LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Tom McCarthy, writer-director of “The Visitor,” will direct HBO’s fantasy pilot “Game of Thrones,” which will feature Peter Dinklage -- the star of McCarthy’s first feature, “The Station Agent” -- in a key role.

Based on George R.R. Martin’s best-selling “Songs of Fire and Ice” novels, “Thrones” is described as the story of an epic struggle for power set in a vast and violent fantasy kingdom. Dinklage will play Tyrion, the Queen’s brother who is treated as an outsider because of his size.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss wrote the pilot script.

“Thrones” is slated to film in the third quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in what First Minister Peter Robinson hails as “the first TV production of such vast size and scale” to film in the country.

Dinklage is filming two comedy features: the indie “Pete Smalls Is Dead,” and the remake of “Death at a Funeral.”

“Thrones” marks the first TV directorial gig for McCarthy, an actor who received Independent Spirit Awards for both his features as writer-director. On the acting side, McCarthy next appears in the disaster thriller “2012.”