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‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8: Directors Revealed (Sapochnik, Nutter, D&D)

Z

zsynqx

Member
As Game of Thrones gears up to begin production on its eighth and final season next month, HBO has finally unveiled who will be at the helm of the last few episodes of the smash hit series. Unsurprisingly, the list is made up of familiar faces, and given that Season 8 will only consist of six episodes in total, the list is also small: Miguel Sapochnik, David Nutter, and creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be directing the final episodes of Game of Thrones.
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Sapochnik made his Game of Thrones debut with the Season 5 episode ”The Gift", followed by the now-iconic ”Hardhome", also from the fifth season. He returned for Season 6 to direct ”Battle of the Bastards" and that season finale—one of the show's best episodes ever—”The Winds of Winter."
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Nutter is also a Thrones regular and a veteran of sorts, having made his GoT debut on the Season 2 episodes ”The Old Gods and the New" and ”A Man Without Honor." He's also the guy behind the classic ”The Rains of Castamere" in Season 3, and he helmed the final two episodes of Season 5, ”The Dance of Dragons" and ”Mother's Mercy."
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And then there's Benioff and Weiss, who THR reports will likely be helming the Game of Thrones series finale. The duo have only directed one episode of the series, Season 4's opener ”Two Swords" (which was credited to Weiss per DGA rules stating no co-directing credits), but they are a constant on-set presence as they write all of the scripts before filming begins, so it's not like they're new to this.
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http://collider.com/game-of-thrones-season-8-directors/

Now those three teams represent all the directors for season 8. Now you might ask yourself: If the Ds are directing the finale together, and Sapochnik and Nutter are also directing episodes, yet there are six episodes ... then how many episodes is each person directing? In the past, visiting GoT directors have helmed two episodes each. We heard Sapochnik will direct at least two, possibly even three episodes. But as of now, we have no official intel on who will helm which episodes aside from the showrunners tackling the finale.
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http://ew.com/tv/2017/09/26/game-thrones-season-8-directors/
 
P

peteykirch

Member
Miguel must've been able to name his own price, because from stories I read he absolutely despised the constraints he had in doing the Battle of the Bastards episode.
 
K

kswiston

Member
I'm assuming one for each of the show runners (or maybe two for them co-directing), and two each for the other two.

I'm hoping that the Benioff and Weiss episodes aren't the very last ones. Let them do the first two.

EDIT: The OP added more quotes. The very last episode will likely be after the final battle I guess. So D&D on that wouldn't be too bad.
 
S

Starphanluke

Member
Posting what I put in the other thread:

I think the actual finale episode will have very little action in it, with all of that having taken place in the episodes prior. It's smart to have just Nutter and Sapochnik come in and direct those major battles and set pieces, then hand it over to D and D to direct the finale of the show they've spent the last decade building. Can't wait!
 
K

kswiston

Member
Starphanluke said:
Posting what I put in the other thread:

I think the actual finale episode will have very little action in it, with all of that having taken place in the episodes prior. It's smart to have just Nutter and Sapochnik come in and direct those major battles and set pieces, then hand it over to D and D to direct the finale of the show they've spent the last decade building. Can't wait!
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This makes sense too.

Give D&D the first and last episode, and give the other two the bulk of the action.
 
S

Skellig Gra

Member
Starphanluke said:
Posting what I put in the other thread:

I think the actual finale episode will have very little action in it, with all of that having taken place in the episodes prior. It's smart to have just Nutter and Sapochnik come in and direct those major battles and set pieces, then hand it over to D and D to direct the finale of the show they've spent the last decade building. Can't wait!
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That would be consistent with the other season finales so it makes sense.
 
S

Shadowhelper

Banned
It doesn't really matter who the directors are at this point.

They are just rushing through a checklist of plot points as the last season proved.

6 episodes to wrap it up won't be enough, and it'll probably be even more rushed than the terrible season 7. It's too bad they ruined such a good show.
 
H

Hydrus

Member
I'm guessing EP1&2 go to Nutter- the set up episodes/ drama, 3,4,5 to Miguel - the action and mind fucks, and then D&D for the final - wrap up/ happy ending.

Shadowhelper said:
It doesn't really matter who the directors are at this point.

They are just rushing through a checklist of plot points as the last season proved.

6 episodes to wrap it up won't be enough, and it'll probably be even more rushed than the terrible season 7. It's too bad they ruined such a good show.
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Yes, who directs what does matter. Each episode can easily be up to 2 hours long. Filming is rumored to go on until August 2018. That's a fuck load of filming for six 1 hour episodes.
 
L

LegendofDragoonLives

Member
Miguel. is. back.

giphy.gif



Miguel for 3 episodes, Nutter for 2, double Ds for 1. #letsgetit
 
J

Jumeira

Banned
Will they be increasing the length of each show for season 8? seems like its doomed to failure only being 6 episodes long with almost 6 seasons worth of stories to tie up.
 
ComputerBlue

ComputerBlue

Member
Surprised they're only going with 2, was hoping that Neil Marshall would come back for one episode but having Sapochnik back is great news.

There's an interview with DnD about Sapochnik and how in the script, all it said was, horses charge at Jon and he pulls out his sword. And they praised him because from that little bit came such an iconic moment in the series.

ee961777e9dc34d48c40ac2422cf5b1c.jpg


Same goes for the sept of baelor sequence, apparently Sapochnik told Ramin Djawadi what kind of music he wanted and from that came Light of the Seven.
 
L

LegendofDragoonLives

Member
Shadowhelper said:
It doesn't really matter who the directors are at this point.

They are just rushing through a checklist of plot points as the last season proved.

6 episodes to wrap it up won't be enough, and it'll probably be even more rushed than the terrible season 7. It's too bad they ruined such a good show.
Click to expand...
giphy.gif



Dude there's a topic for crying like a baby about the tv show, it's called the book GoT thread ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
S

SerAardvark

Member
Jumeira said:
Will they be increasing the length of each show for season 8? seems like its doomed to failure only being 6 episodes long with almost 6 seasons worth of stories to tie up.
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Yeah, they've mentioned the episodes will [almost certainly) be longer, although exactly how long is unclear - I've seen everything from 70+ minutes each to 2 hour episodes (although an HBO exec thought the latter sounded possibly excessive).
 
S

Skellig Gra

Member
Jigorath said:
Some pretty major shit went down in the Season 6 finale.
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Still wouldn’t call it action heavy and especially not when compared to BoB
SerAardvark said:
Yeah, they've mentioned the episodes will [almost certainly) be longer, although exactly how long is unclear - I've seen everything from 70+ minutes each to 2 hour episodes (although an HBO exec thought the latter sounded possibly excessive).
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2 hours is too much. That would be like 12 episodes in the old format. Just make it 10 episodes in that case.
 
S

Shadowhelper

Banned
SerAardvark said:
Yeah, they've mentioned the episodes will [almost certainly) be longer, although exactly how long is unclear - I've seen everything from 70+ minutes each to 2 hour episodes (although an HBO exec thought the latter sounded possibly excessive).
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They were longer in season 7 too, but that didn't make a difference.

It's a TV show. It's pacing is that of a TV show. It's never been a series of movies. Making them longer, unfortunately, will not solve the the issue of cramming too much plot into too few episodes.

The first 5 seasons flowed so well. It's such a contrast the the disaster that is season 7. I fear the final season is sure to follow the same path of mediocrity.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Battle of the Bastards is the high point of this whole show, and one of the best battle scenes i've ever seen (TV or Cinema).

Give him whatever final battle you have, to direct.
 
T

TheXbox

Member
Based Sapochnik. He's gotta be the resident action-setpiece guy, so if D&D are directing the finale, I wonder if they're reserving the final battle for the penultimate episode. After that, A Song of Ice and Fire will tie up loose ends and put an ass in the Iron Throne.
 
M

metalslimer

Member
Sapochnik directing the final battle would be amazing

At this point the script will probably be trash but the final battle will be incredible
 
R

Ridesh

Banned
Well fuck me, I'm already salivating at the idea of the epic dragon vs dragons, whitewalkers vs westeros episodes directed by Sapochnik.
 
C

captive

Joe Six-Pack: posting for the common man
Shadowhelper said:
They were longer in season 7 too, but that didn't make a difference.

It's a TV show. It's pacing is that of a TV show. It's never been a series of movies. Making them longer, unfortunately, will not solve the the issue of cramming too much plot into too few episodes.

The first 5 seasons flowed so well. It's such a contrast the the disaster that is season 7. I fear the final season is sure to follow the same path of mediocrity.
Click to expand...

its almost like, they ran out of source material or something...

season 6 was great. I'm only on episode 1 of season 7 which was fantastic, who directed that btw?

I like the trimmed down story lines. Seriously, what was the point of having Brienne spend any entire book and not find either Sansa or Arya? Whats the point of Lady Stoneheart, as far as im aware she doesnt exist in the tv series. etc etc.
 
A

Azzanadra

Member
Shame they couldn't get Neil Marshall... I stand by that Blackwater is the best "battle" episode in the series.

Gobias said:
No Alan Taylor

Miguel Sapochnik

There is hope
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I don't think Taylor is that bad. He did direct Baelor, and Ned's execution will stay with me forever.
 
E

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Miguel Sapochnik is the GOAT for battles and even the quieter moments, like season 6's final, are amazing. Dude has it all.
 
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