02/08/2015 - Flashback Scene for Sean ????
Rumours are growing apace that there will be a chance to see Ned Stark in action again in a flashback sequence involving The Tower of Joy and the birth/death of Jon Snow
Sean was spotted at Madrid Airport 2 days ago, so the plot thickens.
There are reportedly 2 more seasons to finish the series
http://www.ibtimes.com/pulse/game-thrones-season-6-spoilers-ned-stark-return-rl-j-tower-joy-1982379
http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Showdown_at_the_Tower_of_Joy
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/06/benjen-stark-return-game-of-thrones-finale
See all my screencaps from each episode in a beautiful slideshow, in full screen if you like! Click the link!
Sean Bean, remembered by most for his role as Boromir in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, gives the performance of his career as Eddard Stark, portraying him with a wide array of emotions without even having to say a word. Just by the expressions on his face alone we can tell that Eddard is a strong, proud man, yet he struggles with (and does his best to hide) his sorrow and must deal with constant inner-turmoil.
A wonderful tribute to Sean (thanks Pudge for the heads up!), which has my ful support!
Sean arrived yesterday. See the High res pictures in the Monaco TV Festival album here
Beware; Spoilers!
Beginning a new series of features, essayist and writer Pearson Moore has joined with Westeros.org to provide in-depth looks at the series, its characters, and the rich, dramatic themes at the heart of George R.R. Martin’s creation. Moore, perhaps best known for his insightful essays into the TV show Lost, is the author of 63 essays about that show, as well as two thought-provoking novels, including the Amazon bestselling Lost Humanity and Lost Identity.
Their first featured essay from Mr. Moore is “Instinctive Honour: The Decency of Eddard Stark in Game of Thrones”, a detailed look into the central figure of A Game of Thrones. The Decency of Ned Stark
HBO plays a Game of Thrones
PASADENA, California - It's good to be typecast, Sean Bean says. For one thing, it means you're earning a living. These days, for a working actor, that's not always a given.
Bean, the Sheffield, U.K.-born actor known for his roles in the big-screen costume epics Troy, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and the '90s TV series Sharpe, set during the Napoleonic Wars, is about to don a costume of a similar, yet different, kind in Game of Thrones, HBO's sprawling saga of swords and sorcery set in a mythical kingdom.
Game of Thrones is based on A Song of Ice and Fire, a series of epic fantasy novels by American novelist and screenwriter George R.R. Martin. Four volumes have been published so far; three more are planned.
Bean plays Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, commissioned by the fat, lazy King Robert Baratheon to "go south" and help restore his crumbling kingdom.
Bean knows fantasy fans can be obsessive -- "Thanks for letting me know," he said, dryly -- but he had read the book, and enjoyed it.
"I found the book very exciting, very luxuriant, very dangerous, very edgy, very sexy."
Game of Thrones was something Bean knew he could do, and do well. Even so, despite his previous roles, he was flattered when HBO and producers Dan Weiss and David Benioff approached him for the part of Ned Stark, Lord of Winterfell, Warden of the North, renowned for his sense of honour and justice.
"It's similar, I suppose, to Lord of the Rings," Bean said cautiously, not wanting to sound pompous or self-important. "I mean, its size, its quality, its magic, its danger. I happen to enjoy playing those kinds of roles: riding horses and swinging swords and having fights and wearing wigs and growing beards. Though not first thing in the morning, when it takes you about three hours to get ready."
Despite the similarity in themes -- the epic quest, the coming-of-age tale, etc. -- Bean says Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones are quite different.
"Whereas, with Lord of the Rings, you had three films -- admittedly, all thoroughly researched and well replicated on the screen -- the wonderful thing about Game of Thrones is that there's such a scope to it. George Martin has created a very different world. The story goes much, much further and goes on much longer and there are many more twists and turns."
Bean is aware of the fans' passion, and was determined to get the fine details right, even if it meant burning the midnight oil and re-reading the original novels by candlelight.
"It's quite a responsibility," he said, simply.
The original series of novels has spawned board games, role-playing games and even plans for a video-game adaptation. The series' growing popularity convinced HBO -- an unlikely home -- to pony up $50 million for a 10-part series. The April 17 pilot episode alone cost $18 million to make.
HBO is the home of self-contained adult relationship dramas like Big Love, Treme and In Treatment. Despite the zeitgeist success of the vampire thriller True Blood and the pay-TV channel's more recent success with Boardwalk Empire, taking a chance on an epic fantasy tale was a leap of faith.
As originally conceived in the novels, Game of Thrones interweaves several stories at the same time. It's a coming-of-age tale about a young girl finding her power. It's a tale of politics and intrigue, about a slowly dying kingdom crumbling from within, torn by corruption and weak leadership, and early signs of a dynastic civil war. It's a tale, too, of revenge, of the exiled daughter of a murdered king who's determined to reclaim her throne.
Game of Thrones' setting is the stuff sword 'n' sorcery legend is made of. The story is set in the fictional world of Westeros, a sprawling continent with a large land mass in the east known as Essos. Most of the characters are human, but the world is also home to other races: fire-breathing dragons from the East, and the menacing, supernatural White Walkers from the North. In a twist that sets Game of Thrones' story in motion, the human characters believe -- wrongly -- that the other races are extinct.
A second season will depend on early reaction to the series, including -- but not limited to -- Game of Thrones' initial ratings results. HBO confirmed earlier this week that it has made no decision at this time for a second season.
Game of Thrones is set in an imaginary land, with mythical beings and creatures based on flights of the imagination. But Bean found himself easily immersed in Thrones' unique world.
"The amount of production value that was put into Game of Thrones was incredible, unlike anything I've been in, including Lord of the Rings," Bean said. "I was proud to be a part of it, frankly -- the attention to detail, the sheer size of it all, the craftsmanship of the sets, the studio, the costumes, everything.
"There are so many twists and turns, and the characters are so well drawn, that I hope everyone who sees it will be fascinated by what we've achieved."
Game of Thrones premieres Sunday, April 17 on HBO Canada at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT.
A Game of Thrones booth launching at WonderCon in San Francisco today. Based on the bestselling fantasy book series "A Song of Ice and Fire," by George R.R. Martin, the new series GAME OF THRONES launches its ten-episode season SUNDAY, APRIL 17 (9:00-10:05 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
The booth will feature a full size reproduction of the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros as well as costumes and props from the show. Items on display will include:
- Ned Stark's costume
- Daenerys Targaryen's costume
- King Baratheon's costume
- A Maester's costume
- The Stark house shield and banner
To see photos of these items, you can visit here
Click for full size;
See them all:
"Everyone I worked with was really nice. Sean Bean seemed quite shy when he wasn't acting, he was usually sat reading a book but was so friendly and helpful whenever I spoke to him. I think he is a great role model for young actors. Everything he did was just right and worked perfectly for his character."
Maisie Williams - Arya Stark
Sean Bean has admitted that he enjoyed playing a heroic role in new HBO seriesGame of Thrones. | The actor told MTV News that portraying the noble Eddard 'Ned' Stark was a relief following a string of villainous parts."Knowing you've got the back of HBO and the quality of [that network], I thought, 'Wow, this is a great role'," he explained. "[Ned is] a good guy as well, a good man for a change for me."The Lord of the Rings star also claimed that he had no reservations about taking part in another fantasy project."I seem to be quite drawn to the medieval, magical fantasies, as it were," he revealed. "It was such a good part, and I read the book and the character, and just really wanted to play it, so I didn't have any doubts whatsoever."Bean previously suggested that he does not mind being typecast in fantasy roles.Game Of Thrones will launch in the US on April 17 on HBO. The show will air in April on Sky Atlantic in the UK. |
TCA Press Conference on January8, 2011
"I do happen I happen to enjoy playing those kind of roles with riding horses and swinging swords and having fights and wearing wigs and growing beards, even though I don't first thing in the morning when it takes you about three hours to get ready," Bean smiled. "I do have affinity to that kind of role, and I think the good thing about Game of Thrones is that there is such score for it. Whereas Lord of the Rings, admittedly, there was three films and, you know, they thoroughly researched it, and it was very well replicated on screen. But with what George has created, it's a very different world. Goes on much, much further and much longer, and there's many more twists and turns, but I certainly enjoy this genre."
"Everything was so detailed, so vast, and you know, it was a lot of work it was like working on a big feature film every week," Bean said of the production. "You think there's ten of these to start with, but each of those ten, to me, felt like a pretty hefty feature film. I think we really established a grand size, and there's also the fact it's been done by HBO, so you're in good standing. You got good people behind you, and it's an edgy as I said, an edgy, sexy, violent, dark, brutal piece where nobody's safe."
Thanks to Corinna!
My mum full on met Sean Bean and the dude from Full Monty (Mark Addy)
HBO is moving ahead with its fantasy epic Game of Thrones. Tom McCarthy (The Visitor, The Station Agent) will direct the pilot, which David Benioff and D.B. Weiss adapted from the George R.R. Martin novels. HBO has given the go-ahead for the pilot plus nine episodes. It will debut in spring 2011.
Game of Thrones starts shooting in
Sean Bean Eddard (Ned) Stark
Jennifer
Ehle Catelyn
Stark
Mark Addy Robert Baratheon
Harry Lloyd Viserys
Targaryen
Esme Bianco Ros
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Jaime Lannister
Alfie Allen Theon Greyjoy
Peter Dinklage Tyrion Lannister
Ron Donachie Rodrik Cassel
Jack
Gleeson Joffrey
Baratheon
Iain Glenn Ser
Jorah Mormont
Kit Harington Jon
Snow
Richard
Madden Robb Stark
Joseph
Mawle Benjen Stark
Rory McCann Sandor
Clegane
Tamzin Merchant Daenerys
Targaryen
Richard
Ridings Gared
Sophie
Turner Sansa Stark
Maisie
Williams Arya Stark
Bronson
Webb Will
Jason Momoa Khal Drogo
Isaac
Hempstead-Wright Bran Stark
Two very beautifully Photoshopped posters of young and older Ned Stark, both from this Russian website. You'll find many more posters of the other characters there.
Medieval keep becomes film set
A medieval
keep near Stirling has become the setting for a new Hollywood production by
The series is based on George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy adventure novels.
Doune Castle is already a place of pilgrimage for movie fans after it featured as Castle Anthrax in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Since then, thousands of devout fans make their way to the
castle each year to take part in re-enactments. Written by David Benioff and DB Weiss, the new
production will also film on location in
The A Song of Ice and Fire series, the first of which was
published in 1996, is set in the fictional world of Westeros. It is understood the castle will be used for
scenes depicting the courtyard of the fantasy dream realm of Winterfell.
Doune Castle was built at the end of the 1300s for Robert
Stewart, Duke of Albany.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8322843.stm
Sean Bean to star in the epic fantasy A Game of Thrones
Although news of planned adaptations of fantasy fiction for
the screen come along fairly often, it's not often that anything actually
eventuates, or if it does, that the wait is worth it. More often than not the
news arrives like a bolt of lightning and then proceeds to fade away so slowly
that we're generally still waiting for something to eventuate years after the
news first broke (what did happen to the Elric and Shannara movies?).
The upshot is that it's fairly difficult to become all that excited when news does break of yet another work of epic fantasy making its way to the screen, and to be honest I barely even registered HBO's purchase of the rights to George R. R. Martin's award winning fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire back in 2007. But this project has been moving forward unusually fast, and with news this week that Sean Bean has joined the cast as Eddard "Ned" Stark, Warden of the North, and Lord of Winterfell, this adaptation is taking on some real substance. Finally it's worth the attention.
So, what do we know? While it may be obvious given HBO's involvement, it's worth stating at the outset that we're obviously not looking at a big screen adaptation here. Although only four of the planned seven novels in George Martin's series have been published, word is that HBO is planning to produce a TV series for the entire sequence of novels, with each series comprising 13 episodes. If there's a downside to this, it's that we're obviously not going to get a big screen bonanza like Lord of the Rings. On the other hand, adapting a long, intricate and complex work of fiction as a television series is possibly the only way to do justice to a novel. Despite the heroic efforts of Peter Jackson and team, few Tolkien purists would be entirely satisfied with many of the compromises made in the Rings movies. Purely from a story telling perspective there's far greater opportunity with a made for television series to be faithful to the text and avoid many of the compromises that are inevitable when reducing hundreds of pages to a couple of hours of screen time. A good example of this would be the SciFi Channel's Dune mini series which might lack the big screen impact of David Lynch's Dune, but the end result is far more recognisably Frank Herbert's work.
A Game of Thrones, the first book in Martin's series, was
published in 1996 and the fifth novel, A Dance with Dragons, is looking like
having an early 2010 release, so all things being equal it'll probably be 2016
before the final novel in the sequence lands on any bookshelves and can be
adapted for the screen. If HBO really intends on adapting the entire sequence
of novels, this not only represents some serious long term planning, but also a
resounding act of faith in the quality of Martin's writing and his ability to
deliver.
But let's not jump the gun. At this stage, we're only looking at a pilot for the first series, and many a series has died an early death with the pilot episode.
Nonetheless, there are many good reasons why this project might succeed where so many others have failed. For a start, Martin's gritty and realistic fantasy is quality writing. The first novel was nominated for the 1998 Nebula Award and the 1997 World Fantasy Award, and won the 1997 Locus Award; chapters published separately as the Blood of the Dragon novella won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1997. Furthermore, Martin plans to be involved with the production, perhaps as an executive producer with approval of scripts, so we can probably count on the integrity of his vision being retained. There's also a hint that he may write one episode per season, although I've got a strong suspicion that there'll be some pressure to finish writing the remaining novels before HBO runs out of material to film!
Tom McCarthy will be directing, based on a script by David
Benioff (
So, for those who know nothing of the books, what can you expect? Benioff perhaps best captured the essence of the series, if not its gravitas, with an infamous comment in interview with the New York Magazine, describing A Game of Thrones as 'The Sopranos in Middle Earth'. Make of that what you will!
http://sffmedia.com/tv/fantasy-tv/387-sean-bean-to-star-in-the-epic-fantasy-a-game-of-thrones-.html
Sean Bean ascends to "Game of Thrones"
By Borys Kit and Nellie Andreeva
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)) - Sean Bean has nabbed the lead in "Game of Thrones," HBO's adaptation of the George R.R. Martin fantasy-book series.
Tom McCarthy ("The Visitor") is directing.
The books revolves around a battle among seven kingdoms and between two ruling families for control of the Iron Throne, the possession that ensures survival through a 40-year winter to come.
Bean will play Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, known for his sense of honor and justice, who becomes closest adviser to King Robert (Mark Addy).
Kit Harrington will play Jon Snow, Bean's bastard son, and Harry Lloyd will play Viserys, a powerless ruler who seeks to marry off his sister to a powerful king. Jack Gleeson will play Joffrey, King Robert's son.
Peter Dinklage, who starred for McCarthy in "The
Station Agent," also is in the cast for the production, which is in the
pilot stage and begins shooting in October in
"Thrones" marks the latest fantasy epic-style
production for Bean. He recently wrapped shooting on "Percy Jackson &
the Olympians," an adaptation of Rick Riordan's children's book. Bean also
has "Black Death," a supernatural thriller set during
http://http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSTRE56J09D20090720
Has Sean Bean landed a juicy role in HBOs A Game of Thrones?
Sean Bean of J.R.R. Tolkiens Boromir fame, may have landed a role in another book adaptation by an R.R. author according to The excellent site WinterisComing .
The first of George R.R. Martins Song Of Fire And Ice series, A Game of Thrones, is currently in pre-production to film a pilot episode for a potential HBO series and Beans name has surfaced as one of the main leads in the series.
Bean, if the rumors are true, would be the second principal
cast, along with Peter Dinklage who plays a dwarf (not in the Middle-earth
tradition). Going against his type when he is often cast as a villain, his
character of Ed Stark is noble and highly principled. The plan for the series
is to film the pilot in
I've received word, from what looks to be a legit inside
source, that Sean Bean has been cast as Eddard Stark in the Game of Thrones
pilot. The source mentioned that it happened yesterday but does not know when
it might be officially announced.
Winter Is Coming: Would be great, if true. I'm filing
it under rumors for now, but it seems like the real deal. We will just have to
wait and see at this point. If the deal was finalized yesterday then one can
hope that it will be officially announced very soon. As soon as we get some
official confirmation, I will let everyone know.
UPDATE: It looks like Daily Mail gossip columnist Baz Bamigboye is reporting the Sean Bean rumor as well. He doesn't list a source, so no way of knowing if he is just reporting what he is seeing online or if he has some other inside info. But since it is in the gossip section I'm still considering this a rumor. But the chances of it being true are looking more and more likely. Hopefully HBO will give us the official word soon.
Sean Bean, who is one of the first stars to be cast in the
TV drama A Game Of Thrones, based on the fantasy novels A Song Of Ice And Fire
by George R. R. Martin.
Rugged: Sean Bean
The tales are epic in structure, and are set in a land that has been torn apart
by a civil war and divided into seven kingdoms.
There are warring factions and divided loyalties and I cant pretend to tell
you much more, because I couldnt get beyond the first couple of chapters.
But I know Game Of Thrones has legions of fans not least because its also a
computer game.
Anyway, Bean has been asked to play one of the patriarchs of the warring
tribes. He knows this kind of territory well, having played Boromir in Peter
Jacksons Lord Of The Rings films. A one-hour pilot show will be shot on
location in
The plan by the Rain Mark production company is to make the pilot and hope that
HBO will say yes to a further nine episodes in the first series.
Bean was also seen this year in Channel 4s excellent drama films The Red
Riding Trilogy, based on the novels by David Peace.