Game of Thrones (season 1)
The first season of the fantasy drama television series "Game of Thrones" premiered on HBO on April 17, 2011 in the U.S., and concluded on June 19, 2011. It consists of ten episodes, each of approximately 55 minutes. The series is based on "A Game of Thrones", the first novel in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R. R. Martin, adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. HBO had ordered a television pilot in November 2008; filming began the following year. However, it was deemed unsatisfactory and later reshot with some roles being recast. In March 2010, HBO ordered the first season, which began filming in July 2010, primarily in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with additional filming in Malta.
Winter Is Coming
In March 2006, a few weeks after meeting Martin, Benioff and Weiss pitched the show to Showtime and Carolyn Strauss of HBO, who accepted their proposal. HBO acquired the rights to the novels to turn them into a television series, with Benioff and Weiss as writers and executive producers of the series. The series went into development in January 2007. The series would begin with the 1996 first book of "A Song of Ice and Fire", "A Game of Thrones", with the intention that each novel in the series would form the basis for a season's worth of episodes. However, Benioff and Weiss had to resubmit a proposal after Carolyn Strauss stepped down as president of HBO in 2008. The first and second drafts of the pilot script, written by Benioff and Weiss, were submitted in August 2007 and June 2008 respectively. While HBO found both drafts to their liking, a pilot was not ordered until November 2008.