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WIRE Buzz: Game of Thrones prequel rolls cameras, Nickelodeon orders space series
That mysterious Game of Thrones prequel, a scripted sci-fi series from Nickelodeon and Ron Howard, and the long-awaited return of a horror vet. We've got all that and more in this latest edition of WIRE Buzz!
The much-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series has finally commenced principal photography in Northern Ireland, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed. The location is a familiar one to HBO, which housed its main production headquarters there for all eight seasons of Thrones, which ended forever last month.
Co-created by frequent Matthew Vaughn collaborator Jane Goldman and Thrones author George R.R. Martin, the currently untitled show will take place thousands of years before the events of the recently concluded series. The plot is said to be set during the era of The Long Night when the First Men and Children of the Forest first fought the White Walkers and built the Wall.
Goldman is also writing and showrunning.
“Westeros is a very different place,” Martin told EW last November. “There’s no King’s Landing. There’s no Iron Throne. There are no Targaryens — Valyria has hardly begun to rise yet with its dragons and the great empire that it built. We’re dealing with a different and older world and hopefully that will be part of the fun of the series.”
Naomi Watts is leading a cast that includes Miranda Richardson, Georgie Henley, Marquis Rodriguez, Jamie Campbell Bower, John Heffernan, and Naomi Ackie, among others.
S.J. Clarkson (Jessica Jones, Defenders, Star Trek 4) is directing. Based on comments written by Martin in early May, two other spinoffs and/or prequels may still be on the way.
All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are now streaming on HBO's various platforms.
Nickelodeon is developing a scripted series set in outer space alongside the kid/family division of Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment, Variety reports.
Currently without a title, the show begins with a spaceship about to transport a group of the planet's best scientists into the atmosphere to investigate a mysterious asteroid. This doesn't pan out well when a group of kids accidentally blast off after a dare gone wrong. Using only their smarts and their friendship, the kids survive the best they can as their parents guide them along to safety from back on the ground.
Howard and Grazer will produce the series with Daniel Knauf (The Blacklist, Dracula) serving as writer, producer, and showrunner.
This week, IFC Films broke the locks on the first trailer for Trespassers, a home-invasion horror-thriller that may remind genre fans of 2008's The Strangers.
Written by Corey Deshon and directed by Orson Oblowitz, the film centers on a weekend getaway for a group of friends that turns deadly when a strange woman (Fairuza Balk) shows up with a phony story of car troubles. What makes the feature so noteworthy is that it marks Balk's return to the horror genre for the first time in over 20 years since the release of 1996's The Craft.
Watch the trailer:
Judging by this sneak peek, it looks like the movie will utilize moments of dark comedy to cut through the more graphic and unsettling parts of the story. Janel Parrish, Zach Avery, Angela Trimbur, and Jonathan Howard make up the rest of the cast.
Trespassers breaks into theaters (for a limited release) and onto VOD on July 12.
