Game of Thrones renewed for a third season

Well, duh. And couldn't they just do us all a favour and renew it "until there are no more books to film?" Would that be so difficult? EW has the good news:

"You haven’t seen anything yet: Game of Thrones has been officially renewed for a third season by HBO. The network ordered another round of the fantasy hit, which recently debuted its second season to record ratings, then followed up with a nearly identical performance this week. The third season is expected to be more or less based on the first half of George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords — the third novel of his “Song of Ice and Fire” series of fantasy best-sellers. Long a fan favorite of the book series,  Swords has several dramatic twists and confrontations (so … save the date!). Given the book’s length (the paperback edition is 1,216 pages) and action-packed content, producers plan to break up the novel into two seasons. HBO is not confirming if season three is another 10-episode order."

To celebrate, let us, once more, enjoy 10 minutes of Tyrion slapping the snot out of Joffrey.