It's no longer a 'Game'

George R.R. Martin hints that there will be surprises in the fifth season of "Game of Thrones," even to loyal readers. At the Writers Guild West Awards last weekend, he said, "People are going to die who don't die in the books, so even the book readers will be unhappy. Everybody had better be on their toes." He added that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss "are even bloodier than I am."

'Alien' redux

With Sigourney Weaver's enthusiastic support, Neill Blomkamp ("District 9") will direct a new "Alien" movie. … Michael Bay's next project is the Benghazi drama "13 Hours." … Willie Nelson will star in "Waiting for the Miracle to Come," produced by Wim Wenders and Bono.

Hindsight, Oscar style

The Hollywood Reporter polled current Academy members about past winners, and righted a few wrongs on the best picture list. The "new" results have "All the President's Men" knocking out "Rocky"; "My Left Foot" stepping on "Driving Miss Daisy"; "The Shawshank Redemption" getting redemption against "Forrest Gump"; "Saving Private Ryan" shooting down "Shakespeare in Love," and "Brokeback Mountain" crashing the "Crash" party.

'Live' and kicking

The "Saturday Night Live" 40th anniversary special was the most-Tweeted TV episode ever. … Netflix has acquired the Jamie Dornan war thriller "Jadotville," co-starring French heartthrob Guillaume Canet. The streaming service also renewed "Mozart in the Jungle" for a second season, and greenlighted five new series. … Rob Lowe stars as a TV lawyer in "The Grinder" for Fox. … Sorry, kids, no John Oliver to "The Daily Show": HBO has renewed "Last Week Tonight" for two years.

Ungrateful

Diane Warren, who wrote "Grateful" from "Beyond the Lights," has lashed out at singer Rita Ora for doing little to promote the Oscar-nominated song. "It's like, there's no support. She's going to sing for, what, a billion people? What an opportunity! And she tweeted about it twice. I'm like, 'Really?' " She also faults the Relativity record label for not releasing the song as a single. The seven-times-nominated Warren added she's "getting to Susan Lucci territory now."

CYNTHIA DICKISON