That's a wrap!

Filming of HBO's Game of Thrones concluded on Thursday with a big wrap party. Not that the hard work is over, with weeks of work still ahead involving editing, post-production and the addition of special effects and music, and that's before HBO executives see the final result and can begin pondering the decision on whether to give a full-season order to the producers.

Courtesy of a Russian site which has been doing some photoshopped posters here.

The last week of filming was spent at Ouarzazate, Morocco, where part of the immense Jerusalem set from Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven had been redressed as Ilyrio Mopatis' mansion near the Free City of Pentos. Scenes filmed here included the first meeting between Daenerys Targaryen (Tamzin Merchant) and the warlord Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa), as well as their later wedding, orchestrated by Ilyrio (Ian McNeice) and Daenerys' brother Viserys (Harry Lloyd) to help further their plan to retake the Iron Throne of Westeros from the usurper, King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy).

The timeline going forward now appears to be that editing and post-production will take place over the next couple of months, possibly with a Christmas break. Modern VideoFilm, an American post-production company used previously on projects such as SyFy's Battlestar Galactica, will be doing some work on the project in February, which might be the final edit and lock. This is backed up by George R.R. Martin's recent comments in Belfast that HBO's final verdict is expected in March 2010, indicating they will see the pilot in February/March and make a decision a little while later.

This timescale is a little longer than first expected, since the two pilots HBO filmed last summer, Treme and Boardwalk Empire, were picked up within about five weeks of filming wrapping on both. However, those two shows are coming from experienced producers with excellent form (David Simon - creator of The Wire - and Martin Scorsese) with a lot less post-production required, enabling HBO to make a decision much more quickly.

If picked up for a first season, it is expected that the series would return to production in the late spring or early summer and would last for thirty weeks, lasting well into the autumn and possibly right up until the end of 2010. That makes a 2010 airing impossible, and also makes January 2011 the earliest possible air date, and it could potentially be the spring of 2011. So we are still way off from seeing the show on the screen, although with True Blood continuing and The Pacific, Treme and Boardwalk Empire all airing in 2010, HBO can probably survive without it ;-)

Westeros.org has a new sub-section dealing with the TV series and have put together an excellent article on the potential post-production and special effects requirements for the pilot here. The SF&F site Airlock Alpha has an overview of the project here. Industry-watcher The Hollywood Reporter also has a highly favourable article here, stating that the pilot will only not get picked up if the pilot is an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions, which does not seem to be the case at the moment.