Hollywood is a crazy industry where creativity and business meet and collide, with the impact usually falling on the project just like what George R.R. Martin experienced in the early years of his work in television. Before Game of Thrones, he wrote scripts for shows like The Twilight Zone, and while he enjoyed it, he also met the greatest villain of his life.
A lot of people weren’t happy with how the Westeros-based fantasy show ended; even Martin wasn’t satisfied with the changes that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss made, although that wasn’t much of a shocker for him as he’s had a likewise encounter in the past.
George R.R. Martin reveals the bane of his creative existence
Being a writer is sometimes a lonely profession for George R.R. Martin as he only has his typewriter and paper as companions. He prefers working with other people while seeing his creations slowly assume tangible reality.
In his conversation with Grace Dent (via YouTube), he talked about the time his script for The Twilight Zone revival was finally adapted on television. It brought him immense joy and satisfaction seeing the carpenters get to work, building the Stonehenge on the sound stage behind his office and hearing actors deliver the lines he wrote. While those were the best parts, he noted that there’s a yin to every yang:
There’s the dark side, and you have the network and the studio—these two Darth Vader forces that periodically reach down and mess with your scripts, or your shows, or do things seldom in a positive manner.
This was the most frustrating part for Martin as we know how much he loves and values his stories. He would even publicly criticize screen adaptations of his works when the studio or showrunners mess them up.
We can say that this is quite a common experience for writers in the industry, and most of the time, when the business side of things takes over, it ruins the overall creative take, which creates a domino effect. Fans would end up hating and trashing the work, leaving an ugly stain on the legacy of the franchise.
George R.R. Martin criticized Hollywood executives for ruining his franchise
We’ve read and heard a thousand times by now the unfortunate fate of Game of Thrones at the hands of its showrunners. Martin went as far as calling out producers and writers who take someone else’s work and attempt to improve it by messing with the story.
HBO notably responded to the author’s criticism of the prequel series House of the Dragon and justified the changes made in order to fit the narrative in a television format, stating that the limitations of the medium and the budget constraints forced them to make hard decisions. As Martin once wrote in his blog, “They make the story their own. They never make it better, though.”
Game of Thrones is currently available to watch on Max.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
