A Blog of Ice and Fire
The Game of Thrones panel at SXSW, featuring producers Benioff and Weiss, as well as actresses Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, has revealed a few tidbits of news as reported by EW.
The most notable items, in my view, are that Benioff and Weiss have indicated that the final season of the series will be only 6 episodes long (although one wonders what odds one or more of those episodes will run long), and that they have no plans of being involved in any Game of Thrones spin-off or prequel project HBO may come up with. Also, this upcoming season will feature a cameo from musician Ed Sheeran, who happens to be a huge fan of the show as you can see in the video below.
While Linda and I were out speaking about The World of Ice and Fire at Gothenburg’s city library, HBO finally revealed the premiere date of season 7 of Game of Thrones: July 16th. And with that reveal, they also launched the first lengthy teaser, titled “Sigils” for its extensive use of the heraldic beasts and objects of the Seven Kingdoms.
This follows after the recent reveal of the Season 7 poster, via Entertainment Weekly. You can find the (brief) press release from HBO below!
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Montegrappa, one of the oldest manufacturers of pens in Italy, has quietly released a line of Game of Thrones pens that are quite gorgeous. Drawing inspiration from four of the families—Baratheon, Lannister, Stark, and Targaryen—the series of pens feature three variants: ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain.
Montegrappa’s pens are currently available on some specialty sites, while their own e-commercse store is only available for those who reside in Italy. We noticed, when taking a look there, that the fountain pens are out of stock. We double-checked with HBO and they inform us that Montegrappa will have more available by the end of the month, which means those specialty retailers out there who currently don’t have them in stock will be able to order them in. No word as of yet whether they will be appearing at the HBO Store, but we’ll keep fans posted.
Here’s the full details from Montegrappa, below:
Bassano Del Grappa: Montegrappa Makes Play for the Iron Throne with New Line of Game of Thrones® Pens
With its epic storylines of treachery and nobility, family and honor, ambition and love, and death and survival the hit HBO® series Game of Thrones has captured the imagination of fans globally and made it one of the most popular shows on television. Montegrappa is proud to announce a series of writing instruments that convey the grandeur of this most remarkable saga.
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Sky Atlantic, home of Game of Thrones in the UK, and chef director Dan Doherty of the Duck and Waffle have teamed up with UK delivery service Deliveroo to present “The Drama Kitchen”, a pop-up takeaway which will be open from this evening to Sunday evening. The idea behind the concept? The 12 different meals available to order are all inspired by some of Sky Atlantic’s shows… including, of course, Game of Thrones.
See the Game of Thrones menu created for The Drama Kitchen:
Take a culinary tour of the Seven Kingdoms, from Flea Bottom to the swamps of the Neck, in this seven course tasting menu - ‘Lamprey’ Pie, Crannogmen Supper, Ramsay’s Chop, Catch of the Canals, Bowl o’ Brown, Gored Baratheon Boar and a Flagon at the Crossroads. A feast worth fighting for.
• ‘Lamprey’ Pie - Smoked eel and ham hock pie
• Crannogmen Supper – Frogs’ leg delicacy from the Neck
• Ramsay’s Chop - Roasted pork and apple sausage with Iron Islands sauce
• Catch of the Canals - Clam and cockle croquettes with oyster leaf
• Bowl o’ Brown – Flea Bottom meat stew served in the slums of King’s Landing
• Gored Baratheon Boar - Wild boar salami with pickles
• Flagon at the Crossroads - a bottle of honey mead
That photo makes it all look quite delicious, although here’s hoping Bowl o’ Brown excludes human flesh! For those interested in ordering, note that availability is restricted geographically:
“The Drama Kitchen” will be open from January 26 to January 29.
During the airing of the 6th season of Game of Thrones, the Royal Mail and Tourism NI collaborated to release ten limited edition stamps dedicated to the TV series. Each week, a new stamp was released, featuring images that resonated with the series. Now, Westeros.org is pleased to have a contest to win a limited edition stamp sheet—one of only 100 sheets produced!—featuring all ten stamps.
There are three ways to enter the contest, and get a chance to win the stamp sheet:
1) Follow our Facebook page and post on the initial post from us with this title.
2) Follow our Twitter account and RT our initial post from us with this title.
3) Join our forum and post to the thread in the Game of Thrones News section indicating your interest in entering the contest.
At the end of the week we’ll collate all the entries and choose one winner. This competition is open world-wide.
Good luck!
The Hollywood Reporter, covering HBO CEO Richard Plepler’s presence in Spain for the launch of HBO Spain, reports that Plepler remarked to their reporter that there are “embryonic conversations” going on in HBO headquarters about possible spin-offs between himself, President of Programming Casey Bloys, and the producers of the hit show. To quote Plepler more directly:
“Right now we’re focused on finishing the series with the kind of energy and excitement that everyone has come to expect. We’re going to do that while at the same time parallel processing very embryonic stages of other possibilities.”
This continues the pattern of various executives and producers acknowledging their interest in following the series up with some sort of spin-off after its initial run is complete. Suggestions that have come from various parties to those conversations include a feature film, a continuation of the Game of Thrones story beyond its end (presumably following a mixture of old characters—some of those who survive the whole thing, no doubt—and new creations for the theoretical sequel), and even prequels drawing from the histories in The World of Ice and Fire or the Dunk & Egg novellas as found in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
