Saturday, June 23, 2018
Reports from the GRRM moot
Reports from the GRRM moot
Ill be posting the reports and photos from the post-singing moot yesterday. I expect these reports to trickle in as everyone wakes up and tries to get rid of their hangover! The first report we got was from Silverstar.
A bleary good morning from me. No proper report as Ive just woken up and am drinking my first coffee of the day, but a quick stop by!
The moot was absolutely awesome. I overuse that word, but it was. Richard, Ron, Esme, Maisie and Sophie showed up, and happily mingled with us for ages. Julia also turned up, and was one of the last to leave.
I spent a lot of time chatting to Maisie and Sophies mums, who are very lovely (hello Maisies mum! hello Sophies mum! I know youre reading this!). Maisie and Sophie actually act like sisters, and get on so well - absolutely adorable. Richard came up to them as they were leaving to say goodbye to his little sisters. Also very cute!
Esme is gorgeous, very tall, and makes me look like a dumpy dwarf in the photo I have of me with her.
Richard ... is going to have half the female population swooning after him. Lovely, lovely guy, and I have photos of me with him first! So theyre going in the safe for boasting purposes once hes a huge star.
Ron is just a sweetheart. Chatted to us for ages about GoT, and about other work hes done. Hes so enthusiastic about it all.
In fact, all the cast are just wonderful. Really friendly, really enthusiastic, and seem appreciative of us all. I think most of them werent quite sure what to expect from us lot, but I think we behaved ourselves and left a good impression. Theyre all honourary BwB members now, whether they like it or not! And we didnt need to mention WiC to them, really. They already know about us, and at least some of them have been checking this place out.
Didnt actually find out much real info about the shoot at all, because we were having far too good a time just getting to know everyone. Sorry!
More later, with pics, when Im awake.
UPDATE: Silverstar follows up her report with an answer to a question about who seemed the most comfortable to be mingling with the fans.
They all seemed pretty much at ease, to be honest. Id say Kit was probably the least comfortable yesterday, but I think he was completely exhausted after some really long shooting days this week. Really sweet for him to show up at all, really. Alfie was lovely, but didnt make it to the moot as he apparently was hungover, from what I was told. Rory McCann stopped by at the signing very, very briefly, but I totally missed that he was there, unfortunately. Richard, Ron, Maisie and Sophie were all massively friendly and lovely.
On the question of which actors have read the books, Silverstar has this to say.
Maisie and Sophies parents are reading the books, and giving them a summarised version, apparently. Maisies stepdad has read all of them, and both their mums are somewhere around ACoK, from what I recall.
Ron devoured all four within a month and is waiting impatiently for ADwD along with the rest of us now. He thinks theyre wonderful.
Kit I think is up to AFFC. Alfie is starting ACoK. Cant remember about Richard, but hed definitely read at least AGoT.
UPDATE: Adam Whitehead checks in with a detailed report from the moot last night.
One slightly "Huh?" moment that got lost in the mix was George cautioning that its just a pilot so it might not get picked up, but then he said it might get a one-season order or it might get a two-season order! He didnt say any more about that (presumably miniscule and highly unlikely) possibility though. He also wouldnt be drawn on what will happen in Season 4 with the split AFFC/ADWD situation, other than theyll deal with that closer to the time.
Richard, Alfie and Kit at the signing were talking about the wolf pups and saying how cute they were. The girls seemed disappointed they hadnt gotten to see the pups (no scenes in the pilot with Sansa, Arya and their wolves, as we had already surmised) but were looking forward to it in the series itself.
For inevitable ADWD questions, GRRM repeated that he had over 1100 MS pages but more were needed. He hoped not too much more and was very happy with the progress hed made over the last few months. He confirmed that part of the Meereenese Knot is related to the timeline of events of people showing up and departing in the right place to track with the other books, but its all coming together. He also said that Star-Crossed Lovers was going to be a straight mix of fantasy stories with a romantic element to them, whilst Warriors was much more mixed genre, which apparently the American publishers really like and British publishers seem more concerned by, but hes hopeful for a British deal for Warriors soon.
The party! About 20-odd people gathered at McHughes early for food before heading down to the cellar bar, which was quite big and nicely laid out, even though the bemusingly ecelectic music selection (going from Country to Hard Rock to Pop to 1980s Electro with little rhyme or reason) was a bit loud until we got them to turn it off. George and Parris turned up, followed by Maisie, Sophie and assorted family members. The girls ended up working the room like seasoned actors, talking to different fans, posing for photos and chatting to George. Their mums, who were awesome, talked about the books (theyre on Book 2 and seemed to think my proposal of Keith Allen for Balon had merit; I bottled out of asking Alfie earlier at the signing his opinion!), the fandom and so on.
Then Richard Madden, Esme Bianco and Ron Donachie arrived. Esme hadnt been at the signing so was immediately surrounded by fans asking if she could add her autograph to the others in the book. She seemed chuffed with the attention and chatted to people happily, name-checking Paul Gude when I mentioned I was a poster on WiC as well. A couple of American fans werent sure who she was playing so Esme (having to talk carefully as Sophie and Maisie were around) came up with the phrase that Tyrion needed a more HBO introduction in the series, so that scene had been written. Everyone got what that meant.
Ron was 150% pure cool. Laidback, happy to chat about this project and other things he had done. He recounted filming Titanic and when they were overrunning on the scenes with everyone in the water James Cameron just grabbed a camera and waded straight out into the water to get the shots needed before the sun came up. He also turned out to be a Jets fan and had previously read Fevre Dream many years ago, but hadnt realised it was the same writer until a few days earlier. George and Ron then talked American football for a bit, before Jackie/JacMac came over and it turned out she and Ron had gone to the same school (at different times). For such an experienced actor, he seemed to be really into the fans and their excitement for the series. When asked if he knew what happened to his character he replied yes, but two seasons was a good innings and hed be happy to stay for the duration.
Romulocks proposed to his +1 halfway through the night (she said yes) and there was much drinking in celebration of that. The cast and families thought that was cool and were impressed when we told them the number of board hook-ups, marriages and babies born as a result thereof was quite high. George urged them not to have a Red Wedding-themed marriage.
Maisie got to say "Stick them with the pointy end!" Shed been informed this was a key Arya line. I think Sergio said on WiC that he thought she was too cute to play Arya and I have to say thats dead wrong. She was a sweet girl but when she was ribbing Alfie at the signing and when she was talking seriously about her character, you could see she had all the determination that Arya needs in her role. Sophies mum said that when Sophie and Jennifer Ehle was standing next to one another with their hair done up they looked very much like mother and daughter and looked great. Sophie was very confident, seemed to enjoy the attention and talking to fans about her character.
On a more serious note, some people involved in the production had seen the negative comments about Tamzin Merchant and let it be known they were not impressed. Whilst Danys scenes are being filmed separately, most of those present had met Tamzin and the rest of the Pentos gang at the read-through, and were impressed with her performance and her getting the role from the books dead-on.
After hearing Ron and Parris chatting about Georges books, it turned out to be time for the Maisie, Sophie and families to leave (early call in the morning, plus the pub had a policy of asking children to leave before 8pm, which was missed by a bit). Richard came over to give his sisters a goodbye hug, which caused collective swooning from most of the female population present. We had to revive a certain other forum member present (cough) with gin after that. I also got a great photo of the girls with Esme, which Ill put up later tonight (no public Internet computer in Northern Ireland has a photo slot, apparently). I also got some great pics of GRRM with Richard, including one with Richard looking a bit serious which could be great with a caption: "So George, my agent said Im not needed for Season 4..." "Ah..." (He knows what happens to his character, btw).
Shortly after that most of the cast had to leave for their 5am calls and the evening seemed to be winding down when Julia Frey arrived. Immediately she was a big hit and regaled us with stories of working on Alien 3 and other projects, although was a bit more circumspect about the current project. We tried a few questions about if the pilot would have finished visual FX or just animatics and what was going on with a composer and got some excellently non-committal answers ("Thats an interesting idea," "Could well be...but it might not,"). Julia has a great poker face and didnt give anything away. She also gave Paul Gude a shout-out. After stopping for pictures, she left and the evening wound down with us heading back to the hostel and collectively passing out.
FIN.
UPDATE: Silverstar has been kind enough to upload some photos from both the signing and moot. You can view them in the comments below and over here at the Westeros forums.
UPDATE: Westeros poster Shaun Snow has given his report of the get-together last night.
It was a good day, very cool of the cast members to hang out with us. I sat at a table with mostly females, and if the constant "Isnt he cute, isnt he giggly, isnt he nice, isnt he hot" was anything to go by, Richard Madden is going to be a big hit as Robb. Heh.
The girls playing Sansa and Arya were really cute, seemingly joined at the hip very much unlike their book counterparts. You would never think Sophie Turner was 13 to look at her, shes crazy tall and very pretty. Maise Williams was particularly likeable, precocious and chatty and I think will make a great Arya. At one point I heard Sophie teased about how shed need to practice crying alot for playing Sansa, unlike Maise, who then piped up that she thought Arya was crying on the inside, which I thought was a nice little insight from her.
George was great, but that goes without saying. I didnt speak to him much but thats par for the course from me alas.
Finally a special shout out to the six and a half foot German guy, Alex, who came all the way to Belfast by way of Dublin on his lonesome for the signing and moot. He spoke, what seemed to me, perfectly legible English but was quite obviously having a hard time understanding all the crazy accents we were speaking in. I ran into him again the next morning on his way to catch a train. I hope he made it home safely. Obviously a big, and dedicated, fan.
UPDATE: Nice report can be found at the Silver Oak blog, including an interesting tidbit about GRRM mentioning the inspiration for the weirwood trees.
UPDATE: Jackie posted her report over at the Westeros forums. And you can find her excellent photos from the signing and moot here.
UPDATE: Rimshot gives his take on the moot in the comments here on WiC. Here is what he had to say.
[1] The Moot
(please accept my apologies if I get names/aliases wrong. I am useless remembering names!)
So, after work I headed for McHughs. I was quite worried that everything was going to be ok as I really wanted it to be a good night for everyone. One thing I had asked was for signs to point towards the room. I was particularly anxious that they get the 2 Rs right as in GRRM and Friends. So I rang McHughs the previous day to go over all the arrangements. "Can you make sure that the sign has 2 Rs in the name? I asked. "Yes, Ive got that", they replied. And, when I turned up, I was glad to see that, indeed, there were 2 Rs in the sign, which read GRRF and Friends. AGGHHH!!
Anyway, to try and forget the signs, I went and had an excellent burger and chips. There were other moot people there (sounds like something from a H.G. Wells novel!) but I didnt introduce myself as it felt a bit weird.
After that, I headed downstairs. I noticed GRRM and Parris where still upstairs eating but I decided to leave them alone to enjoy a bit of peace and quiet as there would be little of that later!
Downstairs I headed for the bar and was pleased to see a good number of people there. I met Speculator (thats his IMDB name, I cant remember his WiC name!) and got chatting. I was looking around trying to figure out who was who. We went and sat with The Pink Haired Lady and the three-prong bearded gentleman. I really didnt know anyone and I was worried about fitting in as I hadnt read the books. But those worries were short lived as we got chatting and I immediately felt at home.
I must admit I felt like a minor-celeb as all of a sudden, several people came over to introduce themselves to me. I had alot of so youre Rimshot! all night and it was fun! Ace Jones and his girlfriend joined us at the table and the banter was fantastic. Romolocks and his lovely girlfriend (who was about to become his fiancee!) introduced themselves. I also met JacMac30, Werthead and of course, Silverstar!
I started to relax as it was evident that people were having a good time. Then, something I wasnt expecting to happen. GRRM got up and gave a wee speech and also introduced the cast members in attendance. At the most, I was hoping for 1 or maybe 2 members of the cast so to have 5 was amazing! George talked about the next book, the show etc (all of which has been documented here already).
He then sat at our table! We were like kids in a toy shop having such access to the main man and he was more than happy to answer our questions. He talked about how he needed a full day with no interruptions to write (in his words, he said that if he had a dental appointment a 4pm and tried to start writing in the morning, he couldnt do it because he knew this damn appointment was getting closer!). He also said how the Weirwood trees were inspired by tress in Australia but he made then white so that the contrast so the red sap would be more dramatic. Also how he almost died trying to climb Ayers rock! He enjoyed chatting about sports with Ace Jones and when I asked him if he was happy with what he saw on set so far, he said it was all going very well. I also joked with him that, in the next book, he should open it with The pink haired lady sat on her destrier, scanning the horizon for signs of life when she saw the one she had looked for all these long years; the man with the three pronged beard. so our friends at the table could get parts in the HBO show! :)
I had a great chat with someone from the Sean Bean online site (sorry! cant remember your name) who was there to report any sightings. Sadly, Mr Bean wasnt there.
The raffle was a great success (even though I didnt win anything) :(
The night went on and photos were being taken all over the place. I didnt send any photos from my iphone as it was too dark for the iphone camera. Everyone was getting great access to GRRM and the actors and the atmosphere was really good. I think at this point I thought that we had pulled it off! I joked with the others that this was the first Annual Belfast moot but, you know, I would be up for doing it again next year!
I spoke to loads of other people (but didnt get many photos taken) but at 10pm it was time to leave as I had to be at the Painthall to be
picked up at 6:15am (thankfully it was put back as they had filmed late the night before). So I said my goodbyes to Ace, Silverstar, Wert, GRRM, Parris etc and I walked into the night. Just before I headed off, I looked at McHughs and thought mission accomplished We did good!
UPDATE: Another report, this one comes from Lady Jane, a member of the Sean Bean Online forums.
