Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is an American medieval fantasy television series created for HBO by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin's series of fantasy novels, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones. The series's cast is mostly British and Irish. It is filmed at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast, as well as on location elsewhere in Northern Ireland, Malta, Croatia, Iceland, and Morocco.

The first season debuted in the U.S. on April 17, 2011. Two days later, it was picked up for a second season, which began airing on April 1, 2012. Nine days after that, it was picked up for a third season.

Highly anticipated since its early stages of development, Game of Thrones has been very well received by viewers and critics. Season 1 was nominated for or won numerous awards, including Outstanding Drama Series for the Emmy Awards and Best Television Series – Drama at the 69th Golden Globe Awards. As Tyrion Lannister, Peter Dinklage won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

Plot
The cable television series closely follows the multiple storylines of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and author Martin has stated that the show's pilot script was very faithful to his work.Set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, Game of Thrones chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among the kingdom's noble families for control of the Iron Throne; as the series opens, additional threats from the snow and ice covered region north of Westeros and from the eastern continent, Essos, across a narrow sea are simultaneously beginning to rise.

Cast and characters
Sean Bean is Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark, head of the Stark family. He and his wife Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) have five children: the eldest, Robb (Richard Madden), the dainty Sansa (Sophie Turner), the tomboy Arya (Maisie Williams), the adventurous Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and the toddler Rickon (Art Parkinson). The family's outsiders are Ned's bastard Jon Snow (Kit Harington), and Ned's hostage and ward Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen).

King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) shares a loveless marriage with Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who has taken her twin, the "Kingslayer" Ser Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) as her lover and loathes her younger brother, the clever dwarf Tyrion (Peter Dinklage). Cersei's oldest child is Prince Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), guarded by the scarfaced warrior Sandor "The Hound" Clegane (Rory McCann). One of the king's advisors is the crafty Lord Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish (Aidan Gillen), Master of Coin.

Across the Narrow Sea, siblings Viserys (Harry Lloyd) and Daenerys "Dany" Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) – the exiled children of the king overthrown by Robert – are on the run for their lives and trying to win back the throne. Dany is married to Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), the leader of the barbaric Dothraki, for the promise of an army for Viserys. Iain Glen plays Ser Jorah Mormont, an exiled knight sworn to protect the siblings.

The second season adds six characters introduced in the first season to the principal cast. Three belong to the court at King's Landing: Varys (Conleth Hill), the eunuch and spymaster; Bronn (Jerome Flynn), Tyrion's sellsword companion; and Shae (Sibel Kekilli), Tyrion's mistress. Two are men of the Night's Watch: Lord Commander Jeor Mormont (James Cosmo) and Jon Snow's friend Samwell Tarly (John Bradley). The last is Charles Dance as the Lannister patriarch, Tywin. New main characters in the second season are King Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), the elder of Robert's two younger brothers and a contender for the Iron Throne; Stannis' advisors Melisandre (Carice van Houten), a foreign priestess; Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham), a former smuggler who is now a loyal supporter of Stannis; and Lady Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), wife of rebel king Renly Baratheon (Gethin Anthony) and sister of Renly's lover, Loras (Finn Jones).

Production
Conception and development The series began development in January 2007.HBO, after acquiring the rights to the novels with the intent of turning them into an international cable television series, hired David Benioff and D. B. Weiss to write and executive produce the series, which would cover one novel's worth of material per season. Initially, it was planned that Benioff and Weiss would write every episode save one per season, which author and co-executive producer George R. R. Martin was attached to write. However, Jane Espenson and Bryan Cogman were later added to each write one episode of the first season.

"The Sopranos in Middle-earth" is the tagline Benioff jokingly suggested for the television adaptation, referring to its intrigue-filled content and dark tone combined with a fantasy setting. In a 2012 study, the series was listed second out of 40 recent U.S. TV drama series by deaths per episode, with an average of 14 Traditional high fantasy is described as generally incidental to the series, with HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo finding the storytelling appealing rather than the low-key magic or the exotic milieu, in spite of the network's new developmental policy to "[take] shots at shows that we wouldn't have taken a shot at five years ago".

The Game of Thrones's budget has been compared to that of the TV series Rome.The pilot reportedly cost HBO between US$5 and 10 million, and the total budget for the first season has been estimated at US$50–60 million.In the second season, the show obtained a 15% increase in budget in order to be able to stage the most important battle in the "clash of kings", the civil war that is the season's focus.

HBO hired expert language creator David J. Peterson from the Language Creation Society to develop the Dothraki language – "possessing its own unique sound, extensive vocabulary of more than 1,800 words and complex grammatical structure" – to be used in the series. The first and second drafts of the pilot script, written by Benioff and Weiss, were submitted in August 2007 and June 2008,[17] respectively. While HBO found both drafts to their liking, a pilot was not ordered until November 2008,with the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike possibly delaying the process.