The series and books - How will they do it? (Spoilers for books and series)

[magictrick]

Anyone else wondering about how this will play out in terms of the events in the book and the actors' age and availability on the show?

If the production of each season continues as is we can assume the following order:
2012 - A Clash of Kings
2013 - A Storm of Swords
2014 - A Feast of Crows
2015 - A Dance with Dragons

2016 - The Winds of Winter (?)
2017 - A Dream of Spring (?)

The last two are just guesses because GRRM has not finished writing those, and is probably far from it. Even if this plays out perfectly, by the time ADWD goes to production all actors will be 5-6 years older than when the series started. This is especially relevant for child actors, who will grow and mature, but in the series they will need to look almost identical in age and appearance, as only a year or so has passed between the events of all these novels.

I guess they will need to employ really good makeup and take well placed shots so as to make it realistic that the character still looks relatively unchanged between each season/novel.

Second question is with the novels themselves. It took GRRM 6 years from the release of A Feast of Crows to finish ADWD. And lets remember, he already had the ideas for both books as his original intention was for them to be one novel. At this rate, by the time HBO finishes ADWD, The Winds of Winter novel won't be released and thus no show can be filmed. Lets not even mention the 7th book which wouldn't even have been started on, delaying production even further.

I guess the simple solution to this would be that GRRM really speeds up his writing somehow and releases both of the next two books in a 6 year time period.

Anyone else wondering on how all this will play out?

[Selina]

Well, the later books are bigger and contain more stuff then the first one, so I would suppose that they could get split into more than one season. That alone should give GRRM more time to finish the missing books. Besides the first three books only took round about two years each to complete so there is hope that he will finish the next one faster.

Additionally I'm not even sure that the series can run as long as it would take to tell the whole story. I sincerely hope so, but I remain doubtful. Should they reach the point where they run out of material though, they probably could do the same as other series and just create "tv original" content (with GRRM giving some pointers as to how he thinks it should play out). Has happend on several anime series and I'm sure it has also happened live action series.

As for the actors problem .... Really no idea how they can/will handle this. It's not much of a problem with the adults, but the child actors will age noticeably faster ...

[chrono trigger]

i suspect the show may end up going down a different path to the books and make it's own conclusion.

[VampyreWraith]

I think the producers know a little bit about how things are supposed to work out at the end of the series(at least, I remember reading something like that in an interview with GRRM).
I don't know if the child actors aging would affect the story much, they could still do the things they do in the book and be older. They probably just might not able to act like only so short amount of time passed, since I think that only about 2 1/2 or maybe 3yrs(at most) have passed so far since the beginning of AGoT to ADwD. Dance and Feast overlap so they have to combine those, but they should still be 2 seasons.

[Skydiver]

i hate to say it but I don't think i see this series lasting for tons of years.

Yes, it's good. the books are great and i'm watching...but i'm thinking a season a book with a little crossover (I've read spoilers that say that some plot threads are moved up, others back for 'dramatic reasons')

things will be simplified, whole chapters will be turned into single scenes - especially ones that are pure introspection

worst case scenario, if the ratings and awards don't hold things will get really condensed and minor plot threads abandoned in favor of big ones

[VampyreWraith]

I guess I lot in the books(4 & 5 especially) can be condensed and shifted around for the tv series.

I figured that the one plot involving

Spoiler:

Jeyne Westerling

would end up in the second season, because I think that is when it does take place but since the characters involved in that part of the story don't have a pov in the books, it wasn't talked about until the third book when a pov character is informed of what happened. Besides if that wasn't included

Spoiler:

Robb

wouldn't have that much to do.

[Cold Fuzz]

Just finishing A Dance with Dragons late last night, I'm more and more convinced that GRRM will not be able to finish the entire series with 7 books. If the books are going in the direction I think he's taking them, I do think he'll need an 8th book to finish everything. The only way around this would be if the plot really starting moving forward big-time with all the POV characters in The Winds of Winter.

Having said that, we may end up seeing the series around for at least 3-4 years. Now originally A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons were supposed to be one book. Maybe things will get compressed and the two books will be merged when it goes on screen?

[Skydiver]

I agree with that plot

Spoiler:

the spoilers talk about the love story, of a sort, being moved from book three to two....well Robb pretty much disappeared halfway through book two, if not earlier, and all we do is hear about what he's been up to.

so if for nothing else than to keep an actor employed and on contract and the viewer reminded that they exist, that'll have to be moved forward

there's also a scene in book three

Spoiler:

I'm only a little bit into it but Davos' story, where he's rescued, that's a whole chapter that'll really be a single scene in the show, if not the rescue combined with later scenes

I am sure the production staff has sat down, with a massive board, and the various plots and chapters and broken them down into seasons

for example, when i read the prologue to book three

Spoiler:

and they're talking about 3 blasts of the horns meaning the Others, i can sooo see that being the final scene of season two....the three blasts, teh oh fudge looks on peoples faces, teh line about it being the others, and a wide camera flight movement going over the mountains and showing the rallying enemies from beyond the wall gathering...dum, dum, dum fade to black on that 'oh frak' moment

[DigiFluid]

So, who wants to reconsider their answer now that we know that they'll be adapting 'about half' of Storm of Swords for Season 3? One assumes that means that Season 4 will be the second half of that book, and then....?

The US hardcover of SoS was 976 pages, and that's getting two seasons. Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons take place (mostly) simultaneously, and have a combined US hardcover pagecount of nearly double SoS--1793 pages. Four seasons for the two (which, I note, would now take us to an 8th season, which seems...difficult to fathom)? Cut out a lot of stuff frustrate the built-in ASoIaF fanbase?

And then what about the two books that haven't yet been published? How on Earth are they going to finish the story on the show without it running for like 15 seasons?

[Brother Freyr]

GRRM's loving it. He can procrastinate a little longer.

[DigiFluid]

Yeah, but HBO isn't going to want to deal with ever-mounting costs forever

[Gen. Chris]

I was thinking three seasons for Feast and Dragons. 2 to cover the shared time and one for the rest of Dragons. Perhaps slightly longer seasons to make up for it. I can't imagine there being four seasons...Even though I will admit it is a ridiculous amount of stuff.

[DigiFluid]

I can see a lot of Feast getting trimmed down, so maybe an odd-number season split isn't a bad idea at all. Honestly, there was a lot of the book that was really bloody boring -- you could tell it was never meant to be its own volume.

I think that once I finish Dragons I'm going to go 'find' a copy that combines the two books in proper chronological order to see how it all plays out like that, without having to do all this bloody 'hmm whenabouts is this happening?' pondering.

[magictrick]

There is also the option of trimming both Feast of Crows and Dance with Dragons into one season each, but making each of these seasons longer. Maybe 12 or 13 episodes as opposed to 10.
I don't know how they feel about the content of Feast, as the book is long but not a lot actually happens. It might not be the most exciting to watch if it dragged on for more than one season.

[Brother Freyr]

I think that once I finish Dragons I'm going to go 'find' a copy that combines the two books in proper chronological order to see how it all plays out like that

Might be a good idea for the tv series to do the same.