Game of Thrones Might "Need" a Movie to Finish the Series

[StewShearerOld]

Game of Thrones Might "Need" a Movie to Finish the Series

George R.R. Martin believes a feature length, high budget film might be necessary to "tie things up" for Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones, at this point, has entrenched itself quite firmly as one of television's most highly regarded series. That being the case, if author and franchise creator George R.R. Martin can be believed, there could come a time where the show might abandon the living room and make its way to the big screen.

"It all depends on how long the main series runs," he said in a recent interview. "Do we run for seven years? Do we run for eight? Do we run for 10? The books get bigger and bigger (in scope). It might need a [film] to tie things up, something with a feature budget, like $100 million for two hours. Those dragons get real big, you know."

Even if the main series doesn't take that route however, Martin believes there may be a place in cinemas for some of his other Westeros-centric tales. According to the author, another potential source of material for a film could also be his <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_of_Dunk_and_Egg>Tales of Dunk and Egg stories. Taking place 90 years before the Song of Ice and Fire books that inspired Game of Thrones, the series is comprised of three novellas following the exploits of the knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg. "They could be the basis for a [film]," said Martin. "I have written these three stories, and I have about a dozen more."

So what do you think? Would you like to see Game of Thrones transition into a full-fledged movie experience? Just personally, I'd prefer it to play out as it has been on HBO. Granted, the show could probably do some impressive things with the larger budget of a blockbuster film. Even so, I'd hate to see its complexity compromised to fit into the confines of a two hour film. That said, I could definitely see a place for the Tales of Dunk and Egg on the big screen. The Hedge Knight especially is a story that I think would translate particularly well.

Source: <a href=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/game-thrones-movies-eyed-by-689629>The Hollywood Reporter

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[Ferisar]

I feel it would be a bit awkward for the "big finale" to be on the screens, as it would kind of leave the show to be totally incomplete. My hope is budgeting and time constraints improve by the time it becomes a necessity to increase scope, just so it could pay proper respects to the book series.

But the second suggestion is spot-on. Bring an un-used part of the world and use it as a basis for a movie that's loosely related to Game of Thrones. I feel that would work a lot better while not creating awkward barrier expectations between THREE different modes of presentation.

Now onward to actually read the damn books...

 

[FalloutJack]

Funny, what I was thinking was that it MIGHT need our boy to actually finish the books. Has he yet? I haven't heard.

 

[WarpedLord]

Yeah, yeah, George.

Just finish the damned books already.

Pretty sure GRRM's just completely lost interest in actually writing the things, and even if we do see the sixth book in the next couple years, for some reason I just don't think he'll ever actually finish the series. I obviously hope I'm wrong, but at this point we may need to hope and pray the HBO series lasts until the finish so we can at least find out how things turn out.

 

[suitepee7]

Funny, what I was thinking was that it MIGHT need our boy to actually finish the books. Has he yet? I haven't heard.

plot twist, the next person to die in ASoIaF is the author... -_- seriously though, afaik he's nearing the end of the next one but it won't be published until 2015, and has a general idea for where the last one will go in terms of plot, but hasn't started it.

OT: i disagree. the episodes are 45-50 minutes long each, how much gets done in 2 episodes when it is covering all of the characters? i could see them doing a few extended episodes similar to the assault of kings' landing in series 2, but i don't think a film version would work so well.

 

[SquidVicious]

HBO doesn't really have a good track record with their series' getting their movies, namely Dead Wood and Rome (although I think the latter is in "pre-production"). Honestly what I'm more curious about is whether or not Martin is going to finish the books in time to catch up to the TV series. I understand why A Storm of Swords needed to be broken into two seasons, it was a pretty massive book, but I suspect they can fit much of the 4th book into one season, so already in 2 years we should already at the 5th book in the TV show. I suspect A Dance with Dragons will be broken into two seasons as well, it was a pretty decent sized book and there's a lot of places for filler.

 

[Smiley Face]

I really don't see that being a good idea. If you need more money to do it, fine, get more money to do it. But changing the format like that usually doesn't serve things well, and particularly a show like Game of Thrones. Movies, as a format, are good at telling a single story, delivering a single point, whereas television is good at exploring multiple plot threads and characters simultaneously. Granted, by the finale of the series, a lot of the individual plotlines will have converged, but the peculiarities of a film, the pacing and general structure of it, would probably throw a wrench in the dramatic pacing of things.

All that said, if they did do a movie, it would likely be great - I'm just saying that keeping the finale as television would be even better. If money's an issue, I'm sure they'll find some way to monetize it, but I don't think keeping it as a show compromises that, particularly when you're likely getting a better end product.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Funny, what I was thinking was that it MIGHT need our boy to actually finish the books. Has he yet? I haven't heard.

No, he has. Book 10

Spoiler

kinda dropped the ball with Sam become a human/dragon hybrid. Though the final battle for Westeros between Jon Snow and Daenerys Stormborn was kinda cool.

A movie, maybe. Two hours is a bit short though. To date, each series has approx. 45 minutes if boob/sex in it, might be difficult to squeeze all that in to a 2 hour movie.

 

[octafish]

What is Brandon Sanderson doing these days, perhaps we could hire to hand around GRRM taking notes and talking about finishing an overly ambitious saga after it's author died, and then wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I have a friend who refuses to read a Song of Ice and Fire or watch the TV show because of Wheel of Time, as he says GRGRM is in worse physical shape than Robert Jordan was and is not the most productive writer.

 

[Li Mu]

Yeah, yeah, George.

Just finish the damned books already.

Pretty sure GRRM's just completely lost interest in actually writing the things, and even if we do see the sixth book in the next couple years, for some reason I just don't think he'll ever actually finish the series. I obviously hope I'm wrong, but at this point we may need to hope and pray the HBO series lasts until the finish so we can at least find out how things turn out.

I agree. Surely we're going to reach the point where the episodes catch up with the books and then we end up with a dead period in time when they're unable to make any new series because they're waiting on him to actually write the thing.
Then we're all left hanging.

 

[Elvaril]

We won't really know until the books are finished and we can see the layout of the story, but I could potentially see a film working as the finale of the series. However, it would only work if they go into it saying "This is the finale. We aren't going to babysit any newcomers to the audience by explaining everything that has happened so far. You want to know what has happened so far, then go watch the show." It needs to jump off straight from the show, no handholding and no background exposition. That's the only way I can see it working.

The Tales of Dunk and Egg, however, would be perfect for the movies. I would say wait on making those though until the series gets closer to completion so that they know if they have to take a season off to give George time to finish the books. Then they could use the Tales of Dunk and Egg as a filler season.

 

[Scorpid]

I really don't want to see a film version of Game of Thrones. Films have to explain alot in a very small amount of time and game of throne can't be condensed that much. I mean I'm assuming this is going to be a sort of series finale but for a theatrical release they'd have to explain what is happening which simply too much. I'd much prefer Dunk and Egg since it's a few short stories and you won't have spend the majority of time trying to make the audience understand all these characters connections with one another just so we can actually get to the meat of story.

((Plus i've never read those stories and it would be cool to do the reverse of watching the film first then reading the book))

 

[frobalt]

I think George R. R. Martin is losing it/delusional.

I've heard that the creators of the TV show want to do 7 series, or 8 at the absolute maximum, but GRR Martin seems to keep saying things about how it might be worth dragging it on.

I think that's the biggest problem with him at the minute; He just keeps trying to drag out the story rather than get to a conclusion. After all, wasn't the story only supposed to be a trilogy at first?

Don't get me wrong, I do love the story. I just wish that the creator would focus on finishing it rather than trying to find ways to drag it out.

 

[Strazdas]

OT: i disagree. the episodes are 45-50 minutes long each, how much gets done in 2 episodes when it is covering all of the characters? i could see them doing a few extended episodes similar to the assault of kings' landing in series 2, but i don't think a film version would work so well.

Its less of a time and more od a budget thing i think. If you read the 5th book and tried to imagine how much it would cost to make the visuals, yeah, 2 million per episode not gona cut it at the quality they are going for.

 

[Sidmen]

What is Brandon Sanderson doing these days, perhaps we could hire to hand around GRRM taking notes and talking about finishing an overly ambitious saga after it's author died, and then wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I have a friend who refuses to read a Song of Ice and Fire or watch the TV show because of Wheel of Time, as he says GRGRM is in worse physical shape than Robert Jordan was and is not the most productive writer.

No!

Brandon Sanderson needs to get back to his basement cell and get cracking on The Stormlight Archives' next book. Even allowing him the time to fly to Martin is too much time wasted from my precious....

 

[J Tyran]

If they want to make a movie make one about any of the biggest historical events from the story, the first long night, Aegons Conquest, The Dance of Dragons or Roberts Rebellion.

Fans of the show are familiar enough with them to get excited and drag other people to see them, some of those are good stories that should be told in their own right too. What fan doesn't want to see Robert and Rhaegar fight at the Trident?

 

[The_Echo]

If we're talking about scope, I don't see how a two-hour movie would be any better than two one-hour episodes.

I've always felt that for a long-running, expansive narrative television is always the better answer than film, even if it has a smaller budget.