Written Interview: George R.R. Martin

Nice interview with George R.R. Martin about “Game of Thrones”:

The Geek: So, you happy with the TV series?

Martin: Oh yes, I love the TV series. I’ve been involved since the beginning. I’m an executive producer on it. And I write one script per season, so my involvement has been very active. Not like many novelists who simply sell the rights and then take a hands-off role. I’ve been intimately involved in the casting and of course I’ve written my own scripts. I talk constantly with David and Dan the executive producers and show runners. They’ve done an amazing job and stayed very faithful to the story. There’ve been some changes, but that’s inevitable on a project like this. It’s been a great ride so far and I hope it will continue for many years to come

The Geek: Did you always want to be involved, given that most writers don’t?

Martin: Well I have done a lot of work in Hollywood myself. I worked in television for roughly 10 years, from the mid-80s to mid 90s. And I was on staff at a couple of shows. I did some feature films, including originals and adaptations. So I knew the process from both sides, and yes, I wanted some involvement. I knew I could not be heavily involved, because I still have more books to write. And the books are long and daunting and time-consuming. There was no way I could join the staff as a full-time member. But I didn’t want to just take a cheque and walk away either. For me it’s worked out to be a perfect situation.

The Geek: Does adapting the story for the screen make you see it in different ways?

Martin: (long pause) Well you have to think about different issues. Thankfully most of its been done by Benioff and Weiss. They’re the ones who face the challenge of adapting it. The books were written, starting in the early 90s, and almost as a reaction to my 10 years in film. My scripts were repeatedly–all my first drafts anyway — long and too expensive. I was always having to deal with the fact that on the budgets we had we couldn’t possibly produce everything I put in the scripts. So I would combine characters, delete scenes, cut down the battles and so on, but I preferred my first drafts which had so much more good stuff in them before I have to start taking the practicalities of budgets and production into account.

So I write the books, limited only by imagination. Even David and Dan face the challenge of how they can possibly do this on a budget within the shooting schedule. Although we have a generous budget for a television show, it’s still a television budget. It’s not even close to what the feature budget would be, but on the other hand we have considerably more time.

For the rest of the interview, go here.