Game of Thrones (season 3)

The third season of the epic fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones will premiere in the United States and Canada on March 31, 2013 on HBO The season will premiere internationally on April 1 in the United Kingdom on Sky Atlantic and in the Netherlands on HBO Netherlands. Like the other seasons, the third season will consist of ten episodes. The season is based roughly on the first half of A Storm of Swords, the third of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R. R. Martin, of which the series is an adaptation. HBO renewed the series for a third season on April 10, 2012, nine days after the second season's premiere. Production began in July 2012.

Game of Thrones rapidly became a critical and commercial success after it started airing in April 2011. A few days after ratings for the second season's premiere, "The North Remembers", hit a series high of 8.3 million viewers,[6] HBO announced the show's renewal for a third season. Prior to that announcement, there had been rumors and reports[7] that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss planned to shoot seasons three and four simultaneously. Benioff said that this would be very efficient, but impossible to write.

The ten episodes of the third season are to be longer than the previous seasons', about 56 or 57 minutes as opposed to about 52. The season's budget was reported to be about 50 million U.S. dollars.

Writing
The third season will be based on the first half of the novel A Storm of Swords. Benioff had previously said that A Storm of Swords would need to be adapted in two seasons on account of its length.[11] Benioff and Weiss also noted that they thought of Game of Thrones as an adaptation of the novel series as a whole, rather than of individual books, which gave them the liberty to move scenes back and forth across books according to the requirements of the screen adaptation. According to Benioff, the third season will contain a particularly memorable scene from A Storm of Swords, the prospect of filming which was part of their motivation to adapt the novels for television in the first place.

Crew
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss serve as main writers and showrunners for the third season. They co-wrote seven out of ten episodes. The remaining three episodes were written by Bryan Cogman, Vanessa Taylor, and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin.

Daniel Minahan, Alex Graves, Michelle MacLaren, and David Nutter each directed two episodes, while the other two episodes were directed by previous series cinematographer Alik Sakharov. Benioff and Weiss co-directed an episode, both making their directorial debuts.