G a me of T hrones is easily one of the hottest shows on television, but had co-creator and show runner David Benioff listened to his wife Amanda Peet, it never would have made it to the small screen. Last night on Conan, Conan O’Brian called her out on national television for telling Benioff that the show wasn’t going to work, much to the shock of the audience.
“I thought it was a terrible idea…terrible. It’s just silly. It’s Dungeons and Dragons but real with real people.”
Conan quickly came to her defense, and told his audience that he was on her side because ” if someone pitched me the idea, for a lot of shows, if I just heard the idea, I would say, ‘I don’t think that sounds great.’” and went on to add, “Then you see the amazing cast, the great stories, the story telling-I’m on your side”
With over 7 million viewers, Game of Thrones has more than justified its existence. Since Thrones aired, it has earned itself Television Critics Awards, a Critics’ Choice Television Award and Peter Dinklage picked up an Emmy for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister. Ga me of Thrones itself has been nominated for a few Emmy’s and Golden Globe Awards.
Beyond the critical success of Ga me of Thrones , its rapidly growing fan base is caught in the shows cult like grip. The Motley Fool announced that on January 29, Game of Thrones will showcase the last two Episodes of Season 4 in IMAX, followed by a preview of Season 5. Impressively, the 200 theaters booked so far have sold out.
No one expected Ga me of Thrones to sell out on the big screen and what’s more, demand for the screening is quickly on the rise. When asked, IMAX Entertainment CEO Greg Foster told Entertainment Weekly that he booked Game of Thrones to fill the gap during the traditionally slow period at the box office. Foster said he had an instinct the acclaimed fantasy hit would perform well.
“As soon as that happened, my instinct didn’t matter; [the interest] became empirical. Then a week later, we announced we were moving the date to accommodate more theaters, and the website crashed again— twice . So that was a pretty good indication.”
The fact that Game of Thrones is receiving such a response in a theatrical setting, says volumes. That demand is so high for a release of reruns says even more. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told EW that he made the decision to screen in IMAX to garner attention for the highly anticipated Season 5 of Thrones, not to bring in truckloads of cash.
“If we were premiering the first episode of the new season in IMAX, I wouldn’t have been surprised,” Lombardo said. “But that’s not what we’re doing. It’s very heartening and surprising that people are willing to pay money and drive somewhere to re-experience a show they’ve already seen and now want to see again on a big screen with friends and family.”
Amanda Peet has likely eaten her words and gotten seconds. Meanwhile millions of devoted Thrones fans are very glad that her husband ignored her advice.
‘The Watchers on the Wall’ and season finale ‘The Children’ will make their big screen debut for one week.Tickets are available on IMAX’s website. If you cannot wait that long, the Inquisitr was kind enough to share this pic of the lovely Daenerys Targaryen.
daznak’s pit <3 this needs to be the final scene pic.twitter.com/wgz3Ah1Xns
— JM (@jmab35) October 31, 2014