Irish actors Stephen Don (Wilderness, Omagh) and Brian Fortune (Marú, The Bee Keeper’s Son) have joined the cast of HBO’s epic ‘Game of Thrones’. The actors will join other newly announced cast and crew members such as Oscar winning English composer Stephen Warbeck (Shakespeare in Love, Billy Elliot) who will write the original music and score for the film, Emmy nominated American director Tim Van Patten (The Sopranos, Rome) and English actor Ian Gelder (Torchwood, Robin Hood).
Down born actor Stephen Don will play the role of Stiv whilst Dublin actor, Brian Fortune will play Night's Watch Officer, the equivalent of the First Steward, Bowen Marsh, in the novels. Ian Gelder will fill the role of Kevan Lannister.
Emmy nominated director Tim Van Patten will share the director’s chair for the series with Brian Kirk (Dexter) alongside fellow Americans and HBO regulars Daniel Minahan (True Blood, Six Feet Under) and Alan Taylor (Mad Men, Lost, The Sopranos).
Finally, Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck has officially signed on to write the original music and score for the series which has been adapted from George R. R. Martin’s series of novels, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. The writer last week visited the ‘Game of Thrones’ set and met with the cast and crew members.
Stephen Don and Brian Fortune will join a cast that already boasts much Irish talent in the form of Michelle Fairley (Best: His Mother’s Son), Conleth Hill (Perrier’s Bounty), Ian McElhinney (Triage) and Derek Halligan (Fifty Dead Men Walking). Northern Ireland’s Mark Huffam (Cherrybomb) is producing the series in which hundreds of local extras and crew are being used.
The series which started shooting in Belfast on Monday, July 26th, is a new original HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling novels. In an alternative world where summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime, the Westeros crown comes with a price. Betrayal, lust, intrigue and supernatural forces shake the four corners of the Kingdom, from the scheming south and the savage eastern lands, to the frozen north and the ancient Wall that protects the realm from the darkness beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and noble men vie for power in the bloody struggle for the Iron Throne of the series’ title.
Other cast members include Sean Bean (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Red Riding), Mark Addy (Robin Hood, Red Riding); Alfie Allen (Atonement); Aidan Gillen (The Wire); Peter Dinklage (Elf); Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Black Hawk Down); Lena Headey (300) and Jerome Flynn (Soldier, Soldier).
‘Game of Thrones’ has received funding from Northern Ireland Screen supported by Invest NI and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It is shooting in the Paint Hall studio, Belfast, as well as various locations in Northern Ireland. The writers of the series are: David Benioff (Troy and D.B. Weiss (Kashmir) who has penned seven episodes, Bryan Cogman (My Own Worst Enemy), Jane Espenson (Dollhouse) and George R.R. Martin (Beauty and the Beast) have all written one episode each. ‘Game of Thrones’ will premiere on HBO in early 2011.
