2019 · Director: S.J. CLARKSON
Production Designer: Luke Hull
Wildside / HBO — Gaeta, Italy
STAND-BY ART DIRECTOR ITALY
BLOOD MOON - GAME OF THRONES
Set nearly 5,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, Blood Moon chronicles the world's descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour — the first Long Night. A Westeros unrecognisable: no King's Landing, no Iron Throne, no dragons. A hundred petty kingdoms, the Starks of legend, and the first terrifying rise of the White Walkers.
Created by Jane Goldman and George R.R. Martin. Directed by S.J. Clarkson. Cast: Naomi Watts, Naomi Ackie, Denise Gough, Jamie Campbell Bower, Miranda Richardson, John Simm, Sheila Atim, Georgie Henley, Alex Sharp, Toby Regbo, Josh Whitehouse, Ivanno Jeremiah. The pilot was shot, post-production completed — then cancelled by HBO in October 2019. It was never seen.
✦ From the set: The crew got very fit on those five hundred steps. Luigi Sergiani's simple but brilliant rigging system — no technology, just ingenuity — moved an entire construction site into a sea cave.
The Italian shoot centred on the Grotta del Turco in Gaeta — a spectacular natural sea cave accessible only by descending five to six hundred steps. Inside, a monumental stone staircase and a ship's landing dock were constructed in four weeks.
Every piece of material had to be carried down by hand — no cranes, no heavy machinery could reach the site. A custom rigging system devised by key craftsman Luigi Sergiani lowered and raised everything piece by piece.
