Game of Thrones creating media buzz

It seems like Game of Thrones is one of this year's most anticipated projects  not only by the fans of the books series (and Lenaholics too!), but also by tv critics, as it's the pilot they're mostly looking forward to seeing. The Winter is Coming Blog and the Game of Thrones website report a number of articles where the series is mentioned. Check them out!

Let's start our 'press review' with MSN Canada that mentions Lena as the big-name actor with the lead role in the pilot :)

There are already two blogs devoted to following the casting and Northern Ireland location shoot of this series' pilot episode, which HBO hasn't yet confirmed will air. The reason for the feverish fan interest? The series is an adaptation of the first novel in George R.R. Martin's beloved fantasy series that uses knights, tournaments, creatures and icy locations in the service of telling human stories where villains aren't always the bad guys and where the honourable solution isn't always the best one in the long run. (Thanks to Time Magazine and the Chicago Tribune for these observations.) Lena Headey from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles will play a royal woman who's as cunning as the men around her. Peter Dinklage, Sean Bean, Jennifer Ehle and Mark Addy costar. With any luck, HBO will green light enough games to take us through all the novels in Martin's saga. 

Entertainment Weekly gives some information about Game of Thrones underlining the buzz that this project is already creating and naming Lena along with Sean Bean as the main stars:

Meanwhile, HBO—which, like EW, is owned by Time Warner—is generating heat for a pilot it hasn’t even picked up yet: the network’s adaptation of the fantasy book A Game of Thrones, starring Sean Bean and Lena Headey. Filmed entirely on location in Ireland and Morocco, Thrones supposedly boasts a budget that rivals that of the famously lavish Rome, but HBO co-chairman Michael Lombardo is quick to point out that all the network’s shows have to meet high expectations—especially in light of stiff competition from the likes of Showtime and USA. “We are taking shots at shows that we wouldn’t have taken a shot at five years ago,” says Lombardo, who, with co-chairman Richard Plelper and entertainment president Sue Naegle, has developed an unprecedented number of pilots. “We opened our arms and invited people to come in and pitch things even if they didn’t think it was HBO. We stopped second-guessing ourselves.

And also EW's critic Ken Tucker talks about GoT here.

James Poniewozik, critic from Time, lists GoT as one of the new projects he's looking forward to and anticipates 2011 as the possible air date if it gets picked up:

Game of Thrones. OK, we don't know if this show will exist, and if it ever does, it may not see air until 2011. But the new year should at least finally bring word as to whether the much-buzzed-about HBO pilot for George R. R. Martin's grown-up fantasy saga will become a series. (Who knows?)

And finally two more mentions, where the writers of the articles show a high level of confindence that the pilot will be picked up :)

Broadcasting and cable:

Post-True Blood, the premium cable networks suddenly have a thirst for geek-friendly fare, exploring genres that otherwise may have been left to Syfy. HBO is producing a 60-minute pilot for Game of Thrones, based on the A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels of George R.R. Martin. The expensive pilot garnered buzz at Comic-Con and online, with many industry observers expecting a series pickup shortly after the pilot gets delivered early this year.

And TV guide Canada also giving some insight into the production:

HBO commissioned a pilot of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series (titled Game of Thrones), but only a pilot. The cabler will see how that looks before making any further decisions, but the industry feeling is that it really needs to screw the pilot up for there not to be any more episodes. From what I understand, the actual series will follow three storylines and remain fairly faithful to the books, which ideally would be one covered per season.

This one has been in production for quite some time, and was put on hold during the Writers Guild of America strike of 2007. Watch for a decision to be made early next year, most likely by the spring.

There's also a brief mention on The Hollywood Reporter that talks about all the pilots  commissioned by HBO this year. I wonder if those other projects are to be considered as a competition for GoT or they can all coexist on the network... two more months to go until we find out for certain, keep your fingers crossed for our lovely Lena!