David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones writers and executive producers, appeared on KCRW’s UpClose a couple weeks ago. David & Dan talk about their background, the genesis of the show, the adaptation process and more in an entertaining and enlightening hour. This conversation was recorded live as part of KCRW’s UpClose series
One bit of news to come out of this interview: Season 4 is set to begin filming on July 8th.
‘Game of Thrones’ producers Q&A: Why season 3 is the most epic yet
David Benioff: We always talked about doing the third book in two seasons, but it’s not quite that neat. There’s not a halfway point in the book where all the story lines break. We’re drawing things in from other books and [adding] other plot lines that were implied by the books but not shown. It’s trickier in that sense. We could easily write a show about just, say, Bronn [Jerome Flynn]. The Bronn Show.
EW: Sellsword.
Benioff: Good title. We could do a great half-hour comedy with Sam [John Bradley] and Gilly [Hannah Murray]. It’s an embarrassment of riches. There’s so many great characters and you want to spend more time with them. George always wanted more hours per season. And it would be great, but we just can’t. It was getting to the point where we were turning in VFX shots on “Blackwater” [last season] a week before airing. It was getting to the point where Quality Control in New York for HBO had to get the tapes couriered with 20 minutes to spare. There’s no possible way for us to do an extra hour.
D.B. Weiss: The episodes will be longer though, slightly. We’re getting a few more minutes into each episode.
HBO has confirmed to us the full roster of directors and writers for season three. Here is the list:
Ep. 21
Writers: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Director: Dan Minahan
Ep. 22
Writer: Vanessa Taylor
Director: Dan Minahan
Ep. 23
Writers: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Directors: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Ep. 24
Writers: David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Director: Alex Graves
“There’s almost another full episode’s worth of extra minutes spread across the season,” Weiss says. “One of the great liberties with HBO is we’re not forced to come in at a specific time. We can’t be under 50 minutes or over 60, but that gives us a lot of flexibility.”
“A super-sized season, as befitting Storm of Swords,” Benioff adds. “Last year we had a lot of 52-minute episodes. This year is a lot of 56, 57.”
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss discussing Game of Thrones in the teaser for the You Win or You Die preview.
I saw the Game of Thrones table, just after Peter won, and all I could think was, “Winning awards is SO mainstream.”
And I’m still yayayyayayayay about Peter Dinklage’s win! If they’re impressed with the first season, wait til they see the second. Tyrion’s the real star of the second book.
