"One slightly "Huh?" moment that got lost in the mix was George cautioning that it's just a pilot so it might not get picked up, but then he said it might get a one-season order or it might get a two-season order! He didn't say any more about that (presumably miniscule and highly unlikely) possibility though. He also wouldn't be drawn on what will happen in Season 4 with the split AFFC/ADWD situation, other than they'll deal with that closer to the time.
Richard, Alfie and Kit at the signing were talking about the wolf pups and saying how cute they were. The girls seemed disappointed they hadn't gotten to see the pups (no scenes in the pilot with Sansa, Arya and their wolves, as we had already surmised) but were looking forward to it in the series itself.
For inevitable ADWD questions, GRRM repeated that he had over 1100 MS pages but more were needed. He hoped not too much more and was very happy with the progress he'd made over the last few months. He confirmed that part of the Meereenese Knot is related to the timeline of events of people showing up and departing in the right place to track with the other books, but it's all coming together. He also said that Star-Crossed Lovers was going to be a straight mix of fantasy stories with a romantic element to them, whilst Warriors was much more mixed genre, which apparently the American publishers really like and British publishers seem more concerned by, but he's hopeful for a British deal for Warriors soon.
The party! About 20-odd people gathered at McHughes early for food before heading down to the cellar bar, which was quite big and nicely laid out, even though the bemusingly ecelectic music selection (going from Country to Hard Rock to Pop to 1980s Electro with little rhyme or reason) was a bit loud until we got them to turn it off. George and Parris turned up, followed by Maisie, Sophie and assorted family members. The girls ended up working the room like seasoned actors, talking to different fans, posing for photos and chatting to George. Their mums, who were awesome, talked about the books (they're on Book 2 and seemed to think my proposal of Keith Allen for Balon had merit; I bottled out of asking Alfie earlier at the signing his opinion!), the fandom and so on.
Then Richard Madden, Esme Bianco and Ron Donachie arrived. Esme hadn't been at the signing so was immediately surrounded by fans asking if she could add her autograph to the others in the book. She seemed chuffed with the attention and chatted to people happily, name-checking Paul Gude when I mentioned I was a poster on WiC as well. A couple of American fans weren't sure who she was playing so Esme (having to talk carefully as Sophie and Maisie were around) came up with the phrase that Tyrion needed a 'more HBO introduction' in the series, so that scene had been written. Everyone got what that meant.
Ron was 150% pure cool. Laidback, happy to chat about this project and other things he had done. He recounted filming Titanic and when they were overrunning on the scenes with everyone in the water James Cameron just grabbed a camera and waded straight out into the water to get the shots needed before the sun came up. He also turned out to be a Jets fan and had previously read Fevre Dream many years ago, but hadn't realised it was the same writer until a few days earlier. George and Ron then talked American football for a bit, before Jackie/JacMac came over and it turned out she and Ron had gone to the same school (at different times). For such an experienced actor, he seemed to be really into the fans and their excitement for the series. When asked if he knew what happened to his character he replied yes, but two seasons was a good innings and he'd be happy to stay for the duration.
Romulocks proposed to his +1 halfway through the night (she said yes) and there was much drinking in celebration of that. The cast and families thought that was cool and were impressed when we told them the number of board hook-ups, marriages and babies born as a result thereof was quite high. George urged them not to have a Red Wedding-themed marriage.
Maisie got to say "Stick them with the pointy end!" She'd been informed this was a key Arya line. I think Sergio said on WiC that he thought she was too cute to play Arya and I have to say that's dead wrong. She was a sweet girl but when she was ribbing Alfie at the signing and when she was talking seriously about her character, you could see she had all the determination that Arya needs in her role. Sophie's mum said that when Sophie and Jennifer Ehle was standing next to one another with their hair done up they looked very much like mother and daughter and looked great. Sophie was very confident, seemed to enjoy the attention and talking to fans about her character.
On a more serious note, some people involved in the production had seen the negative comments about Tamzin Merchant and let it be known they were not impressed. Whilst Dany's scenes are being filmed separately, most of those present had met Tamzin and the rest of the Pentos gang at the read-through, and were impressed with her performance and her 'getting' the role from the books dead-on.
After hearing Ron and Parris chatting about George's books, it turned out to be time for the Maisie, Sophie and families to leave (early call in the morning, plus the pub had a policy of asking children to leave before 8pm, which was missed by a bit). Richard came over to give 'his sisters' a goodbye hug, which caused collective swooning from most of the female population present. We had to revive a certain other forum member present (cough) with gin after that. I also got a great photo of the girls with Esme, which I'll put up later tonight (no public Internet computer in Northern Ireland has a photo slot, apparently). I also got some great pics of GRRM with Richard, including one with Richard looking a bit serious which could be great with a caption: "So George, my agent said I'm not needed for Season 4..." "Ah..." (He knows what happens to his character, btw).
Shortly after that most of the cast had to leave for their 5am calls and the evening seemed to be winding down when Julia Frey arrived. Immediately she was a big hit and regaled us with stories of working on Alien 3 and other projects, although was a bit more circumspect about 'the current project'. We tried a few questions about if the pilot would have finished visual FX or just animatics and what was going on with a composer and got some excellently non-committal answers ("That's an interesting idea," "Could well be...but it might not,"). Julia has a great poker face and didn't give anything away. She also gave Paul Gude a shout-out. After stopping for pictures, she left and the evening wound down with us heading back to the hostel and collectively passing out."
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