Game of Thrones movie could end series in $100m conflagration

George RR Martin is a hero. Not just for writing the most violently, unpredictably shocking series of books imaginable, but for constantly winding up his fans and driving them completely and utterly crazy. He's been at it again at the New York premiere of the fourth season of Game of Thrones, the HBO adaptation of his epic saga.

"It all depends on how long the main series runs," Martin told The Hollywood Reporter. "Do we run for seven years? Do we run for eight? Do we run for 10? The books get bigger and bigger [in scope]. It might need a feature to tie things up, something with a feature budget, like $100m for two hours. Those dragons get real big, you know."

At the end of series three, the dragons are whelps, pre-teen lizards who've just learned to fly. Sure, they can toast a few slavers, but they're hardly Smaug. Clearly they're not done growing.

The new season gets its European premiere in London this Tuesday, with the first episode going out on Sky Atlantic on Monday 7 April.

If you don't have a Sky dish, fear not: you'll be able to watch the incest and sorcery online with the aid of a Now TV Entertainment subscription. Just £5 per month bags you all of Sky's current US shows, including the excellent True Detective, live as they're transmitted and on catch up.

The sub gives you access to all three previous seasons of the drama on demand too.

If ten series of the show and a $100m movie spectacular aren't enough for you committed Westerosi, Martin also hinted his Dunk and Egg novellas might be film fodder. "They could be the basis for [a film]," he said. "I have written these three stories, and I have about a dozen more."

The short stories are slightly less harrowing tales of derring do, set a hundred years or so before the current series. They give some background on the roots of the disastrous political situation gripping the Seven Kingdoms, and have previously been made into a graphic novel.