THE DARK TOWER will be made into a movie

[LitmusDragon]

I think I would have been more surprised if it had actually went forward as planned. I expected them to at least scale back to a single movie, or something.

I'll admit to being pretty disappointed- I think that JJ Abrams has a genuine love for the material and might have come up with something really good out of it. Assuming he was still involved at the point that it was cancelled.

I was never that crazy about the involvement of Ron Howard though.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I'll admit to being pretty disappointed- I think that JJ Abrams has a genuine love for the material and might have come up with something really good out of it. Assuming he was still involved at the point that it was cancelled.

Abrams was no longer involved. He relinquished the rights some time ago since he didn't have the time available he felt the project needed.

 

[Dream]

Stephen King 'not really surprised' about 'Dark Tower' roadblock

“I’m sorry Universal passed, but not really surprised,” he writes in an email. “As a rule, they’ve been about smaller and less risky pix; maybe they feel it would be better to stick with those fast and furious racing boys. I bear them no ill will, and trust Ron Howard to get Roland and his friends before the camera somewhere else. He’s very committed to the project.”

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2011/07/19/stephen-king-dark-tower-universal/

Funny jab at the Fast franchise.

 

[Harvey]

This isn't that surprising, really. It would have been a huge investment that could have fallen apart if either the television series or the film series ultimately failed. If it had paid off, then the cross-marketing potential would have been tremendous, but there's a reason nobody has tried something this ambitious before. It's hard enough getting one of those things to work, let alone two in tandem.

Of course, Universal is the same company that is spending $200 million on a Battleship movie, so who knows what their reasoning is.

 

[Checkmate]

Maybe HBO will be able to get their hands on it after American Gods. It'd fit right in with their original series.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Warner Bros is close to a deal for Ron Howard to move forward with the project. Here's the full story.

 

[Dream]

Maybe HBO will be able to get their hands on it after American Gods. It'd fit right in with their original series.

HBO has done a really good job with Game of Thrones. I'd rather The Dark Tower be a great show on HBO than a movie series.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Deadline Hollywood reports that Warner Bros will decide within two weeks whether to go ahead with The Dark Tower. Javier Bardem is no longer attached to the project. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are now talking to Russell Crowe about taking the starring role. You can read Deadline's full story here.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I would LOVE Russel Crowe as Roland. He's great as a sympathetic badass!

 

[Dream]

Idris Elba cast as gunslinger Roland Deschain. Matthew McConaughey will play the villainous Man in Black.

Nikolaj Arcel is directing

http://deadline.com/2016/03/idris-elba-stephen-king-the-dark-tower-matthew-mcconaughey-1201712849/

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Sounds like they got the casting backwards. I know Idris Elba is fan choice for every role but he in no way seems like how Roland is described and I don't know how they do a race flip without it affecting the story in particular with Susannah.

 

[The Lensman]

HBO has done a really good job with Game of Thrones. I'd rather The Dark Tower be a great show on HBO than a movie series.

Yep. It used to be that t.v. was where the stuff not good enough for movies ended up. Now it's the other way around. T.v. is so good nowadays that for a really good adaptation I'm more interested in it being on t.v. Hell, after watching The Flash for a season and a half, I'm no longer interested in seeing a Spider-Man movie because a t.v. show would do a much better job at doing that character justice.

As for Idris Elba being cast as Roland.....It's been probably twenty years or longer since I last read a Dark Tower book. The last one I bought was book 3. But IIRC, race was kind of important to the story as far as Odetta and how she initially responded to Roland because he was white.

For myself, even before I found out King based Roland on Young Clint Eastwood, that's about how I viewed him as the only westerns I could stand watching were the Sergio Leone ones (Eastwoods 3 and "Once Upon A Time In The West) because there was an otherworldly feeling about them.

Will be interesting to see how they pull it off.

 

[theenglish]

I agree that a television adaptation could do a much better job with the series than a few movies. As far as Elba, I think it is a good casting move and there are ways to re-write the story slightly to make it fit. Can't wait to see him do a whole song and dance routine from Book V.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Roland, Roland, Roland,
Keep that ka-tet, Roland,
Roland, Roland, Roland...Deschaaaaaaaaaaaaain

 

[STEPhon IT]

Bring on Idris Elba, he's hot, I'm in if he's cast.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Maybe they can make Susannah a 21st Century woman who runs on prosthetic blades?

 

[Kai "the spy"]

Time to resurrect this thread.

 

[Hugo Rune]

That's a great poster.

Hugo - would have enjoyed seeing a rose hidden in there somewhere

 

[Mr. Adventure]

It will be interesting to see how it comes out. I personally have a big roadblock because what I've seen and read does not jibe with the books. I'm trying to look at it on its own terms as it might succeed as its own thing using the books as a starting point. The books became quite a mess by the end in my opinion so this might not be a bad thing.

 

[DigificWriter]

It will be interesting to see how it comes out. I personally have a big roadblock because what I've seen and read does not jibe with the books.

It's not supposed to "jibe with the books", because it's not directly adapting their events;

Spoiler

instead, it's picking up where King left off and providing a NEW telling of the story... hence the inclusion of the Horn of Eld and characters who, originally, showed up much later on.