Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has said that his books have been adapted for television only and not cinema because they are too long and involved to suit the film format.
Speaking to Melvin Bragg on The South Bank Show on Sky Arts last night (June 9), he said: “It took Peter Jackson three movies to make Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and he still had to cut things. It would take three movies for A Storm of Swords alone.”
A Storm of Swords was published in 2000, and amounted to a whopping 82 chapters or 992 pages. It occupied all of season three of the GoT TV series and most of season four.
The best-selling author continued: “And if you figure two movies for A Game of Thrones, and two for A Clash of Kings you’re already up to seven movies and you’re halfway through. Nobody’s going to commit to that - and, of course, they didn’t commit to that.
“The people I met from movies said one of two things. Some said, ‘Oh, we’ll just make the first movie! And after that’s a hit, we’ll make more.’ Well, of course, if you go down that route. then you have Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials.
"Great fantasy, they made the first movie - didn’t do as well as they expected, and you’ll never see a second movie.”
