Director McCarthy and actor Dinklage to play HBO's 'Game'

Peter Dinklage

Tom McCarthy has come aboard to direct HBO's fantasy pilot A GAME OF THRONES which will film in Northern Ireland later this year. Peter Dinklage who starred in McCarthy’s first feature The Station Agent has been tapped for a key role.

Based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling Songs of Fire and Ice novels, A GAME OF THRONES is described as an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom. According to The Hollywood Reporter Dinklage will play Tyrion, the Queen's brother who is treated as an outsider because of his size.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss penned the pilot script and are exec producing. HBO Entertainment president-turned-producer Carolyn Strauss, Management 360's Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and Martin serve as co-exec producers, and Mark Huffam and Frank Doelger are producers.

Dinklage, is currently filming two features: the indie Pete Smalls Is Dead, which he also co-produces, and Screen Gems/Sidney Kimmel's remake of Death at a Funeral.

A GAME OF THRONES marks the first TV directorial gig for the Gersh-repped McCarthy, an actor who wrote and directed two features, 2003's The Station Agent and 2007's The Visitor, both of which landed him Indie Spirit Awards. On the acting side, McCarthy next appears in 2012.

© The Hollywood Reporter

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A Game of Thrones is financed through the Northern Ireland Screen Fund supported by Invest NI.