Oscar Watch

I thought he played a good Elf though. Legolas wasn't exactly well drawn in the books.

Yeah, it went to American Sniper.  And with that, The Hobbit trilogy is in the books as far as awards go.

Spoiler:

Mrs Figg wrote:''a scifi with distant buildings, ships taking of for landing,or in fantasy distant mountains, castles, cities ect- when its does it that way, in much the way classic matte painting was used I think it can be photo-realistic, but when its done like TH was it does not look at all realistic.'' Petty

GOT is proof of that.  its got the right balance, real stuff in the foreground, cgi in the distance.

Game of Thrones looks really good. That's true

I wonder when that show is coming back on. I remember hearing about how the show has caught up to the books so I'm not sure what they're doing now.

Game of Thrones season 5 starts on April 12.  There's a bunch of us eagerly waiting for that in the GOT and ASOIAF threads over in the Arts and Entertainment forum.

This is going to be the last season with any substantial storylines being adapted from currently published books, unless George RR Martin delivers the sixth book in less than 12 months, but even then, the scripts for season six will have been written before the book comes out.  From what has leaked out about S5, the show appears to be taking greater liberties with the source material then before.  The showrunners have been briefed by GRRM about his plan for the ultimate ending of the series, but it's only a broad strokes vision and the show will likely take a significantly different path to get there than the last few books will.

Well that has me conflicted now. On the one hand, I want more Game of Thrones. On the other though, if that's coming at the cost of fidelity to the source material I wonder if the quality will be there too. I never read Game of Thrones, but I can respect the reservations those who have might hold.

The fourth and fifth ASOIAF books were a big step down in quality, in part because of how slow paced they were, so I think the show has a chance to improve on the originals here. I stress the phrase "a chance" because it's quite possible it'll end up nonsensical, but I'm not ready to write this off as a failed experiment. The show is definitely going to finish years ahead of the show, though, so we'll have to wait a long time to learn just how faithful they are. And even then we might not know because GRRM's plan could well change between now and when actually writes the final book.

Part of me is disappointed that the end of a story that I started reading in print is going to come in TV form, but on the other hand, it's nice to be able to be confident that the show will actually conclude. I'm excited to see how it turns out though. This is the season I've been eager to see since the show began.

New material not covered in the books so far will mostly start to appear next year, not this I think. And by that time George might very well have the next book out. (Here's hoping anyway.) But it's becoming pretty clear that the show will finish before the book series.

I'm a bit hesitant at that, as I feel they've dropped the ball a bit with some of the storylines they've been adapting from already published material. How will they fare then when they only have basic plot points to go off? The same probably.

It will be interesting to see how people react to this season, seeing as the material they are adapting, as Eldo says, for good and bad is a lot slower in pace.

Still, it's good to remember, as George said, that the series is the series and the books are the books. Eventually we will have both and can judge for ourselves. And it strikes me with these large fantasy series that the journey is often as interesting as the conclusion, which often is quite formulaic. A final battle betwen good and evil. How many ways can it end really?

I've found that the script writing is better when Benioff is doing the adaptation than when George does. So I for one feel the show has a chance of being better than the books. But I wonder if George will wall himself off to keep his writing from being contaminated. With two books to go that will be nearly impossible.

List of winners.

http://oscar.go.com/nominees

I really want to see The Theory of Everything.

At least George and the writing team seem to be in communication and have a good relationship, so things can be planned out and differences discussed, I am sure they have mutual respect.

Eldorion wrote:Yeah, it went to American Sniper.  And with that, The Hobbit trilogy is in the books as far as awards go.

Spoiler:

I thought Birdman won?

fake edit. oh you mean sound editing

Birdman won Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, and Cinematography!

I really want to see Whiplash.

Commence the butthurt!

http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/gforum/perl/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_threaded;post=838685;sb=post_time;so=DESC;guest=132712244



Well, most of the posts seem pretty reasonable and sober.

bungobaggins wrote:Commence the butthurt!

http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/gforum/perl/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_threaded;post=838685;sb=post_time;so=DESC;guest=132712244



Well, most of the posts seem pretty reasonable and sober.

pity I cant read the butthurt.

Mrs Figg wrote:At least George and the writing team seem to be in communication and have a good relationship, so things can be planned out and differences discussed, I am sure they have mutual respect.

from my understanding doesn't Martin help with the script writing? I could be wrong but I thought in the past he was involved in that aspect of the show. So if that's the case I'm sure we have nothing to worry about.

I think they pass everything by him for approval before they do anything drastic.

Mrs Figg wrote: I think they pass everything by him for approval before they do anything drastic.

That's sorta what I heard too

I don't recall having heard anything like that.  GRRM has expressed his dissatisfaction with a number of changes in the show, though that apparently hasn't stopped him from having a working relationship with the showrunners and contributing a script a season.  I can't imagine HBO having agreed to give GRRM veto power over the show either when they were negotiating things back in 2006-07.

Eldorion wrote:I don't recall having heard anything like that.  GRRM has expressed his dissatisfaction with a number of changes in the show, though that apparently hasn't stopped him from having a working relationship with the showrunners and contributing a script a season.  I can't imagine HBO having agreed to give GRRM veto power over the show either when they were negotiating things back in 2006-07.

I don't think he has "veto power" but probably helps comes up with a solution to ideas he drastically disapproves of. I know he has stated that the books and the show may take drastically different paths now that some characters are caught up with their book counterparts

They clearly have an amicable working relationship, disagreements and all. I think he's better at coming up with stories but they're better at writing scripts (despite his being an experienced script writer) so things work out fine.

halfwise wrote:They clearly have an amicable working relationship, disagreements and all.  I think he's better at coming up with stories but they're better at writing scripts (despite his being an experienced script writer) so things work out fine.

Completely agree Halfy

Obviously there are staff writers and script polishes and the like but I liked the GRRM-scripted episodes in S2 and S3 (can't remember enough about his first season one). Apparently the script he wrote for S4 was split over two episodes due to some structural changes made late in the game.

I'm sure the screen writers are in on the direction of the new book so it will at least mesh with the show a little. I'm sure what they do wont effect Martin or the story in the next book but I think Martin would at least cue the screenwriters in on the direction the next book is going so the show would stay a bit on track

Still haven't got round to watching the show, I don't watch that much TV and I usually prefer to read the source material first (I like having my own imagery of the 'true' story first rather than seeing someones else's interpretation of things) however if things are going to be that different I might end up giving in at some point (I usually marathon TV series a season or two at a time, hate waiting...)...