Future TV Extravaganza

In the space of an afternoon I discovered the existence of two interesting upcoming TV series. The first is based on perhaps my favorite series of commercials:

That's right the Geico Caveman is coming to a sitcom near you. According to Variety:

"Cavemen" will revolve around three pre-historic men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to live as normal thirtysomethings in modern Atlanta.

Project, from ABC TV Studio, is penned by Joe Lawson, an advertising copywriter who was behind the "Caveman" ads -- as well as other Geico commercials (think the cockney-speaking Geico gecko, and the reality TV spoof "Tiny House").

Daniel Rappaport, Guymon Cassady, Will Speck and Josh Gordon are exec producers. Speck and Gordon, commercial directors who recently helmed the Will Farrell feature "Blades of Glory," are on board to also direct.

Though the idea is clever, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the show is doomed to failure.

Of considerable more interest is this article from Variety.

HBO has acquired the rights to turn George R.R. Martin's bestselling fantasy series "A Song of Fire & Ice" into a dramatic series to be written and exec produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

"Fire" is the first TV project for Benioff ("Troy") and Weiss ("Halo") and will shoot in Europe or New Zealand. Benioff and Weiss will write every episode of each season together save one, which the author (a former TV writer) will script.

The series will begin with the 1996 first book, "A Game of Thrones," and the intention is for each novel (they average 1,000 pages each) to fuel a season's worth of episodes. Martin has nearly finished the fifth installment, but won't complete the seven-book cycle until 2011.

Martin spins a fine plot, as Rico has testified. His books are so complicated that I'm glad they'll be able to devote a full season to each one. Trying to cram A Game of Thrones into a two hour movie would have been a disaster. Still, there are a few problems. First, I don't know how much money HBO has to throw around. It'd be a shame if the battles and exotic locations have to be cut or pared down. That's half of the fun after all. Second, I'm not sure I want to see it. Sure, the vast majority of A Song of Ice and Fire has the potential to be amazing, but it's a lot easier to read some of the stuff Martin writes than it will be to see it. Specifically from Game, I'm thinking of Dany's "romance" with Kahl Drogo and Tyrion's flashback to his peasant wife. Yuck. Reservations aside, I'm really looking forward to seeing Martin's characters come to life. I hope Game gets the treatment it deserves. A faithful adaptation would be one hell of a ride.