Stephen King's Dark Tower Series to be a Movie and a TV Show

[texassax]

Universal Lands Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' And Plans Unprecedented Feature/Network TV Adaptation

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. Those storylines will be informed by a prequel comic book series that King was heavily involved in plotting. The third film would pick up the mature Deshain as he completes his journey. They will benefit from being able to use the same sets cast and crew for the movie and TV, which could help contain costs on what will be a financially ambitious undertaking.

http://www.deadline.com/2010/09/univ...tv-adaptation/

I know everyone always talks about remakes and book adaptations with such skepticism, but this was my absolutely favorite series of books and I can't help but be (stupidly?) optimistic.

[Snow Dog]

In



2345

[capnamerca]

there's no way they don't fuck this up, but I'll be first in line for at least the first movie. I got to this series late, and then absolutely DEVOURED the entire 12,513,277,128,345 pages.

Hire Peter Jackson to direct and give him whatever the hell he wants. Hire Guillermo del Toro as special adviser, and give him whatever the hell he wants. Hire someone low-key and precise to write it, because Roland is a very.specific.character, and give that writer whatever the hell he wants.

[UTinBigD]

in. big time. But a little leery. Heck there are a dozen other books that tap into the Dark Tower series somehow; it's hard to convey that depth. Not to mention that TV can be very fickle with ratings. I hope they at least wait till the DVD of the movie is out before airing the TV series.

So who plays Roland? star or some guy who will do the movie and TV series w/o grumbling.

[capnamerca]

in. big time. But a little leery. Heck there are a dozen other books that tap into the Dark Tower series somehow; it's hard to convey that depth. Not to mention that TV can be very fickle with ratings. I hope they at least wait till the DVD of the movie is out before airing the TV series.

So who plays Roland? star or some guy who will do the movie and TV series w/o grumbling.

Has to be an unknown ... someone in the Christian Bale mold sort of fits my mental image, but who knows ...

[rage-a-holic]

I have zero faith that this will be good, but I'll watch anyway. Hollywood already had a SK book that they ruined by completely changing the Dark Tower subplot (Hearts in Atlantis).

[MrX]

The first four books can be pulled off, but the last three are going to be an absolute clusterfuck.

Sam Elliott must play Eldred Jonas when he shows up.

[Viper]

<spoiler>





who's going to play steven king? wasnt he pretty young in the books?


and yes, this could be a pretty awesome sam elliot

[Prepuce of Doom]

I'm cautiously optimistic but am prepared for an enraging letdown. The only King stories that have translated well to film are the ones that most people don't realize are his stories--Shawshank, Stand By Me, Green Mile, etc.

I wish he'd just rewrite/redact/replace the last book or two anyway and pretend like the whole Stephen King subplot never occurred.

Rutger Hauer (or maybe even Walken) would make a better Eldred Jonas than Sam Elliot's mustache.

My mental image of Roland has always been of a Road Warrior era Mel Gibson.

[Hank Kingsley]

Akiva Goldsman writing and Ron Howard directing? Fuck. Was looking forward to this when Abrams and Lindelof were on board. Now I'm pretty sure it will suck.

[KingKoopa]

have the entire series of books but have never been able to make it past the first 100 or so pages of the Gunslinger, though i've tried on several attempts. just ends up boring me even though i know so many people who love the series.

having not read any of it, but being a huge fan of his work, i will nominate terry gilliam as my wish for director. although he'd likely make it even more obscure than it probably already is.

[boknowstecmo]

I got through the first book easily enough. About halfway into the second book I started losing it. Some seriously ridiculous, goofy shit goes on. Goofy shit plus SK's simple style of writing just turned me away, and I haven't finished Book 2 yet. Glad I read that spoiler about the SK timeline, because now I know I'm not missing anything.

[GraciePie]

Has to be an unknown ... someone in the Christian Bale mold sort of fits my mental image, but who knows ...

My mental image of Roland has always been of a Road Warrior era Mel Gibson.

The Roland of the books is actually described as kind of old. It talks about how he's starting to deal with arthritis, so I figure him to be in his 50s.

Viggo Mortenson might be a good candidate for me, or Daniel Day Lewis or maybe even Timothy Dalton.

[rage-a-holic]

The Roland of the books is actually described as kind of old. It talks about how he's starting to deal with arthritis, so I figure him to be in his 50s.

Viggo Mortenson might be a good candidate for me, or Daniel Day Lewis or maybe even Timothy Dalton.

I'd throw in Guy Pearce and Timothy Olyphant, but all of these choices are gonna be way hard to land unless one of these guys is just devoted to the project, since they probably won't be able to do anything else until its finished.

[Rick Simon - S&S PI, Inc]

Shit. Clint Eastwood. That's who i always thought of when reading those books. I wonder if they could make him look 20 or 30 years younger. I'll love the movie even if it sucks ass. I don't care.

[BrickHorn]

I'm cautiously optimistic but am prepared for an enraging letdown. The only King stories that have translated well to film are the ones that most people don't realize are his stories--Shawshank, Stand By Me, Green Mile, etc.

Add "Running Man" to that list.

[BMF]

This will be fucked up in a very complete way.

[texassax]

Shit. Clint Eastwood. That's who i always thought of when reading those books. I wonder if they could make him look 20 or 30 years younger. I'll love the movie even if it sucks ass. I don't care.

yeah clint eastwood 20 years ago would be perfect.

[TXSG8R]

have the entire series of books but have never been able to make it past the first 100 or so pages of the Gunslinger, though i've tried on several attempts. just ends up boring me even though i know so many people who love the series.

having not read any of it, but being a huge fan of his work, i will nominate terry gilliam as my wish for director. although he'd likely make it even more obscure than it probably already is.

The first two or 3 books are really a grind, but they set up so much of the story that its a necessary evil. Power through them and youll be rewarded.

[rage-a-holic]

Roland was raised in and around court. He was expected to have learning and manners. Eastwood might "look" the part, but he never played a Western character like that.

Again, Guy Pearce (or Vigo, D-D Lewis, Tim Dalton) is a better fit.

[smuggs]

The only King stories that have translated well to film are the ones that most people don't realize are his stories--Shawshank, Stand By Me, Green Mile, etc.

The Shining and Carrie? Two horror film classics that I think everyone knows were Stephen King stories. Hell Cujo, Christine, Pet Sematary and fucking Creepshow are enshrined in my horror HOF. There have been many good films translated from his material.

[UTinBigD]

have the entire series of books but have never been able to make it past the first 100 or so pages of the Gunslinger, though i've tried on several attempts. just ends up boring me even though i know so many people who love the series.

having not read any of it, but being a huge fan of his work, i will nominate terry gilliam as my wish for director. although he'd likely make it even more obscure than it probably already is.

KK, give the audio books a shot. That's how I first went through them. The guy that reads them has a bad ass voice. I think he had a motor cycle accident and could not do that last book though.

[SydneyCarton]

From my understanding of these books, which I haven't read yet but now feel obligated to start and complete in short order, is that these books are more than just horror. The mix lots of genres. They're complicated plots.

[rage-a-holic]

From my understanding of these books, which I haven't read yet but now feel obligated to start and complete in short order, is that these books are more than just horror. The mix lots of genres. They're complicated plots.

Yes. Horror, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, poetry, riddles, you name it.

[Rick Simon - S&S PI, Inc]

Yes. Horror, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, poetry, riddles, you name it.

They also tie together nearly all of the Stephen King universe. Almost every book he has ever written ties back to the Dark Tower someway or another.

[texassax]

I feel like I need to started rereading these again. I haven't in quite a few years. I guess I've only read the seventh book once.

[Prepuce of Doom]

The Shining and Carrie? Two horror film classics that I think everyone knows were Stephen King stories. Hell Cujo, Christine, Pet Sematary and fucking Creepshow are enshrined in my horror HOF. There have been many good films translated from his material.

Good point, and I retract my blanket statement. However, after a quick glance through a list of all his movies (and with a catalog that large, there are bound to be some shitty adaptations) I think his movies are batting about .500 at best.

The Dark Tower is going to have to be pretty goddamn good to live up to the expectations of anyone and everyone who gives a shit about the books.

Also, in case anyone wasn't aware, as of ~10 years ago, each of his books that somehow tie into the Dark Tower series are bolded in the list of his other works in the front of each book.

[smuggs]

Good point, and I retract my blanket statement. However, after a quick glance through a list of all his movies (and with a catalog that large, there are bound to be some shitty adaptations) I think his movies are batting about .500 at best.

Agreed, there have been stinkers as well. I'd rather volunteer for elective dental surgery than watch Dreamcatcher again.

[Rick Simon - S&S PI, Inc]

Agreed, there have been stinkers as well. I'd rather volunteer for elective dental surgery than watch Dreamcatcher again.

Hey, I 'm watching that right now! I like it. I like nearly every SK movie adaptation. Of course they are never as good as the book, but I still watch them. Probably the only one that I didn't really like was the Myst, but that had to do more with it offending me than me not liking it in its entirety. How many movies based on books would be so kick ass if the screenplay writer/director/producer didn't introduce their own artistic expressions and interpretations?

[UTinBigD]

The the Talisman books tie pretty strongly into the Dark Tower. great stories to boot.

I would feel a hell of a lot better if HBO was doing this. The TV part could get really bad.

[SydneyCarton]

Did the article mention what network is taking this on? If so, I missed that and don't feel like going back. If it was unsigned, there's still a shot someone like HBO would take it on, although that's probably not likely. I can't see this making it on network TV.

[UTinBigD]

if it is Fox, then we will get bombarded with promos during football games. so there's that.

[Wulaw Horn]

I am not a big SK fan, but I love the Dark Towers. Just absolutley awesome set of books. I have no idea how they are going to be able to pull this off.

And Roland needs to be oldish- I'm picturing something along the lines of city slickers with the trail hand that leads them. and the young Roland at 14 in Songs of Susannah needs to be a bad ass. That is going to be a real hard character for a kid to pull off.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I think the only movie adaptations of favorite book series I didn't hate were the LOTR and the Lion Witch and Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. The Narnia stuff was a lot easier to pull off, though then LOTR and then Dark Tower will be.

I bet this project doesn't get done.

[GraciePie]

Did the article mention what network is taking this on? If so, I missed that and don't feel like going back. If it was unsigned, there's still a shot someone like HBO would take it on, although that's probably not likely. I can't see this making it on network TV.

It says Network TV specifically and NBC Universal, so that really only leaves NBC.

[SydneyCarton]

It says Network TV specifically and NBC Universal, so that really only leaves NBC.

Thanks. Re-reading things makes my teeth itch.

Ooof. NBC. I mean...they have been far and away the 5th or 6th place in developing original network programming (and maintaining it) over the past several years. They have a great head for comedy but everything else is an utter embarrassment. So I'm not sure how I feel about this. All signs point to fail, but this is really ambitions and there's some big names that know what they're doing attached to it. I have a hard time really thinking Ron Howard is going to direct every episode of a TV season...but man. That would be great. Maybe this is something NBC does right to get itself out of their funk?

[rage-a-holic]

Thanks. Re-reading things makes my teeth itch.

Ooof. NBC. I mean...they have been far and away the 5th or 6th place in developing original network programming (and maintaining it) over the past several years. They have a great head for comedy but everything else is an utter embarrassment. So I'm not sure how I feel about this. All signs point to fail, but this is really ambitions and there's some big names that know what they're doing attached to it. I have a hard time really thinking Ron Howard is going to direct every episode of a TV season...but man. That would be great. Maybe this is something NBC does right to get itself out of their funk?

Hey, it could be a great show, like Heroes!

[SydneyCarton]

Exactly what I was thinking of when I fucking wrote out the post.

[GraciePie]

Roland Deschain to be new manager of The Office?

[rage-a-holic]

The latest rumor is that the creative team wants Javier Bardem for Roland. I could roll with that.

[rage-a-holic]

Ron Howard went on Howard Stern to promote his sure-to-be-mediocre film The Dilemma and gave out a bit more information on the combined movie trilogy and TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. And from what he said, it sounds like the plan is put most of the exciting stuff into the movies and let the TV series handle the slightly more, um, less-exciting character stuff:

I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not, but I’m developing with Akiva Goldsman, the guy who wrote A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, a version of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series of fantasy stories And there is an element of it, if everything goes as planned, that we would like to do on tv. So we want to do part of it big screen, and then a lot of the character stuff — because Stephen King’s stuff is so interesting and fascinating, and instead of trying to wedge it into a movie, let the movies be adventure and action.

Howard will direct at least the first film and tv series and the TV series will be handled by NBC/Universal. He also described the series as a “six hour special,” which we’re assuming just applies to the first season.
Combining film and television seems like the only way to adapt King’s incredibly long series and not have to cut huge swathes of it. If you’ve never read the seven book series, it has long, long stretches of backstory which would horribly slow down any film that tried to incorporate all of it. Combining TV and a trilogy of films seems like a great compromise if you’re trying to keep as much of the books in as possible, which Howard certainly seems to be. As he said on Stern:

In a way it’s Stephen King’s life work. He’s woven those characters in and around so many stories… Hey look, there is always a risk when you adapt something and books are challenges. But I think a movie idea is there. And if I have my way, and if everything goes according to plan, which is of course a big if — we’ll be doing movies, we’ll be doing television, and all of that isn’t just [to make money] but all of that is to be as comprehensive as possible.The idea of doing part of it on the big screen and part of it on television is to try to include absolutely as much of the books, and even the graphic novels, as possible.

So, at the very least, we can be reasonably sure he’s not going to half ass the story.

http://gammasquad.uproxx.com/2011/01...e-boring-stuff

[texassax]

sounding pretty promising so far. thanks for the updates.

[JimbAround]

They cast (assuming he accepts the offer) Roland. http://www.pastemagazine.com/article...k-tower-a.html

Total bad ass, I think it will work.

[Viper]

They cast (assuming he accepts the offer) Roland. http://www.pastemagazine.com/article...k-tower-a.html

Total bad ass, I think it will work.

Do ya kennit friendo?

[rage-a-holic]

They cast (assuming he accepts the offer) Roland. http://www.pastemagazine.com/article...k-tower-a.html

Total bad ass, I think it will work.

2 posts above yours and a month ago.

[texassax]

it is a slight update, though, as an official offer has now been given. I hope he takes it. he definitely fits the bill.

[naija]

Never did read the series. Keep saying I'll get to it and I haven't.

[KingKoopa]

just briefly scanning this thread to avoid spoilers... i have over the past few years purchased all but one or two of this series. i have on three different occasions read about 50-75 pages into The Gunslinger (part 1) and just haven't been motivated to finish. i like stephen king, and i didn't even particularly dislike the book--just, for whatever reason, i always put it down.

i was about to start reading Dune (coincidental that both Dark Tower and Dune are sci fi/fantasy... i'd been on a big nonfiction and classic literature streak lately but in the past few months have reread some Asimov and some Philip K Dick) but think i will shelve that one and give Gunslinger another shot.

[JimbAround]

just briefly scanning this thread to avoid spoilers... i have over the past few years purchased all but one or two of this series. i have on three different occasions read about 50-75 pages into The Gunslinger (part 1) and just haven't been motivated to finish. i like stephen king, and i didn't even particularly dislike the book--just, for whatever reason, i always put it down.

i was about to start reading Dune (coincidental that both Dark Tower and Dune are sci fi/fantasy... i'd been on a big nonfiction and classic literature streak lately but in the past few months have reread some Asimov and some Philip K Dick) but think i will shelve that one and give Gunslinger another shot.

Do give it another shot. The first book takes a little bit of an investment to get into (or to realize what's going on), but after that you'll be hooked. Drawing of the Three is fantastic.

Also, Rage, suck my balls. You're fucking post said nothing about Javier being offer, it was just speculation.

[JimbAround]

Sign your neg rep pussy.

[Prepuce of Doom]

Javier Bardem rumors continue to abound.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/03/01...he-dark-tower/

With the ever-changing, ever-flowing news cycle surrounding the goings on in the film industry these days, it gets tougher and tougher to get concerned parties to actually confirm or break news. Nevertheless, our tireless team of intrepid reporters here at MTV News will not give up in trying to push people for info! Like whenever we happen upon super producer Brian Grazer and pump him for details about "The Dark Tower," for example...

The last time we checked in with Grazer, the Roland casting process was moving along, but slowly. When I stopped him while on his way into the Vanity Fair Oscar party last Sunday, solely with the purpose of peppering him about the reported casting of Javier Bardem as the ruthless gunslinger, he seemed pleasantly puzzled by the fact that MTV is so interested in the project.

"'Dark Tower,' Javier Bardem, that's what we're hoping," Grazer said when I asked him for an update. "We're in the process of trying to put that together. Will that make you happy? Will that make MTV happy?"

Yes, I told him. Very happy! But has he officially signed Bardem onto the project?

"He's locked in psychologically," Grazer said. "He really wants to do it, so we're absolutely rooting for him to do it."

When asked to address other potential cast members, Grazer said they're too busy with Bardem.

"We're really just focused on Javier right now," he said.

Grazer went on to say that in addition to the challenges involved with locking in a lead actor, they'll have their hands full trying to roll-out the project across multiple platforms including film, TV and video games.

"It's challenging to capture all of it, the density of it," he said, adding that he's excited to explore all the metaphors involved, and that the first story they're exploring is that of "The Gunslinger."