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Web exclusive: Game of Thrones co-creator on gaining George R.R. Martin's trust
It wasn't a simple task for George R.R. Martin to trust David Benioff and his fellow executive producer D.B Weiss with his masterwork "Game of Thrones." Benioff recalls the day they called the writer, and tried to get him on board him.
"We thought this was going to be a very tough sell, because we said, 'We love your books. We would love to adapt them. We don't think they can be movies,' " Benioff said. " 'We think maybe it can be an HBO series.' And we're waiting to hear the click, because, you know, there's just less money and for a novelist, it's less money in letting your book get optioned by HBO versus a movie studio."
But Martin was receptive to the idea.
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national lead
Newtown victim’s father: ‘I don’t think people have forgotten’
Though many memories fade with time, how could Neil Heslin forget the tragedy of December 14, when his 6-year-old son and 19 other classmates were massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
It was the killing of those 20 students and six adults in their classrooms by a well-armed gunman who also killed his mother and himself that shocked the nation, and led President Barack Obama to call for a ban on assault weapons, outlawing high-capacity gun magazines and background checks on all gun sales, among other measures. Others feel such legislation would run afoul of the Second Amendment.
“I’m in favor of the Second Amendment,” Heslin said, but the restrictions he supports are “about weapons of war that don’t belong on the streets, they don’t belong in our schools."
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pop lead
Game of Thrones co-creator: High drama, bigger dragons in upcoming season
"When you play the game of thrones, you either win, or you die," Cersei Lannister says to Eddard Stark in the HBO series "Game of Thrones."
Truer words were never spoken about a television show, and if you haven't seen it yet, prepare to accept your fate. The team behind "Game of Thrones" has brought more than severed heads to HBO, their series also delivered nearly 4 million pairs of eyes an episode last season.
When it comes to the sprawling, intricately plotted series about the struggle for the fantasy Kingdom of Westeros - no one is safe. So what can fans expect this season?
"This is a big season of reversals and high drama and big dragons, bigger dragons," says co-creator David Benioff.
The hit show is back for season three - with its flow-chart worthy cast of characters - the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens - all of them jockeying for the Iron Throne.
For the uninitiated, "Game of Thrones" is one of the most critically acclaimed and most expensive shows on television - exploring a medieval alternate universe where there is some magic and some make believe. But the show is not about the magic, it's about power.
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world lead
Pope and change: New pope bucking tradition
Today is Holy Thursday, the day when Christians around the world remember the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples. In Rome the newly installed Pope Francis has already started changes to the papacy by interacting more with his flock.
Call it Pope and change. Today in Rome, instead of delivering mass to a packed cathedral, new Pope Francis went to prison, getting on his knees to wash the feet of 12 out of nearly 50 inmates of a juvenile detention center, commemorating the act of Jesus washing his disciples' feet
The images today are intended to signal how Francis is mixing things up at the Vatican by putting the poor front and center, and by pursuing more modest trappings.
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money lead
Spring break: Boom or Bust?
Spring break has been celebrated on MTV, captured on "Girls Gone Wild," and immortalized by Van Halen. A study detailed in The Atlantic by Derek Thompson traces the ritual of spring breaking back to ancient Greece. There's always been drinking, dancing, general revelry - but not a whole lot of luxury.
"Basically the Greeks would do something not so dissimilar from today's; they would gather, they would sing, they would dance, they would actually have drinking competitions," says Derek Thompson, business editor with The Atlantic. "They would drink with cheap wine, we now drink with cheap beer. They used terracotta pots while we used red plastic cups. But essentially, thematically it was the exact same."
In this century, you'd think the booze-fueled debauchery would bring in big bucks to the towns where college students GO when they put aside their books for a week of fun and sun.
But you'd be wrong.
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