Torn is the word that best describes my feelings on the potential adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy series The Dark Tower. It’s been quite a while since we last heard about it (over a year by my records), but to sum it up very simply, Stephen King sold the rights to the series to JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof for $19 and they were going to get to work on it. Now over a year later, we get an update from Lindelof:
“The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we’ve got seven books we’re looking at. And the idea of doing that at the same time Carlton and I are bringing Lost to a close is simply not viable. There are always Dark Tower conversations, but the figuring out of what this will look like as a movie has not begun. If The Dark Tower were in the right hands, I would love to see seven movies executed just right. But you have to get people to see the first one to get them to come and see the second one.”
I wrote back in December that I could see the first novel in the series, The Gunslinger, made as a standalone film (a John Hillcoat film anyone?), but I couldn’t see how they could faithfully bring all seven movies to the screen – besides the enormous scope of the project, besides figuring out how to deal with Jake, besides how potentially angry they could make the dedicated fanbase, how would they honestly ever get a studio on board such a project? The Dark Tower is popular and all, but it certainly doesn’t have the fanbase that Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia hold. Frank Darabont originally expressed his interest in this project – as he and King are good friends – and I was intrigued with that rumor… but the option ultimately went to Abrams, somebody I admittedly am pretty weary of.
Of course, even after they work on it, nothing will be official. They’ll come up with their ideas, they’ll present them, and then see if anybody bites. It is still far from a reality at this point and maybe even further than we originally thought.
Source: /Film
I’m not familiar with The Dark Tower other than to know it’s some sort of gunslinger meets ???
Yeah, I don’t know much about it.
As King himself describes it, it is Lord of the Rings meets The Good the Bad and the Ugly meets King Arthur.
I’ve finished the first six books and it is storytelling at some of its finest.
I’m not a big King fan but I’m really curious. I have a stack of books to get through in the next few weeks but if I find the time, I’ll have to delve into the first one. If worse comes to worse, I can do what I’ve done with the majority of the King I’ve tried to read: put it down and forget about it.
For the record, I’m not a complete hater, I did enjoy “Christine” and I love “The Stand”. Just not a big fan.
It is not much like King’s other novels at all, even if it does reference many of them.
Liked the first book a lot. Good call on Hillcoat directing – if only.
Haven’t read the other three, but $19? I should’ve bought the rights.
They should let it be unless they’re doing one of two things:
1. Puting Frank Darabont in charge and turning these books into an HBO miniseries over a few year span (so Jake doesn’t age too much).
2. Puting Frank Darabont in charge and combining books 2 & 3 and 5 & 6, with The Gunslinger, Wizard and Glass, and The Dark Tower as stand alone films. And hope Jake doesn’t age too much.
THE HBO SERIES WOULD BE THE BEST WAY TO DO IT, HANDS DOWN!
THE DARK TOWER WOULD FIT THAT MEDIUM PERFECTLY CONSIDERING THE AMOUNT OF CONTENT. GREAT BOOKS!