George RR Martin recently confirmed reports that he is in the midst of writing a new story set in his Song of Ice and Fire universe, eliciting sighs of both relief and frustration from fans who have been waiting for the next chronological instalment to the series, Winds of Winter, for nearly seven years.

The prequel, The Sons of the Dragons, will be included in a fantasy anthology series titled The Book of Swords. Martin will join 15 other authors, including Garth Nix and Ken Liu, in the anthology helmed by Gardner Dozois, who is “one of [Martin’s] oldest friends”, according to Martin’s latest LiveJournal entry.

He continued in his LiveJournal post, stating: “If you’re fascinated by the politics of Westeros, as many of my readers seem to be, you should enjoy it. As the title suggests, The Sons of the Dragon chronicles the reigns of the second and third Targaryen kings, Aenys I and Maegor the Cruel, along with their mothers, wives, sisters, children, friends, enemies and rivals.”

Described by Martin as “history rather than a traditional narrative” with “a lot of telling, only a little showing”, it seems that The Sons of the Dragons will appear more like a chapter in a textbook rather than a novel or short story.

But more casual fans should be able to breathe easy, as Martin also used the opportunity to shut down other rumours, such as that he would be editing the anthology. It has been previously acknowledged that editing tends to take up most of Martin’s writing time, leading to the release date for Winds of Winter being pushed back repeatedly, according to Mashable.

The Book of Swords will be published on Oct. 10. And as for Winds of Winter? Only time, and Martin, will tell.

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2014-04-03 12:09:26

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29 amazing Game of Thrones locations: in pictures

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Los Angeles – They could have called it “Cats,” if someone hadn’t got there first, for John Hurt’s strangest movie by far is an obscure Shakespeare adaptation placing him opposite 108 feline co-stars.

The British knight of the realm played some of cinema’s most iconic characters across 150 movies before his death in January, but even ardent film buffs are unlikely to have seen him in “Romeo.Juliet.”

Hurt is the only human in Armondo Acosta’s 1990 movie, playing a Venetian bag lady while the feuding Montagues and Capulets — or should that be Cat-ulets? — were strays voiced by leading lights of stage and screen.

A sought-after curio, it was never released on home video, but Acosta has made available on the Internet rare footage of Hurt’s scenes, not viewed for a quarter of a century, in tribute to the actor.

“He adjusted to everything, he moved so sweetly,” Acosta, 78, said of Hurt in a telephone interview from Manhattan’s iconic Chelsea Hotel, where he has run a meditation workshop for the last 29 years.

“He had always a little bit of too much wine, but who didn’t, who doesn’t in that business? He was just beautiful. He really became a bag lady, he really got it.”

Hurt, who turned 77 a few days before his death, is not the only cast member to play against gender; Juliet is portrayed by a white Turkish Angora who in real life was a neutered male called Maria.

Almost all of the cats — they numbered 250 at one point — were plucked from rescue organisations in Belgium, where Acosta was living and where he filmed much of the action.

“If you’re directing an amateur, never rehearse them. If you rehearse an amateur, you’re in trouble,” Acosta told AFP.

“But if you get why you cast them as an amateur and let them do their thing, you’ve got a shot, you’ve got a chance. And cats are that way.”

The feline cast’s reward for their work was homes for life with the crew or in Armondo’s “Adopt A Movie Star” initiative — except for Romeo, Juliet and four others taken on by the director.

Acosta has worked in various roles on some of the biggest films of all time — including “El Cid,” “Lawrence of Arabia,” “The Birds” and “The Pink Panther” — with auteurs like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, David Lean and Roger Corman.

He got the idea for a cat movie as an executive at Paramount in the mid-1960s, he told AFP, when he encountered a family of cats on the Hollywood backlot and was struck by their balletic movement.

The score is provided by the London Symphony Orchestra playing Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet Ballet,” while Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Ben Kingsley, Robert Powell and other big names voice the cats.

The movie opened at the 1990 Venice Film Festival and toured the world’s capitals for two years as a “live film concert,” backed by various orchestras.

Hurt saw it at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels in 1992 along with Oleg Prokofiev, the son of the composer, who reportedly described it as “not simply a film… (but) a poem.”

“I’m sort of used to transformations, that’s my living,” Hurt told a documentary crew on the film set back in 1989.

“But I haven’t very often gone this far… The whole idea is unique, as far as I know. I’ve never heard of such a thing and I thought it would indeed make a fascinating film.”

Action-packed 2016 for Yoga Lin

It is one of the most important questions a man asks in his life and Taiwanese singer Yoga Lin, 29, chose to do it on social media recently.

On Nov 29 last year, in a post addressed to former singer-actress Kiki Ting, 32, he wrote: “I’ve prepared my knee, prepared what I want to say to you, and… the ring hidden in my pocket that I’ve already bought.

“Please, marry me.”

An hour later was the short and sweet follow-up: “She said yes : )” with a photo of the happy couple hugging.

On Facebook, more than 245,000 people liked this; on his Weibo microblogging account, more than 1.4 million gave the thumbs-up.

The counter on Weibo for the number of people who saw this maxed out at 99,999,999, Lin recalls.

Speaking to The Straits Times over the telephone from Taipei, he says: “I wanted to share this important moment in my life with my fans, people who have always supported me. I was quite surprised by the reaction, that it would move others.

“I also wanted to create a beautiful memory for her, so this was something I thought about for a long time.”

Surely he must have been confident of her response before popping the question online?

He says: “Well, I didn’t think the chances of a rejection were very high. But I did have a friend who was rejected twice for not putting enough effort into the proposal.”

This was not the only highlight in the singer’s eventful 2016.

Lin, the champion of the inaugural season of the singing competition One Million Star in 2007, completed his military service, released his comeback album Sell Like Hot Cakes last year and embarked on a concert tour.

“There were a lot of key turning points and looking back, I think I’ve achieved pretty good results.”

He is performing at the Esplanade Concert Hall tonight as part of Huayi – Chinese Festival of Arts. Tickets are sold out.

His time in the military led him to a realisation.

“I came into contact with people from many different backgrounds and we had to get along 24 hours a day, over a year. It really struck me that I want my music to cross all barriers and resonate with everyone.”

In fact, he had already achieved that – his musical adventurousness and emotive singing have been warmly embraced by critics and listeners alike.

He was nominated at the Golden Melody Awards for Best New Artist in 2009 for his debut Mystery Guest and his singles and albums regularly do well on the charts.

Sell Like Hot Cakes marks the first time he sings in Cantonese, on the ballad Worse Comes To Worst.

Even more impressively, he managed to get Hong Kong’s “God of Song” Eason Chan to help him out on back-up vocals.

“He knows I’m a huge fan of his, but I was surprised that he agreed so quickly, given how busy he is,” he adds.

During the recording, producer Eric Kwok made sure that Chan did not inadvertently sing the melody in order not to exert undue pressure on Lin.

But the Taiwanese singer was just simply happy to work with his idol.

“All I wanted to do when I saw him was to hug him,” and there is photographic proof of that on Facebook and Weibo.

He would also love to do a duet with Ting, now his wife after they registered their marriage on Jan 7, but he says that she is not keen.

She left show business after releasing three albums in the early noughties and acting in television dramas.

For the moment, they keep their music-making as a duo to the privacy of the car.

“We both love (Taiwanese singer-songwriter) Cheer Chen, so when we drive, we play her songs and sing along.”

Some other acts to catch

The biggest name for this year’s pop music programme at Huayi is Taiwanese singer Yoga Lin.

Tickets to his concert at the 1,600-seat Esplanade Concert Hall on Feb 3 have sold out.

Also sold out is the gig by Project Superstar alumna Kelly Poon at the Esplanade Recital Studio on Feb 12.

She has been making a splash with her cover versions of hot Korean tracks, including the theme song Always from the TV hit Descendants Of The Sun (2016), for which she wrote the Mandarin lyrics.

But festivalgoers can still catch these other worthy acts at the Esplanade’s Chinese Festival of Arts.

They include Project Superstar winner Alfred Sim, who released his debut self-titled EP last year; Taiwanese singer-songwriters Eli Hsieh, crowned Best New Artist at the Golden Melody Awards for his debut album Progress Reports (2015); and PiA, who has gone from fronting her namesake band to striking out as a solo artist.

bchan@sph.com.sg

BOOK IT / HUAYI LIVEHOUSE! FEATURING ALFRED SIM

WHERE: Esplanade Annexe Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive

WHEN: Feb 3, 10.45pm

ADMISSION: $15 for Huayi 2017 ticket-holders, $20 for the general public. Includes one drink. Tickets at the door, cash only.

PiA: FUNNY WAY OF MY LIFE

WHERE: Esplanade Recital Studio

WHEN: Feb 10, 7.30pm

ADMISSION: $30 from Sistic (call 6348-5555 or go to www.sistic.com.sg)

ELI HSIEH: PROGRESS REPORTS

WHERE: Esplanade Recital Studio

WHEN: Feb 11, 7.30pm

ADMISSION: $30 from Sistic

This article was first published on Feb 03, 2017.
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