Saturday, August 22, 2009

Cats and Dogs

Cat’s kits cast [say that 10 times fast]

As reported at GRRM’s Not a Blog, Catelyn's daughters Arya and Sansa Stark will be played by Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner.

Jay Tomio at BCS discusses the casting in his articles the Stark Girls of HBO’s A Game of Thrones and more A Game of Thrones casting

James Hibberd in his writings at The Hollywood Reporter HBO appoints subjects to 'Thrones' and HBO's 'Game of Thrones' casting news announces the daughters and other casting including Richard Madden as Stark's eldest son, Robb, mentioning ”HBO still has a few more roles to fill in the large ensemble cast of Thrones, one of the more buzzed-about titles on the network's development slate.”

Other news coverage of the casting:
SciFiWire
and
Bryant Griffin at airlockalpha

Bloggers weigh in too.
Seven actors for the Seven Kingdoms at the Wertzone
Heroine_tv
SciFi Stream
A Game of Thrones cast expands
Captain Elias at Superpowers That Be
Diana at Fire of Spring
Jace at Televisionary
Nix at SciFi Cool


In an Audio Interview linked from The Montreal Gazette piece by Matthew Surridge GRR Martin pronounces (sort of) on the HBO pilot & casting &writing the books.
The Cimmerian’s August 15th article addressing the interview, In Conversation with George R. R. Martin, points out
“Martin also discusses the much-speculated HBO pilot, and possibility of a series based on the septology, each 12-episode season based on a book. Already cast for the pilot is the inimitable Sean Bean as Eddard Stark, Peter Dinklage (who would make an excellent Count Volmana) as Tyrion Lannister, and Broadway thespian Jennifer Ehle as Katelyn Stark. Even with a several-year head start on the first four seasons, Martin definitely needs to get cracking on The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, and have them in bookstores on time for a series adaptation.”

Catching up with some discussion links from the past few days:

A Song of Ice and Fire thread at Chamber of Secret Forum includes commentary along the lines that Ms Ehle is not “snotty” enough or strong enough to play Catelyn … all based of course solely on Elizabeth Bennet (who could be pretty snotty herself, actually). I am Soooo looking forward to the day when the series airs and the doubters are proved wrong! I have no doubts.

Comments in the HBO to make A Song of Ice and Fire series Thread at NeoGAF are mixed but mostly very positive.

Tracey Steele blogged about the pilot & series in Casting Begins for HBO’s Game of Thrones Pilot

In an August 19th post at Planet Sillicon titled A Game of Thrones - The Cast that author, unlike some others, had no reservations about any Elizabeth Bennet carry-over, saying:
"Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark will work very well, even as Elizabeth Bennett in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice she had an austere coldness that I think will work wonders - now that she is older - as cold and hateful Catelyn."


Feeble Segue

To flagrantly and shamelessly extend the cat-dog metaphor, I offer: Definition of Fitch = poleCAT. And thank you Douglas Carter Beane for also writing a prize-winning play with Dog in the title so that I could have two reasons to stretch this oh-so-tenuous connection. I'm not sure whether it is irony or serendipity or something else, but how awesome for this blog is it that another of his plays has BEES in its title? It's as if we were designed for each other.


For up-to-date Mr. & Mrs. Fitch news, you’ll need these important links.

Second Stage Theater Home Page

Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Home Page at 2ST

(FYI, a valuable calendar to guide your planning.)

2ST has an interview with the author, TALKING WITH DOUGLAS CARTER BEANE in which he, among other things, verifies a Cole Porter connection.

More about Douglas Carter Beane.

DCB at Wikipedia

DCB in a December 2006 Video episode of American Theatre Wing’s Working in the Theatre.

A W Magazine article also leads to this W magazine interview from July 2009 in which Mr. Beane (I think that’s the last time I’ll write that; it makes me think too much of spray-painting a room by way of paint bomb) talks about M&MFitch & other things.


Meet his work.
Music from a sparkling planet at Google Books

As Bees in Honey Drown at Google Books

The Little Dog Laughed at Google Books

The Little Dog Laughed, the best known of his plays, will certainly be known to the dedicated followers of this blog who have vivid memories of the 2007 Tony Awards. It was nominated in the Best Play category (won by The Coast of Utopia). Julie White starred in it and won the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play the same glorious night that JE achieved BEST PERFORMANCE BY A FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY.

Last but not least, Robert Simonson at Playbill says of M&MFitch
“John Lithgow and Jennifer Ehle will sink their teeth into the no-doubt juicy title roles of the upcoming Second Stage Theater world premiere of Douglas Carter Beane's Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Off-Broadway. They will play married gossip columnists. Scott Ellis directs the work, which is scheduled to begin previews Jan. 26, 2010. This may become the first Off-Broadway play in some time to regularly appear in the city's gossip sheets.”



The past two weeks have been astounding and wonderful and unexpected. Some of us anticipated a longer hivernation. Instead we have cold-hateful-throatslit-Catelyn of a blood-thirsty warring world AND a comedic Mrs. Fitch of the modern celeb gossip world to look forward to. I love the contrast and the opportunity for her to display her awesome acting range.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks again for linking to my blog! Your site keeps on giving me traffic, which is much appreciated.

Also, what do you think of Catelyn Stark's character. I'm halfway through the first book and find her pretty cold and unlikeable. But I think that will give Ehle some awesome stuff to play. Plus, I'm sure that Catelyn will grow as I progress through the books.

Tracey Steele said...

Thanks very much for the mention. Your site is a very thorough roundup of news about Jennifer Ehle! I had never even considered Ms. Ehle when thinking of Catelyn's part, but as soon as I saw the announcement she seemed perfect. I'm looking forward with much enthusiasm to the pilot.

About Yea High said...

More GAME OF THRONES news!

Lena Headey was just cast as Queen Cersei Baratheon, a major foil for Catelyn Stark.

Yes, that's right, our heroine will be trading verbal parries with a woman who slew terminators.

Jennifer Ehle fans will probably recall Lena Headey also played opposite her in POSSESSION - she was Blanche Glover, her lesbian lover, in fact.

Now there's a switch.

Anonymous said...

Catelyn Stark isn't hateful--it's just annoying fanboys who think so. She's very compassionate and capable of putting herself in others' shoes. She's just not warm and fuzzy and 1950s-maternal. She's not Molly Weasley from the Harry Potter books, and I think a lot of fans expect her to be because she's a wife and mother. Instead, she's an aristocratic noblewoman who, while caring deeply about her family, is not gushy in her manner at all.

Tez said...

Thanks for the tip AYH! Been enjoying your comments at WiC/Westeros btw. Hurrah for crossover.

Cat and Molly share a few characteristics - they'd do anything to protect their kids for one. Can totally imagine Cat saying "not my daughter (/son), you bitch!" ;)

Does the cold/unlikable thing come from Cat's anti-Jon stance? I see that as a blind spot rather than an indication of her character as a whole.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Tez you're probably right. I definitely was swayed by Cat's poor treatment of Jon (whom I adore), but now that I've finished the entire book, I've warmed to her much more. I thought Cat was a very fascinating & well-drawn character from the beginning, but I just didn't find myself "liking" here--2 entirely different things. The first is much more important, and the second perhaps irrelevant.

Taranaich said...

Allow me to register my appreciation (and surprise) at seeing my post on The Cimmerian mentioned on your blog!

I'm quite excited to see how "A Game of Thrones" turns out, especially considering the very strong ensemble cast, and most especially yours truly. It's amusing to see the scepticism of those who've only seen P&P: I guess they aren't wholly aware of the concept of "Tony/Bafta Award Winning Actress".

Anyway, I'm pleased you liked the post, and hope you'll drop in on The Cimmerian from time to time.

acai berry said...

A Game of Thrones is the stunning first book of George R.R. Martin's new series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Now that this book is available in paperback, I predict that a huge number of people will turn on to this amazing fantasy epic.