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King's Dark Tower Series To Be Adapted For Film, TV
Kozz writes "Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment have closed a deal to turn Stephen King's mammoth novel series The Dark Tower into a feature film trilogy and a network TV series, both of which will be creatively steered by the Oscar-winning team behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. 'The plan is to start with the feature film, and then create a bridge to the second feature with a season of TV episodes. That means the feature cast — and the big star who’ll play Deschain — also has to appear in the TV series before returning to the second film. After that sequel is done, the TV series picks up again, this time focusing on Deschain as a young gunslinger.'"
The last two books are going to be kind of tough to put on the big or small screen...
Fucking. Time!
That even with the TV seasons thrown in it's just not enough time. It seems likely we'll end up with something that has the depth of the animated Lord of the Rings movie. Stephen King may not have the depth of Tolkein, but The Dark Tower deserves better.
I'm excited. This sounds like it will be the first thing on TV I'll have cared about in a long time. Hopefully. I'm trying not to get my hopes up yet, but I guess we'll see.
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the other day.. Jack Palance in his prime would have the best gunslinger. I cant think of anyone else today who could fill this role Either way, this will be a waaaayyyy bigger undertaking than The Stand.
There's so much material there though, how could you possibly adapt it even into 7-films without leaving newcomers behind?
I mean, the TV series piece will be helpful, but that's asking for a large time investment for someone that wasn't already a big fan of the books. I am cautiously hopeful though, and even if this is just something that ends up being for the fans it could be great fun for a season.
They did do a pretty good job a few years back translating Nightmares and Dreamscapes to the small screen *fingers crossed*
I'm a big King fan, but I've never read this series...often wondered if it's worth getting into. Any opinions/advice/suggestions?
Living With a Nerd
TV miniseries has to be the lowest form of entertainment. I'd rather watch the local junior high community theater production.
I'm encouraged by the fact it is Ron Howard slated to direct; however that said, I think this initiative has no better than a 50/50 chance of being any good. It is quite impossible to duplicate the in depth pictures that King paints in your mind on the big screen. With the exception of The Shining, which was a pretty good screen adaptation, though of course pales on comparison to the book, all King screen adaptations have pretty much sucked. Need I mention The Stand? And that is only one book, good luck with Dark Tower Ron.
Do you ken filmslinger?
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
I give it until Blaine the Mono, and then the audience will be distracted and wander off and the project will be cut.
Well, maybe they'll jiggle the timeline a little and do Wizard and Glass first. That would actually make a decent movie.
Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
Skip the last episode.
If you didn't come to party don't bother knocking on my door. Prince '1999'
While I must say that I am pretty stoked about this news, I must also say that, while I understand the point of using a TV series as a bridge between feature films, I am a little dissappointed with the decision to go this route. Call me old fashion, but wouldn't it be more epic to have like 6-9 full length films? There is more than enough material in the books for that and IMHO the film adaptations should not stray from the books like most others. This project should be as epic as the book series.
Excited to finally get to see it on the big screen to see my imagination come to life. Terrified they will destroy it so badly that I will sulk away in horror.
Personally I thought it started coming off the rails in book six and book seven basically threw away the build of the first four books plus how much backfill from The Stand, Salem's Lot and Eye of the Dragon.
I call it 'The Aristocrats'
The Dark Tower series is my all time favorite series of books and I have read them all multiple times. I worry about how it will adapt to both the big and little screen although the adaption of The Stand did fairly well. It is a huge story and I love it all (except for the last half of the last book).
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I'm a big King fan, but I've never read this series...often wondered if it's worth getting into. Any opinions/advice/suggestions?
Take a risk on the first paperback or go to the library. My recollection is that unlike other books(*) you will get a sense of the story and style pretty quickly. If you like what you are reading keep going.
(*) As for book that don't really reveal themselves for a while I'd have to refer to Dune. Friends told me how great it was so I started reading. I pushed myself for the first third or so wondering what the hell the attraction was. Now while reading the second half I could not put the book down. Years later when I reread the book I loved the first half too. It was only after I had the big picture did I fully appreciate the rich and detailed social and environmental background information. This was all before the movie and miniseries so perhaps today fewer readers will stumble as I did.
If it proves popular I can't wait to see people's reaction to the ending (those that aren't familiar with it). It'll make everyone's disappointment in the Lost and Battlestar Galactica finales look like indifference. I know people who are still pissed off about everything that happens after the "don't read past this point" warning. Personally, I laughed out loud at the ending since it basically came down to with thing: "Ka is a wheel bitches! Deal with it."
we need wacky and out there for this material
ron howard: apollo 13, a beautiful mind, the davinci code
akiva goldsman: lost in space, batman & robin, i robot
eh
they are excellent filmmakers and producers and writers with a spectacular run of success with solid well-done pop fare and are well-regarded and appreciated
but they have strolled into psychedelic territory here
a story like the dark tower needs a stanley kubrick, a david lynch, a martin scorsese, maybe even a tim burton: a master of the theatre of the macabre and absurd
not these middlebrow crowd pleasing hollywood mainstream guys
for something like the dark tower, we want week old road kill roasted over an oil drum fire by a paranoid schizophrenic hobo. we don't want olive garden
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I feel that if the TV series are actually going to be part of the real story of the book it is going to be a raped and destroyed vision of the books. There is no way they can capture the the full story if they have to limit themselves to a pg-13 rating. There are way too many parts that when described in the book had you stuck unable to put it down. Unfortunately a lot of those parts will become watered down to the point of unwatchability if they are made for regular TV. Just imagine the fight between Roland and his teacher Cort. Or how crummy the CGI will be when he looses his fingers. Hell I'll be surprised if they do Blane the Mono any justice at all. Believe me I am all for a series of movies (done like Harry Potter one/two movies per book) or a TV series (if it was on Showtime or HBO) but I think it being on NBC will just cut the legs right out from under it.
If it's not done as a series of R-Rated movies, in the spirit of how Lord of the Rings was done, then I don't see how anything good can come of this....
The Dark Tower is my all-time favorite series of books, and I'm appalled to read this....
It would need 3-4 3-hour R-rated moves, and Clint Eastwood at 30 years old, to play Roland.
Ugh, when JJ Abrams and the Lost writters were attached to this I had hope that they could actually do this thing justice. While Ron Howard is alright, really not overly impressed with him, akiva goldsman IS HORRIBLE. The guy completely sucks and guarantees this is going to be an abomination. Such a shame too because the book are amazing. As for the Movie to TV split, very interesting way to come at it, but only if the tv show is on HBO, wattered down regular tv is not going to cut it.
The first three books were very good. Wizard and Glass was amazing. After that the series fell off a very sharp cliff.
This is one instance where I seriously wouldn't mind if hollywood completely re-wrote the story when doing the later half of the series.
Indeed. My new rule is that good writers are separated from the bad (aka hacks) by their ability to devise a good ending to the story they started. Hint: There are few good ones, particularly in television. It's probably no accident that many writers in television today also contribute to the comics medium. I love comics, but they aren't exactly known for wrapping things up and declaring it done.
TFA: It seems hard to fathom he'd direct a full season's worth of episodes, but that is the early plan, and who says they have to do 22 to create that bridge to the next film?
Well duh. They should obviously only do 19.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
Exactly even if they don't show the actual act itself it would go well beyond pg-13 to even just show the shadows and sounds.
Indeed - I can't say that I enjoyed the ending, but I can certainly see that it was the only ending possible. And *man* will people be pissed off if they end the movie trilogy the same way.
Funny, I thought the ending was perfect. How the hell else would you have the series ended? Happily Ever After? Maybe Roland settles down with a nice lady and has a couple kids and an SUV?
The writers seem to wrap-up things very nicely at Episode 13 and then at the season finale. Basically because they are never sure if the show will be back. It makes them move things along. And no freakin' awful season long arc crap.
BTW, Season 4 premieres 9/20 in the States. Again, only 13 episodes were ordered.
With so many outstanding series were canceled after only two seasons, like Firefly, Deadwood, and countless others, is there any hope that the same might happen here? The first Dark Tower book was outstanding, and the next three were all right. The last few were bizzare self-indulgent crap where King appears to have simply transcribed his therapy sessions in the wake of his being hit by a van. The man has never written good endings, let's hope the studios do it for him this time.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
This reads like, "we have a plan that cannot fail! let me outline how we will plan to suck all the life and joy out of King's story while generating the greatest profit possible in a series of alternating movies and made for TV movies^H^H^H^H 1 hour TV drama seasons".
Stephen King has sort of thrown in the towel and is happy to let the visual media butcher his stories in the past, while people buy his the books to understand what the hell directors were trying to convey. I don't see this being any different this time around. There's an opportunity to tell this story in a series of 7 or 8 movies, or as a 7 season TV series, but alternating between the two is a recipe for disaster, as Serenity has taught us.
moox. for a new generation.
Heh, good point. My initial reaction was "Thank you Roland! But our princess is in another castle!"
I admit I was disappointed by the ending at first, but on thinking about it, it was probably the most sensible way for it to have ended. To the extent that sense applied to those books in the first place, at least. I otherwise enjoyed the books quite a bit.
Especially if you're a big King fan. I don't want to give things away, but King references his other books quite a bit (more in the later parts of Tower), which I thought was a lot of fun. I would also recommend reading Hearts in Atlantis, The Talisman and Black House first if you haven't read those. Not necessary, but Dark Tower is more fun if you have.
One of the things that used to keep people away was that it seemed like it'd never be finished. Now that it has an ending, I'd definitely say take a look.
I disagree with the sibling posts though. Personally I liked the later books more than the early ones, but of course that's just a personal preference.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
I also loved the ending very much, both the first and the second (post-warning). Both could are logical endings to the series.
*** Spoiler Alert ****
A small point: IIRC (I don't have the book near me), in the "reincarnation" he has with him his friend's horn - so it isn't exactly a wheel, some small detail changed and it gives hope that things will end differently. Should we say "ka is a spiral"?
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
Don't get me wrong, the ending was perfect. The whole 7 book uber-novel is about two things, the journey to the tower and Roland's character development from heartless asshole bent on revenge to someone his companions could put trust in. From a literary standpoint, it's pretty clear that those two elements are meant to be connected, Roland only ever gets closer to the Tower when he puts his faith in others, helps others, sacrifices for others, etc. (spoiler) Since his character development wasn't complete (his obsession over the tower still overpowered his love for his companions) it doesn't make sense that he should reach the tower either. The idea that Roland has been living the events of the novels over and over again, each time gaining a tiny piece of humanity back (or maybe sometimes not even succeeding that much) is a very powerful idea from a literary standpoint. Of course, try telling that to people that feel they got cheated out of an ending that they read a few thousand pages to reach and they just don't seem to appreciate it.
My new rule is that good writers are separated from the bad (aka hacks) by their ability to devise a good ending to the story they started.
Michael Criton is king of the hacks this way. He comes up with interesting starts and middles, then the end is always that the problem gets solved by some dues ex machina. It's like he read War of the Worlds, and based an entire career on that ending type.
See, I took at as implied that not only will Roland relive the events again, but that he has already lived them many, many times, each time earning (or failing to earn) a small piece of his former life (symbolizing his humanity) to take with him. Maybe the first time he didn't have his original guns, or his hat, or his coin, etc. Roland is doomed to repeat the cycle endlessly until he has enough of his humanity to value his friends over his search for the Tower, the items from his past are meant to remind him off all the people that he's lost due to his search for the tower and other mistakes. I suppose it's possible that he'll eventually do so, but in my imagination it will take dozens of repetitions to do so (even assuming he earns something each time); maybe "Ka is a wheel, but you have a choice to get off from it" would be more accurate.
That's funny, I just found a new rule that good Slashdot commenters are separated from the bad by their ability to see the world as shades of grey and fine distinctions, rather than dumping everything into buckets of "good" and "bad".
Also, the ending was perfect.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
Ahh,in case you did not know, he died two years ago. As far as hacks go he was a Harvard MD and a his background was based in hard science. Most people enjoy a happy ending with a problem solved. Not everything has to play out like a French movie.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
It should star the cast of Arrested Development. "Go then, there are other worlds than these... and in these worlds you can get the Cornballer for only $29.99! Come on!"
... a happy ending with a problem solved. Not everything has to play out like a French movie.
What world are you living in? A french movie with a happy ending and a problem solved? I thought the French invented the muddy, unhappy, wtf ending.
BTW, I have met way too many Harvard grad idiots.
will be creatively steered by the Oscar-winning team behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code
Which means Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman. While I have nothing against Howard, Goldsman is a terrible choice. His greatest achievements are not screwing up Sylvia Nasar's book (A Beautiful Mind) and not making Dan Brown's novels any more ridiculous than they are (Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons). On the other side we have such pearls of storytelling as Batman and Robin, Batman Forever and, more recently, a bunch of really cheesy episodes of Fringe.
I think I'll pass on this one
I agree. Sorry I have no thoughtful philosophical analysis to go with that statement.
Not sure that it was the only ending possible. I'd agree that it was the only ending one could expect King to write, given how enamored he was of the opening line of the first book. (I think he called it the greatest opening line in any book ever written, or something like that. *Of course* he used it as the closing line.)
The reason the ending bothered me (aside from being singularly unsatisfying) was that it pretty much destroyed the premise of the entire seven-book series. The driving force for the whole plot was that the Dark Tower was in terrible danger, and the universe along with it, right? So, after Roland, et al., destroy the baddies and save the Tower and the world, the Tower essentially shrugs and says, "Eh, do it again." WTF? Was the world in danger or not? If so, then why repeat it? If not, then why bother caring about anything Roland does? Seems to me that an author ought not betray his own plotline that way.
(Personally, I go with the "he just wanted to re-use that opening line" theory. Too bad he didn't do a better job of it.)
They beat me to it! I've been meaning to write a screen-play to the Gunslinger for about 5 years now, but what with school, work, etc... Well, hopefully they do a better job then I would have done.
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I enjoy happy endings wtih problems solved. But one where there's some reason the problem got solved. In most of his books, the major problem gets solved independent of the actions of the main characters. I do agree, though, that he does a good job presenting new things to the public. As I say, he writes a great 67% of a book.
How can you know the ending when the series isn't finished yet?
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
I also thought the ending was decent. Now the ending to It on the other hand....
"But this one goes to 11!"
when zombie charlton heston says we can have his oscar when we pry it from his cold dead hands... is that redundant?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
There is a redundant statement here can you see it?
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
That IS an interesting way to look at it. It makes it all the more interesting when you think about what he sacrificed just before he literally lost a piece of himself on the beach.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
It wasn't quite as you say - remember, young Roland was in possession of the horn in the reset that occurs at the end of the final book. It gives the reader hope that the outcome may be different on the subsequent attempt.
I appreciated that detail, but I realize I'm one of a tiny minority of fans that liked the ending.
From hell's heart I fstab at /dev/hdc
The reason the ending bothered me (aside from being singularly unsatisfying) was that it pretty much destroyed the premise of the entire seven-book series. The driving force for the whole plot was that the Dark Tower was in terrible danger, and the universe along with it, right?
Roland did save the Tower (and the universe). The point was that saving the Tower was never really Roland's goal, he was obsessed with completing his quest to what he thought the ending should be (reaching the top of the tower) and thus (possibly) doomed the universe again. I thought King tried to link Roland's obsession with getting to the top of the Tower to the obsession some readers have for a satisfying ending. Or something like that :)
...dont fuck this up. thanks
where the hero masturbates. Probably not.
My new rule is that good writers are separated from the bad (aka hacks) by their ability to devise a good ending to the story they started.
Michael Criton is king of the hacks this way. He comes up with interesting starts and middles, then the end is always that the problem gets solved by some dues ex machina. It's like he read War of the Worlds, and based an entire career on that ending type.
Remember the movie, "Adaptation" (which was brilliant)? The Brian Cox character teaches a screenwriting class, and he says, "Do NOT use a goddamn Deus Ex Machina!" (And if you've seen the movie, you know how that advice is taken.)
It wasn't quite as you say - remember, young Roland was in possession of the horn in the reset that occurs at the end of the final book. It gives the reader hope that the outcome may be different on the subsequent attempt.
I appreciated that detail, but I realize I'm one of a tiny minority of fans that liked the ending.
Another fan of the ending here. I thought it was absolutely brilliant, and that detail is very important. And I also thought, "there are a LOT of King fans who are saying, 'I waited 25 years for THIS?'" Which I'm sure he was very aware of ...
remember, young Roland was in possession of the horn in the reset that occurs at the end of the final book. It gives the reader hope that the outcome may be different on the subsequent attempt.
Maybe, but probably not. It seems like after a second or two he had already forgotten about the events that had just transpired and was back to the narrative of The Gunslinger.
Have you seen the movie Triangle? If you liked the ending you may like that movie.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Indeed - the picture I came away with was that it changes for the better just a little bit every time through.
How will the TV shows be handled in countries other than the US. I live in the Netherlands. We will probably get the movies in the movie theaters. I doubt the TV series will broadcast here at the same time as in the US. Usually it takes months if not years for TV shows to appear on TV here. So most likely We will see movie #1, then a long wait of nothing, see movie #2, the first TV series may (or not) start airing here. Then we get movie #3 and then after a long wait .... TV series #2. Point: it will be all out of sync.
Just curious how that will be handled.
Damn, I'm glad I actually read this far in the thread or else I might have wasted time reading the books. Or at least starting them, I've never managed to plow very far through the page after page of dreary tedium in the King books that I've had pushed at me. Dreadful stuff, worse than Hemmingway even.
No sarcasm implied.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
So I started reading the Gunslinger series when I was a kid -- I think the first book is from the 70s or something. It's a good read, very Stephen King, each book is kinda out there in its own way with no shortage of imagination. Very Epic.
I'll say that the unfinished Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin is coming to HBO soon. More character-driven than Lord of the Rings, it's a great fantasy series. I know Robert Jordan's series the Wheel of Time is popular, and I did read the first book. But it didn't pull me in like Martin's, and I didn't continue reading it. Perhaps I missed out. Martin's writing is fantastic and his delivery perfect. I can only hope the TV show is 1/10th as good.
Spoiler alert: The Dark Tower is the seventh, and final book of novelist Stephen King's Dark Tower series, published by Grant on September 21, 2004 (King's birthday), and illustrated by Michael Whelan.
Kevin J Anderson is better at it. Masses of buildup, then more buildup, then (two pages from the end), the good guys have a massively anticlimactic victory, along the lines of a battle that lasts half a page, or the bad guys just giving up and saying 'sorry' and the book ends.
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Thanks for that. It's a great interpretation. I had wondered about the fact that he had the horn in the new loop.
Spoiler alert.
To add a critical detail, the plot was resolved in the middle of the last book. The tower was saved when the Beams were saved. The rest is icing.
If you think books are much about their endings, you are missing out on a lot.
Will it be as good as Garth Marenghi's Darkplace?
If you don't like SK, then fine, what is your point? I don't like many authors, but I don't think it interests anyone (except maybe the women I date) what authors I like and dislike.
Whenever in an argument, remember this.
It wasn't quite as you say - remember, young Roland was in possession of the horn in the reset that occurs at the end of the final book. It gives the reader hope that the outcome may be different on the subsequent attempt.
I appreciated that detail, but I realize I'm one of a tiny minority of fans that liked the ending.
After reading the ending I would have loved to be able to re-read the story there and then and see what changes due to Roland having the horn this time round
So, if Im reading this right, there's a move, followed by a TV series, followed by a second movie and then a second TV series, which is about the younger Deschain, then a final movie.. So, that means the second TV series is Wizard & Glass (the middle book) . So, the three books before that are covered by a movie, a TV series and another movie, but the final three books (and IIRC probably the biggest of the series) are all covered by only one movie.. Seems like they've got some balancing issues here. Surely it would be better to make W&G the middle movie and have a movie and TV series either side to cover the other books?
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Gotta find Richard Boone, Paladin, and rejuvenate him. Only guy to play the part of the gunslinger. Just hope they listen to King in keeping things like the books.