HBO to make epic fantasy

I've not really read that much fantasy.. a bit of David Eddings as a teenager, then Robert Jordan until the time between books got so long that I had to go back and re-read them to catch up, which turned into a dead end. (Apparently Robert Jordan is now deathly ill, and hasn't finished his multiple-decades opus, and the fans are all in a panic that he might kick the bucket without finishing the bloody story.)

Anyway, I'm currently reading George R. R. Martin's first Fire/Ice book, and it's so far, so good. Lots of standard fayre: horses, queens, leather jerkins, swords of power, and quite fun. You know, proper nerd stuff.

Variety reports that HBO have commissioned said Fire/Ice series:

HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"Fire" is the first TV project for Benioff ("Troy") and Weiss ("Halo") and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

Troy meets Halo? Don't mind if I do.

Comments

[bigwig]

HBO does fantasy? I can't wait to see how that goes.

[Peter]

I found the last GRRM novel to be much weaker than the previous ones, which I adored. In particular I felt let down on the characters I really like, either because they were kind of ignored (Arya) or their story lines were just bizarre (Brienne). Hopefully the next one will be better.

[luke]

GRRM books are split into two parts because he felt he couldn't devote enough time to each character's development in one book, hence his latest books didn't touch all the characters. I will be interested to see how well received a fantasy novel is when converted to a TV series hopefully there may be more to come. Hey........ The Lord of the Rings movies where very popular and that story was c##p in comparison to most of what is out there.

[Shannon]

I loved these books(well I disliked the last book but that was more because I felt the characters were short changed) I can't wait to see how they go about doing this, or if it happens at all. I really hope this ushers in an age of great fantasy making it to a wider audience and since it seems movies are dropping the ball since LOTR when it comes to fantasy (ie Eragon) maybe another medium will help.