The highly anticipated third season of HBO’s Game of Thrones is nigh, and the network has released a tantalizing video blog to whet fans’ appetites.  This particular featurette focuses on the production’s work in Iceland, where the harsh climate doubles as the environment “beyond the wall.”  Executive producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff talk about what the bitter cold and snow bring to the series (beardcicles!), while actors Ciaran Hinds and Kit Harington speak to the beauty of the country.

Hit the jump to watch the video blog, and click here to check out 23 images from the new season.  Game of Thrones season three premieres on HBO on March 31st.

Here are some Game of Thrones updates that don’t include George W. Bush’s head – HBO has released a list of the writers, directors and shooting locations for the show’s third season.

Sadly, Alan Taylor will be out of the mix for directing the upcoming season (which will be based on the first half of the third and potentially best book so far of the novel series, A Storm of Swords). Taylor, who directed some of the most memorable episodes of Thrones so far (including the final two episodes of the first season and a slew of great episodes this past season) will be busy shooting Thor 2 (bless him), which means that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will take the helm directing in his absence. For more on who is returning to Westeros next year, hit the jump.

At WonderCon on Sunday, Fox unveiled a 3 minute sizzle reel from their upcoming time travel and dinosaur filled TV series Terra Nova.   While the show has been delayed until the fall, after watching the footage, I understand why.  Not only does the show take place 85 million years in the past, it also takes place a hundred years in the future.  Nothing is present day.  It’s without a doubt one of the most ambitious ideas for network television to ever be greenlit and I couldn’t be more excited.  For all our previous coverage on Terra Nova including trailers and images, click here.

Before the panel, I got to talk with producer Brannon Braga and producer/director Alex Graves.  As a big time travel nerd, I tried to ask very geeky questions to see if they were playing the time travel real or having fun with it.  Thankfully, everything they said made me think if they can pull this off, Terra Nova could be a huge hit.  Some of the things we talked about were the communication between the past and future, how many episodes have they been picked up for and where are they in the production schedule, will people die, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

Just last month, Comic-Con attendees unfortunately were not given the opportunity to get an early look at Terra Nova, Steven Spielberg’s science fiction series about a man whose family lives on a dying earth where people are traveling back in time to survive and end up surrounded by dinosaurs. There was speculation that the reason the program pulled its appearance was because of a lack of significant footage to show audiences. All this seems to make sense as a new press release indicates that Terra Nova won’t be seen by audiences until a sneak preview on Fox in May of 2011 (likely after the season finale of one of Fox’s big series). The official series premiere will happen when the rest of television kicks off later that fall. More details on this epic sounding series including portals, time travel babble and casting confirmations can be found after the jump.