HBO teased a fifteen-second clip of its upcoming George R.R. Martin series Game of Thrones to critics on the final day of the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.At the executive session earlier this afternoon, the pay cabler declined to name an exact launch date for Game of Thrones but indicated that it would premiere in Spring 2011, possibly as early as March.
"It's about a quest for power and a quest for the kingdom," said Michael Lombardo, HBO president of programming, about the series, which is based on Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.
"It was an easy answer," said Richard Plepler about picking up the project to series, considering it's a genre that HBO isn't typically known for and which isn't usually a favorite of Plepler or Lombardo. "It wasn't the genre that we responded to, it was the storytelling," he continued.
In other HBO-related news:
- True Blood: Alan Ball's involvement in upcoming drama pilot All Signs of Death will not affect his role running True Blood. (Not that I ever thought it would.)
- Eastbound and Down: Season Two of Eastbound and Down seems like it's heading to Mexico...
- No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: "We are talking to our friends at the Weinstein Company to do two movies." Project won't come back as a series but may be resurrected as a series of TV movies, if deals can be made and scheduling go through. [Editor: fingers crossed.]
- Mildred Pierce: The five-hour Mildred Pierce miniseries, which stars Kate Winslet, Evan Rachel Wood, and Guy Pearce, is based on the book rather than the film itself. There are narrative and stylistic differences.
- Curb Your Enthusiasm: "Whatever Larry David is happy to keep doing, we're happy to keep doing with Larry David," said Plepler. They're taking Curb season by season. But the upcoming season--filming in New York and airing in 2011--needn't be the final run.
- Entourage: Entourage will end after next season, which will likely be six episodes long. It may then segue into a film.
Stay tuned.
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