Stephen King's Epic "The Dark Tower" - Part 2

[elgaz]

Finally got round to viewing this tonight.

The Dark Tower is - to me, and many others - a long, epic saga. It's King's Magnum Opus, his Lord of the Rings.

Now imagine you had a hyperactive friend with attention deficit disorder who read all the Dark Tower books pretty quickly. A year later, you're having a conversation about some of the best King stories ever written, and he's jumping up and down telling you that you absolutely must read The Dark Tower.

Why, you ask? What's it about?

Your friend now gives you a quick summary of the novel over the course of 60 seconds; the broad strokes, all truncated and missing the finer details which give substance to the story and the characters. He tells you about the crazy magical man in black, the gunslinger who can shoot bullets with his bullets, the tower that holds the universe together, the efforts from both sides to destroy and save the tower, and the boy called Jake who is the key to holding it all together. Unfortunately, his ADD means he skimmed most of the book and appears to have missed many locations, many characters, many flashbacks, and generally all the good bits.

This movie is the live action version of that summary.

Most of us knew well in advance of its release that trying to compress a saga like TDT into a 95 min film was never going to work, and guess what? We were right. It feels short, glossed over and rushed.

 

[:eek:]

Dark Tower TV Show Starts Filming This Summer?

Posted: January 23, 2018, 16:38:00
Section: TV » The Dark Tower​

Omega Underground reports that The Dark Tower TV show is set to start filming this summer in the UK and Ireland.
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Now we at Omega Underground have learned that production is expected to begin sometime this summer in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. For obvious reasons expect a brand new cast for the proposed series. It should also be noted no network has yet to pick up the project.​

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Seems the TV show is a reboot, good.

 

[Deck Rickard]

It needs to be if they want this thing to be successful.

 

[:eek:]

Ron Howard Admits Mistakes in 'The Dark Tower' Adaptation

 

[:eek:]

The Dark Tower: JJ Abrams Almost Directed - Why He Didn’t

 

[Deck Rickard]

Ugh. Another reason for me to hate Lost.

Just kidding. I’m actually one of the few people who didn’t hate the way it ended. Still disappointing though.

 

[:eek:]

Flanagan Wants To Adapt "Dark Tower" - Dark Horizons

 

[terry78]

Let him. Give him an actual budget.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Please please please let it happen. Do it on the small screen. Start with The Gunslinger. I know it can be done.

 

[Sawyer]

I need to try Dark Tower again. I read the first book about 10 years back and it didn’t do much for me. I think I need to make a concerted effort to do at least the first four books in a row for it to really have the desired effect.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I need to try Dark Tower again. I read the first book about 10 years back and it didn’t do much for me. I think I need to make a concerted effort to do at least the first four books in a row for it to really have the desired effect.

I did similar as the first book out me off the rest of the series, but you won’t regret reading the rest, especially the next few.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I need to try Dark Tower again. I read the first book about 10 years back and it didn’t do much for me. I think I need to make a concerted effort to do at least the first four books in a row for it to really have the desired effect.

The story really gets going in the second book. I had the same reaction to the first book; I was like, “What’s the big deal about this?” But stick with it at least through The Drawing of the Three. That’s the one that really hooked me.

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

If the rumors of Flanagan directing this are true, he’ll undoubtedly use some of his regular collaborators. This cast uses all actors he’s worked with before.


Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower


Roland Deschain - Thomas Jane

Young Roland - Paxton Singleton

Eddie Dean - Oliver Jackson Cohen

Susannah Dean - Tahirah Sharif

Jake Chambers - Jacob Tremblay

Father Callahan - Bruce Greenwood

Oy - Rory Cochrane

Patrick Danville - Igby Riney

Susan Delgado - McKenna Grace

Cuthbert Allgood - Julian Hilliard

Cort Andrus - Robert Longstreet

Calvin Tower - Timothy Hutton

Alice the Barmaid - Kate Siegel

Sylvia Pittston - Elizabeth Reaser

Irene Tassenbaum - Carla Gugino

Ted Brautigan - Michel Huisman

Dinky Earnshaw - Rahul Kohli

Moses Carver - Carl Lumbly

Stephen Deschain - Michael Trucco

Gabrielle Deschain - Alex Essoe


The Man in Black - Henry Thomas

The Crimson King - Mark Hamill

Tick Tock Man - Dash Mihok

Mordred Deschain - Benjamin Evan Ainsworth

Enrico Balazar - Cliff Curtis

Mia - Rebecca Ferguson

Dandelo - Carel Struyken

Richard Patrick Sayre - Doug Jones

Jack Mort - Hamish Linklater

Blaine The Mono - Ewan McGregor

Rhea - Annabeth Gish

Eldred Jonas - Zahn McClarnon

Roy Depape - Zach Gifford

Cordelia Delgado - Samantha Sloyan

 

[TheVileOne]

Good luck getting it financed after that last disaster. It killed the TV series as well.

 

[Eddie Dean]

Good luck getting it financed after that last disaster. It killed the TV series as well.

Ok.

 

[TheVileOne]

Ok.

Alright then?

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

It’s King’s greatest work and the greatest fantasy saga yet to be properly adapted.

 

[TheVileOne]

It’s King’s greatest work and the greatest fantasy saga yet to be properly adapted.

It's also very complex and ambitious and difficult to do. First, it was at Universal and then Warner Bros. before going to Sony. Universal and Warners both got cold feet. Sony pulled the trigger and we got what we got.

Glen Mazzara developed a TV series and wanted a seven-season epic. Amazon shot the pilot and then canceled it.

At this point, it's a volatile property and it will be a hard sell to get financed.

 

[MadVillainy]

I think if Amazon would've played their cards right this could've been their app killer like The Boys. A much better choice than them doing LotR imo

EDIT: and I say that as someone who has only read about the books, not read the books themselves

 

[The Lazarus Pit]

It's also very complex and ambitious and difficult to do. First, it was at Universal and then Warner Bros. before going to Sony. Universal and Warners both got cold feet. Sony pulled the trigger and we got what we got.

Glen Mazzara developed a TV series and wanted a seven-season epic. Amazon shot the pilot and then canceled it.

At this point, it's a volatile property and it will be a hard sell to get financed.

If they can adapt Sandman, they can do Dark Tower. Anything is possible.

Mike Flanagan wants to do it, he would nail it. It really just takes someone with talent who respects and loves the material.

 

[TheVileOne]

If they can adapt Sandman, they can do Dark Tower. Anything is possible.

Mike Flanagan wants to do it, he would nail it. It really just takes someone with talent who respects and loves the material.

They did Dark Tower though...before Sandman

 

[MadVillainy]

If Flanagan wants to do it, I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix snatches it up. Or at least it'll be silly of them not to. He's brought them a few decent sized hits and Netflix needs a new big drama.
Stranger Things is ending in probably the next 2-3 years. 'You' isn't as big as Stranger Things but still a pretty big show and I can't imagine that going much further. They need another huge killer app hit. Witcher is popular, but I don't think that's it.
Call it "The Gunslinger" instead of "The Dark Tower" to avoid confusion with the Elba movie and call it a day.

We'll see. It's been on my list to read. I actually bought the first book in an airport like 10 years ago and just never read it.

 

[Silvermoth]

It’s really good. I think they could easily adapt it well. Just the last movie got confused if it was going to be a movie or a television show and it tried to be everything and turned into nothing. Hopefully if they get another chance they do it well

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

If Flanagan wants to do it, I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix snatches it up. Or at least it'll be silly of them not to. He's brought them a few decent sized hits and Netflix needs a new big drama.
Stranger Things is ending in probably the next 2-3 years. 'You' isn't as big as Stranger Things but still a pretty big show and I can't imagine that going much further. They need another huge killer app hit. Witcher is popular, but I don't think that's it.
Call it "The Gunslinger" instead of "The Dark Tower" to avoid confusion with the Elba movie and call it a day.

We'll see. It's been on my list to read. I actually bought the first book in an airport like 10 years ago and just never read it.

I honestly don’t think the movie left enough of any kind of cultural memory for people to be confused about a tv adaptation.