HBO, which last fall filmed a pilot for a TV series based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice fantasy novels, announced today that they are moving ahead with the project, called A Game of Thrones, after the first book in the series.

The cast includes Mark Addy, Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, Jennifer Ehle, Iain Glen, and Lena Headey.

Nine more episodes will be filmed in Belfast starting in June, but a broadcast date for the series has not been announced.

Below is an image from the pilot.

Sean Bean, the actor who played Boromir in Peter Jackson’s movie versions of The Lord of the Rings, has been cast as Ned Stark in the pilot for A Game of Thrones, HBO’s television adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s series of fantasy novels, A Song of Fire and Ice.

Bean also stars in the upcoming Percy Jackson and the Olympians, a big-screen adaptation of a popular children’s fantasy book series.

“I can’t imagine a better Ned,” Martin writes on his blog. “The deal took some doing, so my fingers have been crossed for a month now (and boy, that made it hard to type), but now it’s done, and I’m thrilled.”

Martin also reports that Mark Addy (A Knight’s Tale and The Full Monty) has been cast as King Robert I Baratheon; Hollywood Reporter says the deal is being finalized but is not yet signed.

In other casting news, Harry Lloyd (Will Scarlett on the BBC series Robin Hood) will play Viserys Targaryen, the beggar king.

The relatively unknown actors Jack Gleeson and Kit Harington will play Joffrey Baratheon and Jon Snow, respectively.

“I’ve seen readings by both Gleeson and Lloyd, and both should be terrific,” Martin writes.

It was previously announced that Peter Dinklage, who played Trumpkin in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, has been cast as Tyrion Lannister.

The first season of the TV series, should the pilot be picked up by HBO, will correspond to the first book  in the series, which is titled A Game of Thrones. Subsequent seasons will reportedly be named after subsequent books.

George R. R. Martin, the author of the bestselling fantasy series A Song of Fire and Ice, has confirmed via his blog that the pilot for an HBO television series based on his books will film in October in Northern Ireland.

“At last it can be told,” Martin writes.

As exciting as the actual confirmation of filming is for fantasy enthusiasts, this actually isn’t earth-shattering news. HBO announced in October 2008 that they had commissioned the filming of A Game of Thrones, a pilot for the first season of a television series based on the first book in Martin’s series; subsequent seasons would be named after the other books in the series.

As for whether the pilot will ever be aired or actually become a series, it’s likely that no decision will be made until well after the pilot is made, edited, and focus-grouped. That said, in the past, HBO, a premium cable network, has commissioned fewer pilots than the broadcast networks, and brought more of them to air.

And it’s encouraging news that the filming will definitely take place. The pilot will be shot in Paint Hall, once part of a shipyard where the Titanic was constructed and now a massive film studio where the movie City of Ember was shot.

“Yes, [my wife] Parris and I will be going over to Ireland this fall to see at least part of the filming,” Martin writes. “Not for the whole shoot, alas, I don’t have time for that… but we have to be there for at least part of it. Maybe we’ll see some of you in a Belfast pub.”

“This is the first time that a TV production of such vast size and scale has been filmed in Northern Ireland,” says Peter D. Robinson, Northern Ireland’s First Minister.

“There’s lots of other exciting news on the pilot as well, but nothing I can share,” Martin writes, possibly alluding to casting decisions. “Sorry, lips are sealed.”

Watch a video about Paint Hall.

Have a question about something fantasy-related? Ask the Oracle! (Be sure to include your first name and the city, state, and/or country you’re writing from.)

Q: So you recently mentioned that HBO had commissioned a pilot for a TV version of A Song of Fire and Ice. Any more progress? What are the odds it’ll actually make it on air? –Ross, Vancouver, BC, Canada

A: The initial report stated that HBO had commissioned ten shows to pilot, with a plan to pick up about six of those ten. But the premium network has since announced a few other pilots they’ve ordered, some of which have already been picked up for full seasons. Winter is Coming, a blog about the would-be Fire and Ice TV series, has a good run-down of the various shows, their odds of being picked up, and whether or not they’ll be competition for A Song of Fire and Ice.

What’s the good news? A poster at NeoGAF forums claimed to have spoken to the President of HBO Programming in early March, and this is what was reported:

I expressed my delight at them ordering a pilot, and we chatted for a bit.

He confirmed the Ireland filming location for later this year, and he said that the script Benioff wrote is absolutely amazing. He also said that it’s important for them to really focus on the characters and make sure their performance comes out because he said he doesn’t look at A Game of Thrones [the title of the first season] as a special effects event but rather as a really intense character story. He mentioned that after the script was passed around, everyone at the office went and picked up the books and they’re all hooked, so that bodes well. He said it’s a super expensive pilot, and it’s risky in the sense that if it doesn’t get made in the right way, it won’t be as good as potential allows it to be.

If this is true, the Oracle obviously thinks it’s pretty great news. That said, there’s many a slip between the cup and a TV pilot actually making it on air.

Q: So this guy who died like week, Dave Arneson, co-created Dungeons & Dragons? Why haven’t I heard of him before? I thought it was Gary Gygax who created D&D. — Milt, Shoebox, CA

A: The Oracle can reveal that in the early 1970s, Arneson and Gygax both independently created similar “role-playing” games: Arneson’s was called Blackmoor and Gygax’s was called Chainmail. Since they had impressed each other, they met in 1971, and began developing a game together, originally to be called The Fantasy Game, that combined elements from both their previous work. They couldn’t find a publisher until 1974, when they released what was now known as Dungeons & Dragons. Gygax founded TSR, Inc., a company to support the game, but Arneson left in 1976 to create his own games.

When an anti-D&D backlash arose in the media in the late 1970s, it was Gygax who personally defended it, which, along with his control of TSR until the mid-1980s, may be why most people associate Gygax, and not Arensen, with the game today.

Gygax and Arenson had a falling out in the late 1970s over royalties from the game, and Arenson sued Gygax five different times. In an out-of-court settlement in 1981, they agreed that they would both be credited as “co-creators” of the game from then forward, but the two reportedly had a tense relationship forever after.

Q: A new Clash of the Titans movie? I don’t want to be mean, but of all the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion animated movies, that’s probably the lamest. Why are they remaking that one? — Bill, Milwaukee, WI

A: Never underestimate the value of a hit, and Titans was the eleventh most successful movie of 1981. But the real impetus for the remake was another movie hit, 2006’s 300, also set in the time of ancient Greece. The surprising break-out success of the latter film so inspired Hollywood that two companies put Greek God-themed films into production: Clash at Warner Brothers and War of Gods, about the Greek soldier Theseus fighting titans, at Relativity Media. There was a race to see which movie would hit theaters first, though Clash, which is filming now, seems to have won that duel. Still, the plan is for both to be out in 2010.

The Oracle can also reveal what everyone surely wants to know: “Of course there will be the kraken!” says Clash director Louis Leterrior. “There will be much more. In the original film, there was no clash and no titans!”

Interested in buying the original Clash of the Titans (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by buying it through this link.

HBO has ordered a pilot for a series based on A Song of Fire and Ice, the hit series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin.

Should the series be picked up, the first season will tell the story of the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones. Each subsequent season would tell the story of the next book.

Martin has published four books in the series and plans to release three more.

“They tried for 50 years to make Lord of the Rings as one movie before Peter Jackson found success making three,” Martin told Variety two years ago, when the project was first optioned. “My books are bigger and more complicated, and would require 18 movies. Otherwise, you’d have to choose one or two characters.”

George R. R. Martin

In the books, different family dynasties fight for control of the medieval land of Westeros, using both intrigue and brute force. In the northern lands, mysterious creatures from beyond a massive wall plan an invasion of their own, turning their victims into the undead.

The cast is sweeping, and the plot complicated, but the series has been phenomenally successful, with more the 2.2 million copies sold in the U.S. alone. The last released book, A Feast for Crows, debuted at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List — an extremely rare accomplishment for a fantasy author.

“Fantasy is the most successful genre in terms of feature films given the incredible popularity of the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies, David Benioff, one of the TV series executive producers and the writer of Troy, told The Hollywood Reporter in November.

According to Benioff, “High fantasy has never been done on TV before, and if anybody can do it, it’s HBO. They’ve taken tired genres and reinvented them — mobsters in ‘The Sopranos and westerns with Deadwood.”

Production of the actual series is not guaranteed, but the chances are good. HBO has ordered ten projects to pilot, and will reportedly turn about six into full series. The break-out success of last year’s True Blood, a fantasy-related vampire drama on HBO, could up the odds. Showtimes’ period series The Tudors has also done well.

“It’s not a story with a million orcs charging across the plains,” D. B.Weiss, another executive producer, told The Hollywood Reporter. “The most expensive effects are creature effects, and there’s not much of that.”

Fantasy is extremely rare on series television, due to the expensive costumes, sets, and special effects. Currently, Legend of the Seeker, a fantasy series created by Sam Raimi based on books by Terry Goodkind, runs in first-run syndication, and Kings, a fantasy series set in a “alternate” contemporary world, debuts on NBC in March. Krod Mangoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, a humorous fantasy series, will debut on Comedy Central in April.

Interested in buying the George R. R. Martin books? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing them through the link.