The second episode of House of the Dragon is being released tonight. The show's first episode broke HBO viewing records last week, and it's already been renewed for a second season. The show draws inspiration from George R.R. Martin's novella Fire & Blood, and follows the rise of the Targaryen family, and takes place about 200 years before Game of Thrones.
"Hollywood will give you money a lot easier than they'll give you creative control," Martin said with a laugh."You can go to negotiations and say 'Yes, I will thank you for paying me 8 million dollars, but I would like creative control as well.' And they will say, 'How about 10 million?' They would rather give millions of dollars than any creative control."
"What I do have is influence, I have creative influence," Martin added,"but that depends largely on the relationship between myself and the showrunners and so forth. I mean, I can make points, I can argue and they can listen, but if they decide not to listen, then you know, I can persuade them. I don't have the power to hire or to fire.
Martin continued,"You know, I had a lot of input in the beginning of Game of Thrones, partly cause I had these books out there. But at a certain point, as the show went on I found I had less and less influence until by the end, I really didn't even know what was going on. Some of these things I watched like everybody else, and 'oh, okay.'" He explained,"Now at the moment, I'm very happy with House of the Dragon. It's a very faithful adaptation.
You can read HBO's official synopsis for House of the Dragon here:"The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires-real and imagined-crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne.