HBO is hoping its new series "Game of Thrones," based on fantasy novels, will become the network’s next "True Blood"-like hit, reports the Los Angeles Times’ Show Tracker blog.

The nature of the material didn’t personally appeal to Michael Lombardo, the network’s programming president. "It wasn’t the genre we responded to, it was the storytelling," he said at the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday. The show will debut in the spring of 2011. Given that the genre novels the show is based on have a devoted following, the network has "enormous pressure" to "get it right," Lombardo said.