Game of Thrones is still about the books for Martin
There is a difference between being a beloved, bestselling author and being a beloved, bestselling author whose books have been turned into a massively successful television show.
“My life is changing. Maybe it’s changing more than I recognize,” says George R.R. Martin, the author of the Song of Ice and Fire books, now better known as A Game of Thrones.
“I don’t want it to change. I’m holding on to my old habits, but I’m being forced to change. About five years ago I hired an assistant and I’ve just hired a second assistant. . . . I’m being recognized in the street, which I think is a consequence of the HBO show. I’m at the airport trying to make a flight and someone stops me.”
Now that a much larger audience has gotten to know the warring families of Westeros, relative anonymity is a thing of the past. “I was sitting on a plane and the stewardess comes up and says, ‘The gentleman back in 37C wants to know if you’re George R.R. Martin and if you would sign his book for him.’ That’s all kind of new to me and strange to me. It’s strange in a nice way, but it’s still a little disconcerting.”
“It’s universal. It’s not an American story, it’s not an English story, it’s a story about a fantasyland.” GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
Martin was in a Toronto hotel room, in town for last month’s TIFF Game of Thrones exhibit. Publicists were going to and fro and the interview schedule was enforced with military precision.
Some seven years ago, when I talked to Martin about his then just-published fourth book in the Ice and Fire series, A Feast for Crows, the attention level wasn’t anywhere near this frenzy. And asked back then about the possibility of filming his work, he said, “Once they’ve (prospective producers) actually read the books, they run screaming into the night; if they’ve got any sense, they know it can’t be done as a movie.”
He added, “It would need to be done like (HBO’S) Rome. You would have to do (his 1996 opening title) A Game of Thrones as 12 hours, then take off a year and a half and do A Clash of Kings. By the time you’re finished, you’d have 100 hours.”
Fast forward and here we are, eagerly awaiting the first episode of Season 2 (it begins Sunday at 9:01p.m. on HBO).
All “heart trees” willing, there will be 100 hours, but for now, Martin is just looking forward to watching the new season.
Due to promotional duties for the latest book, A Dance With Dragons, he didn’t get to spend as much time on set as he did during the filming of the first season and hasn’t seen any of the episodes yet, not even the one he wrote.
“I’m waiting to see how some of these episodes came out, particularly my own episode, which is the Battle of the Blackwater. . . . It’s directed by Neil Marshall ( The Descent, Centurion).
“It’s his first time directing for television . . . I think he’ll bring a great visual style, a sense of action and excitement.”
“I’m being recognized in the street, which I think is a consequence of the HBO show. I’m at the airport trying to make a flight and someone stops me.” GEORGE R.R. MARTIN
Whereas the first season got around spending too much money on battle scenes by not actually showing them, executive producer David Benioff recently told Entertainment Weekly that he and coproducer Dan Weiss asked for a 15 per budget increase to do Blackwater justice.
“This season is about a country at war. And we felt like if we didn’t see the most important battle of this entire war onscreen, we’re going to shortchange viewers.”
The popularity of the show hasn’t just changed Martin’s life. It has also brought with it a slew of related merchandise, games and books. Like A Feast of Ice and Fire by Chel- sea Monroe-cassel and Sariann Lehrer, a Westeros cookbook to be published in late May.
Martin has written a foreword for the book, which started as the Inn at the Crossroads blog, and promises that there are “no recipes for swan or dog.”
But even with the cookbook’s promise of “the warm and smoky comfort foods of the frozen North,” best ever first-week DVD sales for an HBO show and having “to start saying ‘no,’” to requests for his time, Martin’s focus remains where it’s always been.
“It certainly is huge and, you know, it’s all synchronicity. It’s all fun. People enjoy it.
“But the main thing remains for me the books.
“These other products may be successful in their own way, earn some money, have their own fans, but my hope is, whether it’s the board games or the miniatures or the replica swords or the video games that are coming out, they will come back to the books. That they will wonder what kinds of books the games are based on.”
And because of the international appeal of the show, Martin is pretty certain HBO is going to ask for more seasons: leading to more viewers who’ll want to read.
“It’s universal. It’s not an American story, it’s not an English story, it’s a story about a fantasyland.
“People from Croatia or the Czech Republic or India or Japan can watch it and enjoy it in a very different way than, say, the very good shows like The Wire, set in Baltimore; Treme, set in New Orleans, or The Sopranos, set in New Jersey.”
And is there anyone, anywhere in the world who doesn’t love baby dragons?
“They won’t be baby dragons for long.”