George R.R. Martin is beefing with HBO over the title of the Game Of Thrones prequel
HBO doesn’t really need George R.R. Martin anymore, do they? Like, Game Of Thrones is wrapping up early next year and Martin himself has admitted that he’s not all that involved in its spin-offs. What the author has created is now its own self-sustaining engine, one that will continue to chug along whether he finishes A Song Of Ice And Fire or not.
As such, he should have the time to finish its next volume, The Winds Of Winter. Instead, he’s back on his blog, getting the back of his hand smacked for sharing things he’s not supposed to about Jane Goldman’s upcoming prequel series. In a post last week (via Esquire), Martin definitively called it The Long Night, a title he’d hinted at in the past. This week, he returned to his blog, hat in hand, to apologize for spoiling the title.
“HBO has informed me that the Jane Goldman pilot is not (yet) titled THE LONG NIGHT,” he wrote. “That’s is certainly the title I prefer, but for the moment the pilot is still officially UNTITLED. So… mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.”
He sounds a little salty about it all, too, clearly annoyed at his inability to discuss just about any detail of the world he’s created. “Elsewise, the pilot is coming along well, with casting falling into place. I could tell you more, but I am not supposed to. We also have a couple of other successor shows still in development, but I cannot tell you about those either. Sorry. And some exciting things are happening with the Wild Cards television series, but I can’t talk about those.”
And then, in mentioning his work on Winds and other projects, he sounds, well, a little sad. “Believe it or not, I am working hard on a lot of things (yes, including WINDS), even though I am not allowed to talk about most of them. Eventually, I hope, you’ll all be able to enjoy the fruits of my labors. I hope…”
As Martin spirals into despair in between episodes of The Big Bang Theory, we’ll continue to watch for The Long Ni—sorry, Untitled updates. So far, Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehouse have joined the cast, with production slated to begin around the same time Game Of Thrones takes its bloody bow.