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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 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.
Band of Brothers called...they told me to tell you "piss off".
Living With a Nerd
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?
So you're saying a picture may be worth 1,000 words, but not 100,000?
Yeah... The Shining, It, Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile... pure crap! What the fuck ever, douchebag.
I dunno...The Langoliers was pretty good, despite (or possibly because) it's campy script and hammy acting.
Also...are you forgetting Carrie?
Living With a Nerd
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 think it's some of King's best work. It's worth reading at least one to see if you're into the series. The first one is harder to get into than the rest.
I read The Wastelands first. It reminded me a little of The Stand, but with more detail around Roland (main dude) and less background on what's going on in the world. It was interesting enough that I decided to go back and see what I'd missed.
Tried to read The Gunslinger and got bored after a little while - there are a few other characters, but it's mostly two dudes in the desert. The Drawing of the Three was more in the vein of Wastelands, and from there I blazed through each book as soon as it came out.
You may not realize it, but you've seen glimpses of the DT universe through most of King's books.
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.
Touche. People remember the bad adaptations, but there have been a number of excellent ones. Too bad hollywood's interest is high enough that much of their King adaptation work has been shovelware, the source material is certainly not at fault.
"The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed."
If that first sentence doesn't grab you, don't bother with the rest of the book. If it does, then go for it; you'll never regret it.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
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.
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.
The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.
Next time add "Spoiler Alert!"