HBO Max to focus more on original content like Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon in 2022

Television giant HBO is planning to play a huge gamble for its content strategy in 2022. HBO Max leaders are looking ahead to 2022 when the service will not have many crowd attracting titles to help sign up new paying customers. Instead, they plan to encourage existing subscribers to sample original series content, as reported by Variety.

“There’s been a great interplay between those titles and the day-and-date films,” said Andy Forssell, executive vice president and general manager of HBO Max. “A huge percentage of the ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ audience watched ‘The Flight Attendant.’ That set the tone for the year. We’ve learned a lot about how those (film) release schedules and episodic premieres can work together.”

For HBO Max, that means the original content from HBO and HBO Max will have to deal with more crowd traffic. Forssell assures that they are up to the task. For starters, one of the series on HBO’s 2022 programming schedule is House of the Dragon, the much-anticipated prequel to Game of Thrones, and a big investment in the DC Comics property Peacemaker, a spinoff of the film The Suicide Squad.

Do you think this strategy will work in favour of HBO Max? Talk to us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones wrapped up filming about two years ago, and the cast and crew have moved on to newer projects. The showrunners, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, are currently busy with their new Netflix sci-fi series Three-Body Problem. And it seems they’ve already begun casting for the show, the first one seems to be actress Eiza Gonzalez.

Eiza Gonzalez is in negotiations to join the cast of the Netflix TV adaptation of the novel Three-Body Problem, with Game of Thrones co-creators Benioff and Weiss, as reported by Deadline. Netflix hasn’t made an official comment so far, but it seems like the show is moving forward after the tremendous blow the production faced a few months back.

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, along with Alexander Woo are working together to adapt Liu Cixin’s bestseller Three-Body Problem for Netflix. The series will be covering all three books of the trilogy, namely, “The Three-Body Problem,” “The Dark Forest,” and “Death’s End.” The story revolves around the idea of humanity’s first contact with aliens. Netflix struck a deal with Yoozoo group for the rights to make an English adaptation of the trilogy.

Are you excited about the upcoming sci-fi TV series? Talk to us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones stars have been very successful in the acting industry, now they are slowly spreading their wings and trying their hands at newer fields. Last year the platform Contact was launched, initially offering models a way to take bookings and manage some aspects of their work. It is backed and supported by Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams who is also the Creative Strategist and Advisor to the startup.

Contact has now raised a $1.9 million (£1.4 million) seed round of funding led by Founders Fund. Also participating is LAUNCH (the fund led by investor Jason Calacanis), Sweet Capital (via Pippa Lamb), Rogue VC (via Alice Lloyd George) and Angel investors Simon Beckerman (co-founder of Depop), Eric Wahlforss (co-founder of SoundCloud and now Dance), Abe Burns and Joe White.

Although Contact’s initial incarnation is addressing the modelling world, its vision is far bigger. Contact co-founder and CEO Reuben Selby, Maisie Williams’ boyfriend— a fashion designer who was formerly of Williams’ founding team, when she started her career — has worked with Nike, Thom Browne and JW Anderson. He says the platform aims to become a scalable back-end solution across the $104.2 billion Creator Economy, “democratizing” access to the world’s best creative talent.

Williams’ production company Rapt has joined hands with UK indie Delaval films for a new animated feature. Are you excited about Maisie Williams’ new venture? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones stars are exceptional at acting, and they are slowly spreading their roots in other directions as well. Though most of them can be seen starring in new shows and movies, there are some who have chosen to try their hands at fresh career paths. Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams has recently shown an interest in the production of animated films, as reported by Deadline. Williams and her production company Rapt are partnering with UK indie Delaval Film on a short stop motion animation from The Sparks Brothers animation director Joseph Wallace.

The film, Salvation Has No Name, began production in 2020 at Aardman in Bristol and has since moved to Media City in Manchester to continue the shoot safely during COVID. The film will explore themes of xenophobia and the refugee crisis and is depicted through a dynamic mixture of colour and black with a dramatic narrative and international all-female voice cast, including Money Heist star Itziar Ituño.

In the film, a troupe of clowns gather to perform a story about a priest and a refugee but as their misguided tale unfolds, the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to fray. The film is scheduled to finish filming in September.

Actress Lena Headey is also preparing to produce new films and movies with her company Peephole production. Are you excited about Maisie Williams’ new endeavour? Let us know in the comments below!