Stephen Kings "Dark Tower" Film/TV Series

I rank the books like so:

The Gunslinger
Drawing of the Three
Wolves of Calla
The Waste Lands
The Dark Tower
Song of Susannah
Wizard and Glass

I re-read these books every couple of years so I know them like my own smell at this point, but I've only made it through "Wizard..." twice. It's just torturous. This whole, "I know something but I don't think I can tell you right now" plot device gets pretty annoying. I found the Wizard of Oz thing kinda silly. If this is the best King could do he should have crashed the goddamn train into a brick wall and killed everyone.

Spoiler: Spoilery Rant

I was angry with Susannah at the end of the series for bailing out. After all the trouble she caused throughout the series (not necessarily always her fault but still) I felt she should be the character who makes the sacrifice for the others, rather than being the one person who gets to roll off into Happy-ville.

Spoiler: Another spoilery rant

The who Mia thing was tiresome as well. Felt like I was reading "Dreamcatcher" all over again. And what was the point of Spider-Boy? He eliminates a key adversary, depriving the reader of an epic showdown, just so he can get food poisoning and die unceremoniously. Sheesh. And don't get me started on the kid with the erasers. Ka my ass.

Re-reading "The Waste Lands" last time I found it more flawed than I originally thought. It was the bee's knees when I was a teenager, but now I find certain elements of it rather creaky. Still a decent read, though, but I'll inch "Wolves..." into the slot above it.

Spoiler: Final Spoilery Rant

And the arrogance to just wave his hand and tell us that Martin and Walter are the same person when they clearly are not in the earlier books is an insult to the reader.

 

That was fun to read, and I pretty much agree EXCEPT I love, love, love Wizard and Glass (the backstory part, that is.) The main plot stuff, esp. The Wizard of Oz section is really dumb, but the Susan story is wonderful.

You'd never think it, but King actually does romance pretty well and there's a lot of it, once you start looking. Carrie, Salem's Lot, Dead Zone, The Stand, Christine, Bag of Bones and especially Wizard and 11/22/63 all have very believable romantic relationships. (Those are off the top of my head. There are probably others, along with all the spouses who hate, torture, and murder each other.)

 

I agree 100%. I was glued to that book. I'm due to re-read the series again soon.

 

I agree completely. That whole storyline is my favorite part of the series.

As for Idris obviously departing from the image of Roland most readers had (and saw, the books had color art, remember), it also departs from the recent (authorized by King) graphic novels, which were wholly new stories, not just comic versions of the novels.

 

Interesting theory that the film will be a continuation of the books.

Stephen King made The Dark Tower movie interesting again with one tweet | News | Geek.com »

 

Once you're aware of this writer's trick, you'll see it in every TV show and every novel ever written. There are many, many dramas and mysteries where the author deliberately withholds information that -- if it had been known -- would've reduced the story to 10 minutes long. How about... "tell Dorothy if she just clicks her heels together three times, she can immediately go back to Kansas." That negates most of The Wizard of Oz.

On the other hand, sometimes it's fun when the audience is aware of some grave danger out there but the hero doesn't know about it. Stephen King does this quite often in his novels, and there are also moments in Dark Tower where one of the heroes knows something the others don't yet know, creating tension and conflict.

 

I'm going to be honest. I don't know if I'm a big fan of this series because I was a youth when I (started) reading this and I remember it fondly. Or...the wait for each subsequent volume created this electric anticipation of I-can't-wait-to-see-what-happens-next. Or...if it really was that good of literary prose.

But I just read something that takes all of the wind out of my sails when it comes to this. Two major characters are being cut. Hear that? That was my interest in this just slamming the door on its way out of the room.

The Dark Tower: What the film changes (and keeps) from Stephen King's books
by Anthony Breznican | July 14 2016 — 2:00 PM EDT

Ilze Kitshoff
The challenge of adapting The Dark Tower into a movie is the same one faced by its gunslinger hero: How do you prevent this pillar of worlds from collapsing under its own weight?

Not only do the filmmakers have to please longtime Stephen King fans while significantly reworking a beloved literary work, they also have to entice newcomers without losing them in the labyrinth.

If it works and the $60 million film is a hit, there are unlimited plans for sequels and even a companion TV series, exploring all the further dimensions of King’s books. If moviegoers and critics balk, then The Dark Tower franchise will be like one of those unfinished buildings, where only the foundation was laid before work was abandoned.

BEST LAID PLANS
Over the past decade, heavyweights such as J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard have tried to bring King’s epic to the screen, but for many studios it was too big, too intricate, and too weird. (Not to mention the budget — too costly.) After so many false starts, the mere existence of the movie, which Sony Pictures and production company MRC studios will release on Feb. 17, is simultaneously a dream come true for King’s readers and something that fills them with trepidation.

King himself gets it. “I feel more wrapped up in this one because the books took so long to write and the fan base is so dedicated,” he says in an interview from his office in Bangor, Maine. So instead of keeping the film at arm’s length, he has been offering suggestions from afar. “They sent me a number of different drafts and it came into focus, let’s put it that way,” he says. “I’m 100 percent behind it — which doesn’t mean it necessarily will work, just that it’s a good way to try and to get into these stories.”

Among King’s obsessive readers is The Dark Tower director and co-writer Nikolaj Arcel, a Danish filmmaker who says he learned English as a teen just so he could read King’s books in their native language. Some may see a sinister story. He sees a fable about doing the right thing, the selfless thing. Despite the Tower’s ominous name, it actually stands for something good.

“The Tower is a beacon of light in a world that’s cynical and dark and sometimes feels a little hopeless, and this is about the quest for that,” says Arcel, who’s best known for directing Oscar-nominated Danish film A Royal Affair, and for writing the script for the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. “This is the quest to save the hope and the light.”

Here’s a look at what this movie will utilize from King’s epic saga, and what it will be putting aside for those later installments, if the audience for The Dark Tower is as stratospheric as they hope.

COMPLICATED SHADOWS
First, the movie is sticking to the triangulation of the first novel, The Gunslinger, begun when King was just a college kid and published in 1982 (with a revision in 2003 to bring it into line with the latter mythology.) Those three points are Idris Elba’s Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger; Matthew McConaughey’s Walter, The Man in Black; and newcomer Tom Taylor’s Jake Chambers, a 15-year-old with psychic powers that could either save the Tower or help Walter destroy it.

Roland chases Walter, Walter chases Jake, and Jake chases Roland. “It’s completely circular, cogs and wheels,” says Arcel, sitting beside a candlelit altar to the Crimson King, the mad god who will be unleashed if the Tower falls. “Everything fits together. It has a great little power to it. It fits very well into the nature of the entire saga itself.”

This theme – that fate (or “Ka” in the language of the Tower) is a wheel that always comes around to the same place while rolling us inexorably forward matches perfectly with King’s novels. But the movie is also taking some major liberties with the story, albeit with the blessing of the Creator.

“All I can say is that Steve is our partner all the way through, so we don’t make a move without Stephen telling us, ‘That is The Dark Tower’ and when Stephen says, ‘It isn’t,’ which he has at times, we go, ‘Okay, let’s try something else,” says Akiva Goldsman, an Oscar-winner for A Beautiful Mind, who co-wrote the script.

King didn’t just sign off, he made his own modifications. “I took a pen and cut Roland’s dialogue to the bone,” the author says. “The less he says the better off, and why not? Idris Elba can act with his face. He’s terrific at it. He projects that sense of combined menace and security. [Roland] is the Western hero, the strong, silent type: ‘Yep,’ ‘Nope,’ and ‘Draw.’”

After that, King was ready to let the wheel roll. “All I said was, ‘Yeah, go ahead and go with it. This is an interesting way to attack the material.’”

We’ll get into non-spoiler, general descriptions of what came from each book tomorrow, but for now, Goldsman said he tried not to cherry-pick only the most memorable parts of the saga, but rather blend pieces that would support what he considers the overall theme: sacrifice, friendship, and accepting as parts of your life become past-tense.

“The Dark Tower is about how we carry around our past, which of our ghosts travel with us, and how do we attend to them,” he says. “The ghosts of history, the ghosts of the people we’ve lost in order to get to whatever our Tower is.”

TWO LOST COMPANIONS
Without doubt, the most significant story change is the absence of two major characters who, in the books, were pulled from our world to join Roland’s quest: the reformed heroin junkie Eddie, and the amputee with multiple personalities, Susannah.

Constant Readers who’ve been following the production have probably noticed that no one has been cast in those roles yet. The bad news: they won’t be. Although… an allusion to them may be in the cards.

The good news: if there’s a sequel, they are guaranteed. (Keep reaching for those Bends ‘o the Rainbow, Aaron Paul.)




Those fancasting Susannah can keep up their campaigns, too. No decision will be made about the future of The Dark Tower franchise until it’s clear there’s an audience for the first movie, although the relatively low budget improves the likelihood of success. At that point, we may even get to see the friendly billybumbler creature known as Oy joining the quest.

Arcel says he knows fans will miss Eddie and Susannah — he does too. But they didn’t join the saga until the second book, 1987’s The Drawing of the Three, and he felt it was important to establish the Gunslinger’s solitude before establishing his “Ka-tet,” or fate-forged family.

“They’re certainly out there,” Arcel says. “I think the entire story deserves to be told and should be told. I would certainly be disappointed in myself or my collaborators if we didn’t bring them in. They’re such a huge part of the story.”

King also consulted on those two sitting this one out. “I’m fine with it,” he says. “I know exactly where Akiva always planned to bring them in and that’s cool with me.”

THE SECRET SEQUEL
For others still worried about fidelity to the source material, there’s another twist to consider.

By the end of the books, Roland has come into possession of an artifact known as the Horn of Eld, and blowing it is like hitting a cosmic reset button. Every time Roland does this and starts the quest over again, it changes in big and small ways. In the movie, he already has this tool (you can see it peeking out of his bag in the image above), which means the film is not so much an adaptation as a continuation.

“The hardcore fans of The Dark Tower series will know that this is actually a sequel to the books in a way,” Arcel says. “It has a lot of the same elements, a lot of the same characters, but it is a different journey.”

It’s a strange journey, for sure. One that’s not only venturing through a very, very long shadow, but adding to it as it goes.

 

Well that seals it for me, I don't need to get excited about watching this. In fact I probably won't watch it. With all major respect due to Mr. Elba, he is not the Gunslinger for a multitude of obvious and not so obvious reasons. I've actually listed a few current actors that I think would fit the bill better. I do think he's a great actor and given what they are doing to this by leaving out critical characters he might be the only actor who could carry the film but it's not going to be like the books in any way at all. It's almost as if this is going to be a movie based on an idea of the books.

 

Eddie and Susannah are just not in this first film. They haven't been cut from the whole series. They aren't in the first book either.

 

No they're not. But I don't think this is going to be a seven movie series. One movie for each book. I don't see book one being an entire movie. Definitely some condensing involved.

 

They're taking bits and pieces from all over the series, it sounds like, and presenting them in a different order. But there's no intention to leave those characters out.

 

Well I'm underwhelmed. So it's going to be sort of a mishmash of some of the old stuff but really, maybe, it's the next cycle and the most interesting and the most aggravating characters won't be there? And the guy that did a terrible job on the last book is steering the ship? It may turn out well but maybe it should be called "The Dark Tower-ish".

 

I think it would better if this were done for cable TV like Game Of Thrones.

 

It's not meant to be a 7 film series. The thing I like about it is the brilliant decision to have the liberty to change things since it is actually a continuation of the books. This story takes place after the events of the final book. It's Roland's final trip to the tower, the loop has ended.

 

It seems to me that if this is so, and it might be, it might even be more important to cast an Eddie and Susannah now. The only explanation they should be able to come up with in NOT having cast them already is it will be in book order.

I don't know. I'm not liking this news at all.

 

You posted the article, didn't you read this section?

TWO LOST COMPANIONS
Without doubt, the most significant story change is the absence of two major characters who, in the books, were pulled from our world to join Roland’s quest: the reformed heroin junkie Eddie, and the amputee with multiple personalities, Susannah.

Constant Readers who’ve been following the production have probably noticed that no one has been cast in those roles yet. The bad news: they won’t be. Although… an allusion to them may be in the cards.

The good news: if there’s a sequel, they are guaranteed. (Keep reaching for those Bends ‘o the Rainbow, Aaron Paul.)

Those fancasting Susannah can keep up their campaigns, too. No decision will be made about the future of The Dark Tower franchise until it’s clear there’s an audience for the first movie, although the relatively low budget improves the likelihood of success. At that point, we may even get to see the friendly billybumbler creature known as Oy joining the quest.

Arcel says he knows fans will miss Eddie and Susannah — he does too. But they didn’t join the saga until the second book, 1987’s The Drawing of the Three, and he felt it was important to establish the Gunslinger’s solitude before establishing his “Ka-tet,” or fate-forged family.

“They’re certainly out there,” Arcel says. “I think the entire story deserves to be told and should be told. I would certainly be disappointed in myself or my collaborators if we didn’t bring them in. They’re such a huge part of the story.”

King also consulted on those two sitting this one out. “I’m fine with it,” he says. “I know exactly where Akiva always planned to bring them in and that’s cool with me.”

They're not going to cast actors when they don't even know if there will be another film.

 

Yeah, I read it. The whole article is a mess. It also says "...no one has been cast in those roles yet. The bad news, they won't be..."

I guess I'd rather they don't do it at all rather than screw it up. And releasing just one movie and potentially not finishing the story would effectively put an end to ever seeing a film done right.

 

Yeah -- because they're not in this movie! They mean "they won't be right now."

Anyway. I have my doubts about this working myself. This article contains the first two pictures released from the film/set:

‘The Dark Tower’ Debuts New Photos and Character Details »

The look seems a lot more "videogame movie" than I would have wanted.

 

This article gets a lot wrong. Aaron Paul was being considered for the role of Eddie Dean in the next films (which would be brilliant casting) and has been interviewed about it.

 

I think that was in the earlier incarnation when Ron Howard was directing it.

I feel like it might be too on the nose, really -- yes, Eddie is a lot like Jesse Pinkman but with Aaron in the role it would seem like he actually is Jesse Pinkman.

 

Just in case someone hasn't read the book(s) I put the following as a SPOILER.

Spoiler: BOOK SPOILER

I love the idea this cinematic franchise will take place after the last book. Roland makes it to the top of the tower only to get thrown back to the beginning to have to do it all over again, just slightly different each time. Each time because he dropped/lost The Horn Of Elder. But this time at the end (of the books) The Tower threw a bit of KA his way because when he ends up back at the beginning of the story he now has said Horn. By this King suggests that he WILL be successful on his next trek to the Tower. This is the universe that the movie version will take place in and gives the writers (and King) liberties to change the story around a bit the same way that JJ Abrams did with his Star Trek reboot via time travel.

 

It's still Howard's project so I wouldn't count out the choice. Aaron seemed very excited about the opportunity a short while back. I guess it will all depend on his schedule... and if this first film warrants a sequel.

 

I get that this is a sequel of sorts. But is that what you want? It isn't what I want. I like the story as i read it. Everything I read about this seems to make me to see this less and less

 

Iris Elba just looks wrong to me. That jacket and look is way too slick. I expect Roland to look dusty and a bit raggy like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns -- not "Matrix" chic. And Iris Elba just looks too big and powerful. I saw Roland and lean and mean, again, like Clint, not some big bruiser. I hope that one shot with all the people standing around isn't the overall look of the movie. I saw the Dark Tower as being set in the past, those women and men look like they just came from Sunset Strip nightclub. I guess this film is going to mix up the books a bit, not just tell "The Gunslinger" (my favorite book of the series). Oh well, what can you do? I have a feeling this is going to be lousy. Like you said, Steven King for the Marvel movie crowd.

 

I agree with this. Even at the beginning of the first book, wasn't he already very thin, weak and haggard looking? I had the impression of him as looking very unhealthy, but still being deadly due to his skill.