked like a doorstop.
DAVID BENIOFF: In January 2006, I spoke
on the phone with a literary agent who told
me about some of the books he represented.
One, in particular, sounded interesting: A
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I’ll
confess that I hadn’t heard of the book, or of
George, before this phone call. I had been a
massive fan of fantasy fiction when I was
younger, particularly high fantasy, but after
reading one Tolkien rip-off too many, I lost
my taste for it. Still, hearing about the novel
intrigued me, so I said I’d be curious to read
the book. A few days later a package arrived
at my doorstep. A heavy package, containing
the first four books of A Song of Ice and Fire,
more than four thousand pages in total, each
sporting traditional high fantasy covers—
bearded men wielding swords, distant cas- D. B. Weiss and David Benioff
tles, sexy sorceresses with impressive
cleavage. I thought, “Well, this looks like Maybe we didn’t exactly brag about those DAVID BENIOFF: Convulsive.
your standard sort of thing.” Within a few D&D games at high school parties. But still.
pages I knew I was wrong. After Jaime Lan- D. B. WEISS: At times.
nister pushed Bran Stark from a high win- D. B. WEISS: He asked me to check out A
dow, I was addicted. A couple of hundred Game of Thrones to make sure he wasn’t BRYAN COGMAN: What made you want to
pages later, I called Dan, one of my oldest crazy. I checked it out, had a similar “holy adapt the material, and why did you do so for
friends and someone I knew was once as shit” reaction to Bran going out the win- HBO television as opposed to a feature film?
obsessed with fantasy as I had been. Both of dow, and three days later I’d read nine hun-
us had been proud dungeon masters in our dred pages. I hadn’t read a book that way DAVID BENIOFF: You don’t enter into
respective Dungeons and Dragons games. since I was twelve. It was a powerful read- any adaptation process lightly. In the case
Okay, maybe “proud” is too strong a word. ing experience. Compulsive. Propulsive. of Game of Thrones, we’ve dedicated six years
[6] I n s i d e H B O ’ s G a m e o f T h r o n e s
of our lives to the show. We did it for a way the books made us feel when we first dous success. So how come in fantasy
simple reason that will be familiar to read them . . . and reread them, and re- worlds good always triumphs and evil suf-
George’s readers: We fell in love with the reread them. fers resounding defeat? It sounds odd to say
books. We fell in love with the world he about a story featuring dragons and ice
created, with the sprawl of Westeros and BRYAN COGMAN: Which scenes or par- demons and silver-haired princesses, but
Essos. We fell in love with the characters, ticular lines of dialogue are you most proud George brought a measure of harsh realism
hundreds of them, the good as well as the of writing? to high fantasy. He introduced gray tones
bad, with the Starks and the Lannisters and into a black-and-white universe.
the Targaryens and the Greyjoys. We fell in DAVID BENIOFF: The bit where Syrio
love with the brutality of the narrative: No tells Arya about his beliefs: “There is only D. B. WEISS: I always thought of it as a
one is ever safe. Good does not triumph over one god. His name is Death. And there is story about power, first and foremost. Who
evil. Awful people have sympathetic traits only one thing to say to Death. Not today.” wants it, why they want it, how they get it,
and lovable people have loathsome traits. That scene [from Episode 106] perfectly what they do with it, what it costs them and
showcases the collaborative process on Game their families. It’s a theme that swirls through
D. B. WEISS: If a large part of your liveli- of Thrones. George, of course, invented both many great epic stories, from The Iliad to The
hood is adapting source material for the Arya and Syrio. We originally didn’t plan to Godfather to Lord of the Rings. And in that
screen, you’re always on the lookout for have this particular Arya-Syrio scene in the vein, it’s also a story about the ways the per-
deep characters, a beautifully crafted and episode, but [Episode 106 cowriter] Jane sonal becomes the political, the way individ-
compelling story, passion, violence, intrigue, Espenson convinced us it was a good idea. ual loves and lusts and hates and regrets can
humanity, and all the ambiguities that come Dan took Jane’s original scene and reconfig- have repercussions that stretch far beyond
with a fully realized world . . . and you never ured it. I came up with those lines about the people they affect immediately.
find them all in the same place. Except we Death. Miltos Yerolemou [who played Syrio]
did. It was exhilarating and terrifying. took some dialogue that could have sounded BRYAN COGMAN: Why was Northern Ireland
portentous or pretentious, or portentously the ultimate choice for the bulk of the shoot
DAVID BENIOFF: And all of the things pretentious, and delivered it just so. And Dan and the Game of Thrones base of operations?
we loved made it impossible to consider the Minahan directed a perfect little scene.
books as source material for feature films. DAVID BENIOFF: A number of reasons:
First off, compressing each book into a two- D. B. WEISS: They’re pretty simple, but Northern Ireland offers a broad array of
hour movie would mean discarding dozens the lines I’m most proud of are probably in diverse locations within a short drive.
of subplots and scores of characters. Second, the scene between Robert and Cersei [in Windswept hilltops, stony beaches, lush
a fantasy movie of this scope, financed by a Episode 105], when they’re having a rare meadows, high cliffs, bucolic streams—we
major studio, would almost certainly need a moment of clarity about their toxic swamp can shoot a day at any of these places and
PG-13 rating. That means no sex, no blood, of a marriage. Cersei asks Robert if there still sleep that night in Belfast. And Belfast
no profanity. Fuck that. was ever a chance for them to be happy is a wonderful base, a small city where we’ve
together, and Robert tells her the truth: felt at home right from the beginning. Our
BRYAN COGMAN: Describe some of the chal- “No.” Then he asks her, “Does that make local crew is stocked with remarkably pas-
lenges of adapting such a sprawling narra- you feel better or worse?” And she tells him, sionate, talented folks. Unlike some places
tive, with so many characters and plot threads. “It doesn’t make me feel anything.” where big productions are commonplace,
It doesn’t look like much on the page, like Hollywood or London, we still feel a
D. B. WEISS: The question answers itself: really. So let me amend the question to “What sense of excitement from the community
there is a lot in there. George hasn’t just are the lines you’re most proud of having actors that we’ve chosen Belfast as the show’s hub.
told a story—he’s built a world. Ten hours is deliver with devastating effectiveness?”
a fair amount of time to tell a story, but to BRYAN COGMAN: Finally, at what point
establish a world, you have to be efficient or DAVID BENIOFF: You, sir, are mistaken. did you realize [former assistant, now story
risk losing things you love. In the first sea- The best line you wrote has to be when Sam editor] Bryan Cogman was the key to the
son, I’d say we managed to keep almost says, “I always wanted to be a wizard.” success of this thing?
everything we really loved. Going forward,
alas, there will have to be some sacrifices or BRYAN COGMAN: Which of the story’s D. B. WEISS: Sadly, it was moments after
compressions—otherwise we’d need thirty many themes resonate most with you? we fired him and sold his baby to the circus.
episodes per season, and our casting budget
would sink the ship. But the aim will always DAVID BENIOFF: In the real world, ter- DAVID BENIOFF: He constantly threat-
be to preserve the spirit of the series—to rible shit happens to good people and ened to quit our show and work on Camelot.
make a show that makes viewers feel the duplicitous assholes often enjoy tremen- True story.
F o r e w o r d [7]
I T h e W a l l
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T h e N i g h t ’ s W a t c h
I T h e W a l l
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T h e N i g h t ’ s W a t c h