How does a global phenomenon start? Ten years ago, a TV show based on the novels of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series was a wild pipe dream. Though fantasy had picked up steam in popular culture with first Lord of the Rings and then the Harry Potter series, these were large budget movies, not television mini series. The leading edge of the new golden age of television had been jump started on HBO, but it was with shows like The Sopranos, set in modern day Jersey, not princesses and sword bearing heroes who lived on Planetos. So what was it about this pilot that when the CEO of HBO read it, he decided that the next step in big budget television serials was dragons?
This question was put to said CEO of HBO, Richard Plepler yesterday at the New York Times’ New Work Summit. Billed as a conference to inspire business leaders to create the company of the future, it featured talks with a disparate group of innovators from leading edge neurosurgeons discussing 21 century medical breakthroughs to J.J. Abrams, whose Bad Robot company has been responsible from everything from TV cult hit Fringe to the Star Trek revival of 2009, and Abrams himself working with Disney, for the revival of the Star Wars brand to the tune of $2 billion and counting. Among the group was also Plepler who discussed HBO’s launch into streaming service and how he’s worked to take the channel from a pay channel with nothing but movies brand to synonymous with the leading edge of innovative television series.
So why did he decide to take a chance on Game of Thrones? He admits that initially he was very nervous about it, as dragons and zombies seemed, in his works “off brand.” It turns out, it was a one on one with David Benioff that convinced him this story was worth it.
Benioff, for the record, wasn’t wrong about how this show was going to appeal to those who are not usually into swords, sorcery, fights between good and evil, or swayed by the cuteness of baby dragons roasting their lunch. Game of Thrones’ political parable of leaders myopically fighting for power as uncontrollable disaster looms resonates not only in the US and the UK, but to people around the world.
Plepler also discussed their “line in the sand” when it came to allowing shows to stream “outside of the HBO ecosystem.”
As Plepler later said, for HBO: “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” For those who don’t know, that’s actually a quote from politician Haley Barbour. Turns out Plepler really is a political junkie…
Via http://winteriscoming.net/2016/03/02/richard-plepler-talks-how-benioff-sold-hbo-on-game-of-thrones/
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