George R.R. Martin's Blog, page 131

Dunk and Egg

An update on all things Dunk & Egg...

To date I have published three novellas about them.

"The Hedge Knight" was published in Robert Silverberg's anthology LEGENDS, "The Sworn Sword" in its sequel, LEGENDS II.  The third novella, "The Mystery Knight," was part of WARRIORS, the crossgenre anthology I co-edited with Gardner Dozois.

The first two novellas were subsequently adapted into graphic novels, with scripts by Ben Avery and artwork by Mike S. Miller and Mike Crowell.  The GNs have had a complicated publishing history.  Originally they were published by the Dabel Brothers, in partnership with Image Comics and then Devil's Due.  Later Marvel picked them up and had them out in hardcover for a time.  Those editions are all out of print, however.  Last year, Jet City Comics reissued both grahic novels.  Meanwhile, a graphic novel of "The Mystery Knight" is currently in the works from Random House.  Ben Avery has done the script once more, and Mike S. Miller is doing the art.

Turning back to prose, however... it has always been my intent to write a whole series of novellas about Dunk and Egg, chronicling their entire lives.  At various times in various interviews I may have mentioned seven novellas, or ten, or twelve, but none of that is set in stone.  There will be as many novellas as it takes to tell their tale, start to finish.  But only the three mentioned have been published to date.  I did originally plan on including a fourth in DANGEROUS WOMEN, the crossgenre anthology Gardner and I put out last year, but the book was past due and the story was not finished, so I substituted an abridged version of "The Princess and the Queen" instead.

The unfinished novella was indeed set in Winterfell, and involved a group of formidable Stark wives, widows, mothers, and grandmothers that I dubbed 'the She-Wolves,' but "The She-Wolves of Winterfell" was never meant to be more than a working title.  The final title, when I finish the story, will be something different.  There's also another Dunk & Egg novella that I've got roughed out in my head, with the working title "The Village Hero."  That one takes place in the Riverlands.   There's no telling when I will have time to finish either of these, or which one I will write first.  I don't expect I will know more until I've delivered THE WINDS OF WINTER.

My original intent was to publish all the Dunk & Egg stories in a series of anthologies, and then collect them all together in one big book.  But by the time of "The Mystery Knight," it became plain that the stories were just too long, and there were going to be too many of them.  So instead of one big book, the plan now is for a series of Dunk & Egg collections, each comprised of three novellas.  The first one to consist of the three published stories, "The Hedge Knight," "The Sworn Sword," and "The Mystery Knight."   The obvious title would have been THE HEDGE KNIGHT, but there is already a certain amount of confusion between "The Hedge Knight" the novella and THE HEDGE KNIGHT the graphic novel, and we did not want to compound the difficulty, so the first Dunk & Egg collection was titled A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS instead.

Since the collection is comprised entirely of previously-published material, we wanted to add something extra for the fans who might already have read the stories in LEGENDS and WARRIORS.  Some illustrations would be great, I thought (my love of illustrated books is well known by now, I suspect) and my British and American publishers agreed.   We reached out to the amazing GARY GIANNI, who did all the artwork for the stunning 2014 Ice & Fire calendar, not to mention Prince Valiant and those absolutely gorgeous Solomon Kane and Bran Mak Morn collections from Wandering Star.   Gary was interested in the project... but after reading the stories, he decided he did not want to do just a small handful of illustrations.  He wanted to bring the whole book to life with his artwork.  Last year at San Diego Comicon, he presented my editor Anne Groell and myself with a mockup of A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS as he envisioned it, with art on almost every page.  Even as roughs, Gary's sketches were gorgeous.  They blew us away.  Of course we said yes. 

Gary Gianni has been drawing and painting away ever since.  Of course, it takes a long time to do so much artwork.  Bantam Spectra and Harper Collins Voyager still hope to publish their fully-illustrated editions  A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS in 2015, in the US and UK respectively, but the precise pubdate depends on when Gary finishes the art.  Meanwhile, some of my other publishers around the world had acquired the rights to the Dunk & Egg collection, and decided that they did not want to wait.  Which is why A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS has already been published in several foreign languages, and will shortly be forthcoming in others, while the English-language editions won't be out for another year or more.  This is an inversion of the usual publishing pattern, where the American and British editions come out first.  The foreign editions have no artwork.

I am frequently asked whether or not there are any plans for Dunk & Egg movies or television shows.  There has been interest, yes, but the rights situation is complicated.  Film and television rights to the characters and the three published Dunk & Egg stories remain with me at present... but HBO, when acquiring the rights to the SONG OF ICE & FIRE novels, also acquired film and television rights to the world of Westeros.  So if we did Dunk & Egg with anyone else, we would need to remove all the references to House Targaryen, the Iron Throne, etc... not completely impossible, but certainly undesireable.  Whereas if HBO decided they wanted to make a Dunk & Egg miniseries or TV movies, they'd first need to buy the stories.  That's a much more attractive proposition for all concerned, I think... but if it happens, it will happen years from now, not tomorrow, and not next week.

So that's where things stand on all things Dunk & Egg.  Thanks for asking.

Magic in Santa Fe

Magic returns to Santa Fe at the end of April at the Jean Cocteau Cinema, "Your Hometown Movie Theatre."  (Well, provided Santa Fe is your home town).

On April 25, we will be showing the hit magical heist film, NOW YOU SEE ME, for a week's engagement.



But a magical movie is just the beginning.  That weekend we will also be bringing in DAVID KWONG, the magician behind the film, to talk about the movie and its making, and perform  three live shows for us.  As Head Magical Consultant, David worked with the writers to design all the tricks for the film.  He's a double threat, however: puzzles as well as prestidigation are his province, and he also designs crossword puzzles for the NEW YORK TIMES.

David will be doing three shows for us: at 6:20 pm on Friday, April 25, and at 2:00 pm and 8:30 pm on Saturday, April 26.

Advance tickets are now on sale from the Cocteau website at http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/ 

Come and join us, and prepare to be amazed.

Comedy at the Cocteau

Movies are not the only thing we offer at the Jean Cocteau.  Since reopening in August, we've had live music, magic, vaudeville, costume contests, some amazing author events and booksignings, birthday parties, Skype interviews, lectures, meetings... and now for the first time we are going to bring some great stand-up comedy to Santa Fe.

Author and comedian JOHN HODGMAN will be coming to the Cocteau on June 2 to perform his stand-up show, "I Stole Your Dad," presenting new observations on subjects including how to dress like a young and relevant person, fax machines and other obsolete technology, marihuana and Downton Abbey, the state songs of Tennessee, the film criticism of Ayn Rand, and how to spend your time when the world did not end like you were certain it would on December 21st of last year.




John Hodgman is an author and performer best known as the “Resident Expert” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, his COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE trilogy, and for his podcast and New York Times Magazine column, Judge John Hodgman.

This event is still two months off and hasn't even been officially announced in our newsletter or put up on our website yet, and yet as of this afternoon we had already sold more than 80 tickets.  The Cocteau has only 125 seats, but if you'd like to come and hear John, do head over to our website and get your tickets now, before they're all gone.

http://www.jeancocteaucinema.com/

See you at the show.

Coming Soon at the Cocteau

ROBBIE THE ROBOT will be returning to the Jean Cocteau Cinema this weekend, to help us present one of the classic SF films of all time... no, not FORBIDDEN PLANET, we showed that one already (and will be showing it again this summer) -- WAR OF THE WORLDS, the great 1953 George Pal version.



We also have a new British comedy coming up: ALAN PARTRIDGE: ALPHA PAPA.  "The Comedy of the Year," somebody said.



ALAN PARTRIDGE opens on April 18, WAR OF THE WORLDS on April 11.

See you at the movies.

And Then There's This

Of course, this is just a gag.

In real life, the Hound prefers Popeyes.   But not the spicy.  He's afraid of fire.

Ratings, Renewals, Reviews

HBO has renewed GAME OF THRONES for a fifth season.  Great news.  But hardly surprising.  I mean, it wasn't official, but everyone and his brother pretty well knew that we would get a fast renewal for season five.

But HBO has also renewed GAME OF THRONES for a sixth season, and that one is surprising.  I don't think even David and Dan suspected that was coming.  I certainly did not.  HBO never orders more than one season at a time, not in recent memory.  So this is pretty unprecedented.  And pretty great.

http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/game-of-thrones-renewed-for-two-more-seasons-1201154239/

The renewal comes on the heels of record ratings for the premiere episode of season four.  "Two Swords" translated to more than six million viewers.  (Just imagine if we'd had three or four or five swords!!).  The episode netted the highest rating of any HBO show since the finale of THE SOPRANOS, which is pretty amazing, considering all the great television that HBO has aired in the intervening years.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/04/07/game-of-thrones-premiere-ratings-4/

The reviews have been pretty extraordinary as well.  Especially this one:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-game-of-thrones-review-20140406,0,3119045.story#axzz2yJSBkpOY

So... what can one say?  It has been a pretty extraordinary week.

My congratulations to David Benioff, Dan Weiss, our incredible directors, our amazing crew, and the best cast in television.

April Authors

We have an amazing lineup of author events at the Jean Cocteau this month.

Tonight, we're playing host to CONNIE WILLIS, SFWA Grand Master, past worldcon Guest of Honor, author of BLACKOUT, ALL CLEAR, DOMESDAY BOOK, PASSAGE, REPLAY, "The Secret of Santa Titicaca," and many classic short stories, and winner of more Hugo and Nebula awards than any other author, male or female, living or dead.



A few weeks down the road, on Monday, April 21, we will be welcoming the  Pulitzer-Prize-winning novelist JUNOT DIAZ, author of THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER and THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO.  The last time Junot was in Santa Fe, he filled the Lensic Theatre with its 850 seats.  The Cocteau has only 125, so if you'd like to hear him talk and get a book signed, call the theatre and reserve your place NOW.



A few days after Junot, on Thursday April 24, another megastar will be in town: bestselling mystery writer and historical novelist ANNE PERRY, whose bibliography includes 19 volumes in her William Monk series, 28 in the Thomas Pitt series, as well as fantasies, YA novels, stand-alones, and Christmas books.  I intend to ask her how in the world she can possibly be so prolific.  Maybe some of it will rub off on me.




Our author events at the Cocteau usually include an interview or dialogue with me or another host, a Q&A with the audience, sometimes a reading, always a booksigning.  Admission is FREE with the purchase of a hardcover, $5 with the purchase of a paperback, $10 without a book purchase.

Most of our past author events have been sold out, so if you'd like to hear Connie, Junot Diaz, or Anne Perry, call the Cocteau at 444-5528 and reserve your book, and your place, now.

See you at the booksigning.

Two Swords

Okay, okay, we broke the internet AGAIN.  Sorry about that.  I'm not to blame this time, it was HBO GO... and all you people who have HBO GO and keep trying to watch the episodes on your computers instead of on your television sets.

Anyway, the internet has been fixed, they tell me, and "Two Swords" has come and gone.  How about Maisie and Rory?  Was that great, or what?



Of course, there were lots of other great stuff in the episode too.  (Yes, I know, I'm prejudiced).  Tyrion, Tywin, Jaime, Cersei, Shae, Sansa, Jon and Sam, the return of Ser Dontos, an amazing introduction of the Red Viper and his paramour.   But that last scene kicked ass.

Anyway, hope you all saw it, hope you all liked it.

(But no, please DON'T discuss it here, I prefer you take discussions, debates, recaps, and analysis to Westeros, Winter Is Coming, Tower of the Hand, or Television Without Pity).

Next week: "The Lion and the Rose."

Season Four...

... is almost at hand.

Tonight's the night.  Did I mention that?  Oh... I did...

 "Two Swords."  Episode one of season four, written and directed by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.  It's a helluva season episode.  I've seen it three times now, at various premieres, but I'm looking forward to seeing it a fourth time this evening.

 And next week, "The Lion and the Rose," the episode I scripted myself.  I haven't seen that one at all, but various folks I trust tell me it came at well, so I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself.

 Anyone doing anything special in the way of premiere parties?  We're partied out ourselves, after the New York, Brooklyn, and Santa Fe premieres, so we're staying home, gathering round the tube, and laying in some ribs and pulled pork and brisket from Whole Hog.

Cool Stuff at the Cocteau

The VERONICA MARS movie, famously funded by fans of the TV show via Kickstarter, will make its Santa Fe debut at the Jean Cocteau tomorrow.



The Cocteau bar will be introducing a special cocktail in honor of Ms. Mars -- the Marshmellow Hootch.

And on Monday evening, the latest in our series of author events -- CONNIE WILLIS will be coming to the Cocteau for an evening of conversation and booksigning.   Fans of SF and fantasy need no introduction to Connie, I trust.  She has won more Hugo and Nebula awards than any other author, living and dead, been a worldcon Guest of Honor, a worldcon Toastmaster and Hugo Emcee, and was recently named a Grandmaster by the SFWA.

See you at the movies.