Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister in HBO’s A Game of Thrones Pilot

Maureen Ryan of Chicago Tribune’s The Watcher has revealed that Lena Headey, known for portraying Sarah Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Queen Gorgo in 300, has been cast as Cersei Lannister in HBO’s A Game of Thrones pilot.

George R. R. Martin is pleased about Headey being cast, saying that “Her range was one of the things that impressed us most about her; Cersei is a character with many colors, and Lena will be able to give us all of them. Her readings were wonderful… and of course she’s beautiful and sexy as hell.”

I’m in awe right now. Like Sean Bean, Headey wasn’t one of the first people I thought of as cast members for AGOT, but now that they’ve cast her, I think she’s a great choice for the role. I’m still a bit worried about her looks-wise since she’s usually shown as a brunette and her skin’s a bit tan compared to the image of Cersei I had in my mind, but as GRRM himself said: “Yes, it’s true, she’s not a blonde, but she has played one on TV (and in films). Seriously, guys. This is HBO. They know about wigs and hair dyes and stuff like that.”

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Image taken from Starpulse.com.

New players in HBO’s A Game of Thrones finally announced

Oh wow, I’m busy for a few days and I look what I’ve missed:

“In the adaptation of the George R.R. Martin fantasy-book series, [Nikolaj] Coster-Waldau will play Jaime Lannister, one of the king’s guards and a ruthless usurper of the previous king. The actor, most recently seen in Ron Moore’s Fox pilot ‘Virtuality,’ is repped by WME, Impression and Independent Talent Group.

Another addition is Tamzin Merchant (Showtime’s ‘The Tudors’), who’ll play Daenerys, an exiled teenage princess.

Also new to the cast: Richard Madden (‘Hope Springs’) as Stark’s eldest son, Robb; Iain Glen (‘Into the Storm’) as Ser Jorah Mormont, a disgraced knight; Alfie Allen (‘The Other Boleyn Girl’) as Theon, Stark’s young ward; Sophie Turner (‘Doctor Who’), as Stark’s eldest daughter, Sansa; Maisie Williams as Stark’s young tomboy daughter, Arya.” – The Hollywood Reporter

I always knew at least one actor/actress would spill over from The Tudors into A Game of Thrones; looks like I was right since Tamzin Merchant made it into the AGoT cast. She certainly looks the part, in my opinion. I never imagined Dany to be your stereotypical beautiful princess; I always imagined her to look beautiful in a weird, otherworld-y sort of way, and Merchant fits that description.

Looks-wise, I’m not so happy with the actor starring as Theon. I always imagined Theon as a younger Jonathan Rhys Myers, and Alfie Allen certainly doesn’t look like that. I guess I’ll have to wait and see how he acts and how he looks with make-up and costume on, as GRRM seems pleased with the casting (check out his multiple entries with comments on the actors on his LJ).

Here’s a list of all the currently confirmed cast members with links to web pages with pictures and/or info on them (mind you, a lot of these actors don’t have a lot of pictures on the internet and I just worked around what I could find):

• Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark
• Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
• Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon I
• Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon
• Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen
• Kit Harington as Jon Snow
• Richard Madden as Robb Stark
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister
• Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys “Dany” Targaryen
• Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont
• Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy
• Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
• Maisie Williams as Arya Stark

George R. R. Martin drops hints about unrevealed cast roles

While George R. R. Martin, David Benioff, and D.B. Weiss cannot reveal the five newly-cast roles in HBO’s A Game of Thrones pilot, Martin mentioned (at the Montreal Worldcon) that the roles of Theon Greyjoy and Jaime Lannister have already been filled, and even dropped a few hints about the three other filled roles in his LJ:

“The five roles… well, we have cast Jaime Lannister and Theon Greyjoy, I let that slip in Montreal… the three new ones are all females. A couple small roles, but very important ones. One player has something in common with Ned. One has something in common with Harry Potter. One is not a boney pop singer. Shows can get cancelled and so can characters, but two of them have been seen on American tv recently.”

Huzzah for more female characters! So far the only female character that’s been cast is Catelyn Stark, so I’m excited about this news. I can’t seem to put my finger on who these characters might be though; I guess I’ll just have to wait for the official announcements.

UPDATE: Martin just posted on his LJ that one more role has been cast, but that he can’t talk about it either.

Jennifer Ehle cast as Catelyn Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot

Well, the title says it all! Tony award-winning actress Jennifer Ehle, who starred as Elizabeth Bennet in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice miniseries, has been cast as Catelyn Stark in HBO’s Game of Thrones pilot.

GRRM posted one heck of a teaser about this on his LJ, only to be scooped by the Hollywood Reporter. GRRM lamented the fact that he couldn’t “properly torment [his] readers” thanks to the scoop, but also mentioned that “even HOLLYWOOD REPORTER doesn’t know all the cool stuff” he knows.

Hopefully those of you who will be able to attend Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon can find out what the other “cool stuff” is.

A Game of Thrones Pilot Script

Lex of A TV Calling has the script for the pilot episode of HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones TV series up for download this week. Click here to access the post and download it for yourself!

[Edit: The script is no longer up for download, and I have no intention of sharing it without consent! Please look elsewhere for the script.]

I just got around to reading it this morning, and I think that David Benioff did a terrific job so far. The script stays true to the book even though some alterations were made and some scenes/dialogue were added. Some of the dialogue has been shortened or cut, of course, but I don’t believe that any of it was detrimental to the story.

One added scene was of Tyrion and Jaime Lannister having a conversation at a brothel. I like that it actually shows the closeness between Jaime and Tyrion, which wasn’t much emphasized in the book at first. It also shows that Jaime has some natural wit in his system; the book gave me the impression that he was all brawn and good-looks with little to no brains.

The other added scene was Ned Stark and Jaime having a bit of a confrontation at Winterfell. It was interesting to see the contrast between the two characters, and I think it’s beneficial to those who have not read the books to have some source of background information on Jaime without being whisked away into a flashback sequence or a boring historical account of who he is.

They also aged a lot of the characters; for example, Robb Stark and Jon Snow are seventeen as opposed to being fifteen in the books, Viserys Targaryen is twenty instead of fifteen, and Daenerys Targaryen is fifteen as opposed to thirteen. Personally, I’m really happy that they decided to do that, given that the stuff that happens to them might be more shocking (and potentially traumatizing) for a lot of viewers if Benioff stuck to their original ages.

There isn’t any news about casting just yet; only that Benioff and the rest of the crew working on the series have encouraged fans to suggest actors/actresses for the roles over at the Westeros forums. That, and an “untested source” stated that it’s highly likely that Peter Dinklage (who starred as Trumpkin in Prince Caspian), will be playing the role of Tyrion Lannister.

I’ve been anticipating this mini-series for a while now, and seeing the actual script makes me even more excited.

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Image shown is a scanned image of the 2002 edition A Game of Thrones, published by Bantam HC. Taken from the Cover Art Gallery section of George R. R. Martin’s official website.