Winter is Coming to Theaters
James Hibberd
A winner is coming:
Warner Bros. has been quietly developing at least one film set in George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy universe, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Multiple sources describe the project as very early stage development, with no filmmaker, cast or writer yet attached. But the company is keen on exploring the idea of Westeros invading cinemas.
The move might represent a shift in the company’s strategy regarding the property. The showrunners of the original Game of Thrones series (David Benioff and Dan Weiss) famously wanted to conclude the series with three feature films instead of its 2019 final season. Martin was also keen on the idea of a movie and the author told The Hollywood Reporter back in 2014 that concepts were being kicked around. But for a long time, HBO strongly resisted the idea and instead wanted to preserve the prestige series as an HBO property.
While I'm not sure three two-hour movies could have saved the final season – as that likely would have equated to roughly the same amount of actual screen time and if anything, they needed far more time so as not to rush through wrapping everything up, and really all the issues seemed to start before that as they outran the books content-wise – pushing things more cinematic clearly seems like the right call. As does being more fluid with distribution channels, something I've been writing about for years, with Game of Thrones being a key example.
Since the end of the original series, however, there have been countless changes to the company’s executive ranks (with HBO now headed by Casey Bloys and the film studio led by Mike DeLuca and Pam Abdy), as well with the film vs. TV landscape — including an increased willingness to shift cinematic properties to the small screen and back again. There has been Matt Reeves’ box office hit The Batman launching its acclaimed HBO spin-off The Penguin, Max’s upcoming Dune: Prophecy TV series following the success of Denis Villeneuve’s two films, HBO prepping a new take on J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels as a TV series, and Warner Bros. developing new Lord of the Rings movies even as Amazon unfurls its The Rings of Power TV show. In short: the idea that a genre property either needs to be a movie or TV show has become outdated, so it’s unsurprising that Thrones might be the next property to cross mediums.
Yes, Warner Bros Discovery/HBO clearly seems to get this strategy now. I worry that part of it is simply to push their IP as much as possible (a nice way of writing "exploit") but without question, The Penguin, is great. And Dune: Prophecy looks great (all the fingers crossed). There's no reason they shouldn't push the opposite direction, taking Thrones to cinemas. These mediums can help and fuel one another if leveraged correctly.
So what would a Thrones movie look like? Well, if we rule out a re-do of the last couple of seasons of the show – something I, and many would still like to see! – THR throws out the idea of an actual sequel to the events of the show. All of the other post-show content worked on to date has been prequels, so something with familiar characters could be interesting. There was one new Jon Snow project which seems to be no more, but perhaps a film could entice Kit Harington and company back to Westeros. I still like my ideas from April:
Anyway, with 'Snow' – the Jon Snow sequel's working title – now tabled, a couple ideas:
1. Let's give Jon Snow more room to breathe. Five years isn't far enough removed from that Game of Thrones ending. I'd be in favor of waiting something closer to twenty years. Harrington, then in his 50s, could play a sort of "Old Man Snow", which worked well for Wolverine and Batman in the past. Who wouldn't be in favor of a 'Logan'-style show (or movie) with Jon Snow now commemorating two decades at the Wall? Something stirs yonder. Yadda yadda.
2. While Harrington is still young, remake the last season of 'Game of Thrones'. Yes, some people want the last few seasons of the show remade, but I think it's more reasonable to re-do the last season (maybe the final episode of season 7 as well) and expand it over two new seasons. Get Martin himself to write it (writing scripts for a show should be decidedly more manageable than a sprawling conclusion of novels – and hearkens back to his early days of writing) and bring back the full cast.
I recognize the latter is a pipe dream at best, and blasphemy in Hollywood at worst. But in a world where we get not one, but two "Snyder Cuts" (or three: was the black & white version really necessary?) of Justice League, anything can happen. There is so much money to be made with this concept, and if there's one thing Warner Bros Discovery needs, it's money. Release it in theaters. Then put in on Max. It would be one of the biggest television events of all time.
The hold up with all of that may be George R. R. Margin himself, as we're now well over 13 years since he published A Dance with Dragons, the most recent "core" novel. Again, maybe working on a "simple" screenplay could coax him into action more than a massive novel. And while he'd undoubtedly want to finish said books before doing a screenplay for them, a sequel set after the events he already at least has the outline of in his head could work... Anything to avoid writing those books.
Another potential hold up: budget.