Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' Set For Film Trilogy, TV Series

[YellowKing]

Oh man, bad example. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is one of my all-time guilty pleasures.

I'm sure I've mentioned this on the forums before in one of those "which celebrities have you met" threads, but that was filmed in my hometown. The diner that Deke shoots the drive-thru speaker at near the very end of the movie belonged to my grandfather. We watched them film the scene of them running behind it, and I ate dinner with the kid, Emilio Estevez, Laura Harrington, etc. I also met Stephen King but I didn't know who he was at the time since I was only 11 years old.

That movie still has one of those most kickass soundtracks.

I'm going to do a rare plug for my own podcast, but only because it's so relevant. One of our most downloaded episodes is when we covered this film. We had my brother on who is a superfan of the movie. It's episode 6 of the Civil Gore Podcast available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play.

There are talks of a sequel....I would kill to see Emilio reprise his role!

[Smoove_B]

New trailer - The Legacy of the Gunslinger. Not much new info, but certainly more focused.

[Smoove_B]

How about a little more with Magnum Opus - contains snippets from Stephen King and the actors and director. Based on the commercials I'm seeing, the advertising department really, really, really, wants this to be good. Not too much new footage in this trailer - but there are some snippets.

[GreenGoo]

Haven't read the thread at all, just coming in to dump on it.

TV ads for the show have done nothing to pique my interest, despite having read and enjoyed the series. In fact they have turned me ever so slightly away from the show. Obviously that doesn't say anything about the show itself.

[YellowKing]

The reviews are starting to roll in and.......

I hate to say I told you so. But I'm going to say it anyway.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I was expecting reviews to start coming in earlier this week and when they didn't, I'd assumed it wasn't going to be good. I also didn't know (until yesterday) that the movie is 90 minutes. That's insane.

[Carpet_pissr]

Shazbot! 16%! Well, here's looking forward to the so called purist version via the tv series.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[stessier]

I was thinking I'd be a good test subject for the movie as I've nothing to compare it to, so could enjoy it as long as the story was good. While the reviews definitely decry the lack of Dark Tower-iness, a bunch also say it's just not a good movie. That's kind of a bummer.

[Grifman]

Oh, well, too bad, previews looked good.

What's interesting is that studios are complaining about the Rotten Tomato effect. If a movie gets a poor rating, people just don't show. In the past, people had no ready source of reviews other than maybe their local paper, or maybe magazines or Ebert & Roeper on TV. And they could always in their minds disregard a single review. But with an aggregator like RT that posts an overall score, and easy access to detailed reviews, it is impacting the movie going public and studios are seeing it. A bad movie might actually have a decent opening weekend, then drop off due to word of mouth. Now it can never have that crucial opening weekend, because people know ahead of time. Of course the solution is to make good movies but that's just too simple of an answer for Hollywood

[Jeff V]

Oh, well, too bad, previews looked good.

What's interesting is that studios are complaining about the Rotten Tomato effect. If a movie gets a poor rating, people just don't show. In the past, people had no ready source of reviews other than maybe their local paper, or maybe magazines or Ebert & Roeper on TV. And they could always in their minds disregard a single review. But with an aggregator like RT that posts an overall score, and easy access to detailed reviews, it is impacting the movie going public and studios are seeing it. A bad movie might actually have a decent opening weekend, then drop off due to word of mouth. Now it can never have that crucial opening weekend, because people know ahead of time. Of course the solution is to make good movies but that's just too simple of an answer for Hollywood

So, they are bitching because they can't con $$$ from an unsuspecting public anymore? There's a simple solution to this: stop making shitty movies.

[Isgrimnur]

If only...

[rshetts2]

The real question is how do you make a movie with Idris and McConaughey in the leads and get a 12 score? This thing must be really bad to pull that off.

[Freyland]

If only...

[Holman]

I'm going to piggy-back in here (it doesn't deserve its own thread) to ask if anyone else has seen the documentary Room 237 on Kubrick's The Shining. It's streaming on Netflix, but apparently you can also pull up the whole thing on YouTube.

I watched it yesterday. It features (mostly) over-wrought and over-thought interpretations of every aspect of the movie, and a lot of it is so compellingly weird and wrong that you just can't look away. The highlight is one obsessed commentator's conviction that the whole movie is Kubrick's secret confession that he faked the Apollo 11 moon landing footage for the government.

[JCC]

It's not surprising that the movie is getting middling to poor reviews. I doubt any movie adaptation could do the books justice - even the atrocious last 2 books. I will note, that the reviews I have looked at note that Idris is the best thing about the movie. This doesn't surprise me despite all the whinging in this thread over his casting. I look forward to checking it out on cable someday.

I was amused to read in varying articles that SK insisted he NOT be made a character in the movie(s). I wish he had insisted on that before he put himself into the books and ruined the series.

[Carpet_pissr]

I was amused to read in varying articles that SK insisted he NOT be made a character in the movie(s). I wish he had insisted on that before he put himself into the books and ruined the series.

I won't say that it ruined the series, but it certainly tarnished the greatness that came before that point.

I wonder if in hindsight he thinks it was a terrible idea, or that the blowback from readers and critics was such that he didn't want to go through that again.

[msteelers]

I was amused to read in varying articles that SK insisted he NOT be made a character in the movie(s). I wish he had insisted on that before he put himself into the books and ruined the series.

I won't say that it ruined the series, but it certainly tarnished the greatness that came before that point.

I wonder if in hindsight he thinks it was a terrible idea, or that the blowback from readers and critics was such that he didn't want to go through that again.

I read somewhere recently that he didn't like the end result of inserting himself into the storyline like that. He also implied that he is still working on the book series, and that a complete revision of all 7 books could come out at some point with major revision likely. It's possible we get a version of the books without King in them.

[Carpet_pissr]

I was amused to read in varying articles that SK insisted he NOT be made a character in the movie(s). I wish he had insisted on that before he put himself into the books and ruined the series.

I won't say that it ruined the series, but it certainly tarnished the greatness that came before that point.

I wonder if in hindsight he thinks it was a terrible idea, or that the blowback from readers and critics was such that he didn't want to go through that again.

I read somewhere recently that he didn't like the end result of inserting himself into the storyline like that. He also implied that he is still working on the book series, and that a complete revision of all 7 books could come out at some point with major revision likely. It's possible we get a version of the books without King in them.

Awesome! I would definitely read that.

[YellowKing]

I know there were some inconsistencies in The Drawing of the Three that were pointed out by astute readers that also bothered him. It wouldn't surprise me if he went back and fixed those.

I wasn't a huge fan of King inserting himself into the story, but he didn't violate any "rules" of his own creation (many worlds, etc.) So in that respect I was OK with it.

[Isgrimnur]

He will be replacing himself with Piers Anthony.

[Jeff V]

He will be replacing himself with Piers Anthony.

Spoiler:

The lobster things that cut off his fingers in the opening of Gunslinger seem like something Anthony would come up with.

[Isgrimnur]

He will be replacing himself with Piers Anthony.

Spoiler:

The lobster things that cut off his fingers in the opening of Gunslinger seem like something Anthony would come up with.

Spoiler:

Nicklepede

[JCC]

I ardently hope that he does a total rewrite of everything from the end of Book 5 (them finding Salem's Lot) on. While I loathed King being made a part of the story, I also just hated the last 2 books in general.

(It's more than a dozen years old, so I am not going to hide it in spoilers.)

Almost as bad as King inserting himself into the narrative was the totally stupid "mutant" baby of Susannah. Flagg had been built up as the ultimate nemesis of Roland, NOT TO MENTION the ultimate nemesis of many other King books. To then have him be utterly toyed with and tossed aside by a character just introduced in the final book, who was completely unneeded and even worse uninteresting absolutely infuriated me. It is clear to me that King freaked out over his near death experience and just forced himself to finish the series half baked, while (understandably) still traumatized by the accident. I would love him to just retcon everything from the end of book 5 on and write something different. I also thought it cheapened the deaths of Eddie and Jake to have Susannah "meet" them in another universe. Kill them off or not (I was very upset about Eddie being killed off, because I loved the character - but it made sense that SOMEONE (or someones) in the Ka-Tet had to die) but don't cheapen the importance of their deaths, by half undoing it and having Susannah forget about the "real" Jake and Eddie. AGGG!

So yes, I would be in favor of him redoing the final books.

[Carpet_pissr]

It is clear to me that King freaked out over his near death experience and just forced himself to finish the series half baked, while (understandably) still traumatized by the accident.

Interesting. I can totally see that. The tone changed quite a bit as well IIRC.

[Punisher]

So... I picked up all the graphic novels during the recent amazon sale and finished the last one over the weekend.. I now find out that there aren't any more graphic novels to see what happened...This suck tremendously and had I known this from the start, I probably would have skipped them...
Questions..
1) What do I need to read next to continue the story?
2) Is there an actual ending?
3) Where does the movie take place in the plot line? From the scenes I have seen, it looks like it is after the graphic novels end.... I don't see any way for the movie to fully incorporate all the back story in the graphic novels.. I guess they cherry picked specific things to make a movie about rather then try to tell the whole story...

[msteelers]

My understanding is that the comics are a prequel to the books and the movie is a quasi sequel.

I have not read the comics or seen the movie yet though.

[Carpet_pissr]

So... I picked up all the graphic novels during the recent amazon sale and finished the last one over the weekend.. I now find out that there aren't any more graphic novels to see what happened...This suck tremendously and had I known this from the start, I probably would have skipped them...
Questions..
1) What do I need to read next to continue the story?
2) Is there an actual ending?
3) Where does the movie take place in the plot line? From the scenes I have seen, it looks like it is after the graphic novels end.... I don't see any way for the movie to fully incorporate all the back story in the graphic novels.. I guess they cherry picked specific things to make a movie about rather then try to tell the whole story...

Think of the graphic novels as filling in a lot of gaps left in the books. I think I read somewhere that it's more like "expanded universe" content which is pretty accurate. Most recommend reading the books first, then the graphic novels to fill in the gaps.

The first graphic novel is very much aligned with the first book, but after that they veer off quite a bit.

Note also that the books jump back and forth in time, from Roland's childhood, to present. The graphic novels present events chronologically.

[rshetts2]

2) Is there an actual ending?

This is Steven King we are talking about. He doesn't know how to do an actual ending.

[Grifman]

So, has anyone actually seen the movie? Or should I assume it is so bad that people would rather talk about the books instead of the movie?

[msteelers]

So, has anyone actually seen the movie? Or should I assume it is so bad that people would rather talk about the books instead of the movie?

I think we are going to try and see it this weekend.

[Carpet_pissr]

So, has anyone actually seen the movie? Or should I assume it is so bad that people would rather talk about the books instead of the movie?

Anything scoring 18% on RT (really, about 50% or below), I actively avoid. Much less pay money for it. I will wait on the TV series.

Trailer actually looked interesting, but comments like this, combined with the ridiculously low meta score, will keep me from ever watching it probably.

"The 95-minute culmination of years-long efforts to bring The Dark Tower to the big screen is a complete disaster, a limp, barely coherent shell of a movie."

"What could have been the next Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings is instead more akin to a 1990s Steven Seagal movie (and not one of the good ones)."

"This isn't "The Dark Tower." This is a small, sad pile of rubble - the foundation to a franchise you can only hope is never built."

"The Dark Tower" is a near-total whiff, a mess of a movie that took forever to get made and by the look of things should have taken about twice that long. Or maybe just never have been made at all."

"So much is so wrong about this stunted film version of Stephen King's marvelously dense and dazzling series of eight novels, that all I can say is this unholy mess shouldn't happen to a King, much less a paying customer."

[Punisher]

I wonder how it is for people unfamiliar with the books though.. Purely as a popcorn action flick.

[Brian]

I wonder how it is for people unfamiliar with the books though.. Purely as a popcorn action flick.

The two reviewers I usually watch both stated that they have never read the books and both said the movie was a complete waste of time.

Good Bad Flicks

Angry Joe Show

[Sectoid]

I wonder how it is for people unfamiliar with the books though.. Purely as a popcorn action flick.

Never read the books. Saw the movie last week. It was bearable as a popcorn flick, but I wish I didn't pay full price to see it.
It did the opposite of what The Hobbit did. It took a huge amount of material and compressed it into a 90 minute crap-fest. I really think that if the movie was drawn out and took time to develop the story, it would have been a lot better. Not having read the books, I had to extrapolate a lot of what the hell was going on and could have greatly benefited from some sort of back story. You would think that a director who is actually more of a writer would know that. I mean it is not hard to pick up. There is a tower that protects all the universes and the man in black is trying to destroy it to let loose the dark beings being driven back from the tower's protection. Apparently, a child's mind (with the Shine) can destroy it. The story tried to tie together King's other stories to build out a multiverse, which would have been awesome, but it failed.
I was generally disappointed that a film with a pretty damn skilled cast would put forth such a shitty performance from all of them. Aside from True Crime, I have never been a fan of McConaughey. Even in Interstellar, I just couldn't get into his character. In this he is supposed to be the foil, but comes across as just a douche. Not even a believable douche either.
On a side note, I am greatly disappointed in the casting choices by Hollywood in general. There are thousands of very skilled actors and it seems that we have the same 20 or so playing every role ever. The whole Josh Brolin (who is a fine actor) playing both Cable and Thanos comes to mind.
Anyway, if you read the books, you probably shouldn't see the movie. My friend that I went with to see it who read the books called this "a flaming hot mess." There are just too many things left out that kind of make the story work.

[Jeff V]

Anyway, if you read the books, you probably shouldn't see the movie. My friend that I went with to see it who read the books called this "a flaming hot mess." There are just too many things left out that kind of make the story work.

Sounds like Lynch's Dune when that came out.

[msteelers]

We saw this over the weekend. My wife and cousin both liked it, but neither of them have read the books. I told them the movie was like watching all of Game of Thrones condensed down into a 90 minute movie.

The worst part about this is that the entire idea of this being a sequel to the books is incorrect.

Spoiler:

The Horn of Eld is never shown, and not even mentioned in passing that I can remember. What the hell was all of the buzz about before the movie was released? King himself was throwing out pictures of the horn with the caption "last time around". Elba made a point to say that the Gunslinger has it on him during the movie. But it's not touched upon at all in the story.

So the only connection to the books is the characters names and some similar motivations. That's about it. Besides that, this is its own story. Had this been it's own movie without any of the baggage from the books, it would have been ok. A mindless summer blockbuster with a cool action scene and a forgettable story. As a movie, I'll go with a 5 out of 10. As an adaptation of the books, it's a 2 or 3.

[rshetts2]

I just watched this recently and damn what a mess. First off its only around 90 minutes long. Because of that they have to strip the movie down to the bare bones. There is no ka tet, in fact there are no characters from the ka tet except Jake. This is simply about a young boy who meets a disillusioned veteran warrior and fights a wizard. That is basically it. Like previously mentioned it may have been a serviceable popcorn movie if it had no connection to the book series but it is a terrible representation of the book series in every way possible. I understand that movie adaptations often pale to what our imagination can give us from a great book but this doesnt even attempt to be a movie about the Dark Tower series in anyway beyond the meagerest of hand waving.

[Isgrimnur]

B-D

Buried in an unrelated story over on Deadline last night was the news that Amazon is apparently the home for the small screen version of “The Dark Tower.”

“As part of the effort, Amazon made a mega deal for a Lord Of the Rings TV series and is developing a slew of high-profile titles, including The Dark Tower, Wheel of Time, Ringworld, Lazarus and Snow Crash,” wrote Deadline last night, describing Amazon’s current effort to push into the genre series arena.

We don’t have any other firm details at this time, but last we heard, Glen Mazzara (formerly of AMC’s “The Walking Dead”) was to be the series’ showrunner.

[Isgrimnur]

EW

Against all odds, The Dark Tower TV series still has a pulse.
...
Such a grim result seemed at the time to pour cold water all over previously established plans to follow The Dark Tower with sequels and a related TV series. (The TV series was originally developed by MRC and eventually made its way to Amazon.)

In a recent interview with Deadline Hollywood, however, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke revealed that the company’s efforts to craft a small-screen take on The Dark Tower aren’t over yet.

“Those are scripts that I haven’t gotten yet,” said Salke, responding to a question about long-in-development propositions including an adaptation of fantasy series The Wheel of Time as well as Dark Tower. “I’ll be seeing those, that material, in the coming weeks. None of those things are dead. They’re very much alive.”

There you have it — King acolytes may have a return to Mid-World to look forward to. Former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara was announced as the showrunner at one point, on a series that would pull heavily from King’s Wizard & Glass and focus on telling the origin story of Elba’s gunslinger. No word on whether Dark Tower director Nikolaj Arcel remains involved, or whether once-hatched plans to have Elba, Tom Taylor, and Dennis Haysbert reprise roles from the film still stand.

[Smoove_B]

Despite movie (which I haven't seen and don't want to watch), the Amazon pilot is chugging forward:

Anyway, it’s time to forget Elba and McConaughey altogether, because Variety says that Amazon and MRC have found a new Gunslinger and Man In Black with Sam Strike (Nightflyers) and Jasper Pääkkönen (BlacKkKlansman). Strike will play the young Roland Deschain, years before he embarks on his quest to reach the eponymous Dark Tower, while Pääkkönen will reportedly be playing the evil Man In Black, a.k.a. Marten Broadcloak/Walter Padick. As King fans know, Marten is also the same guy as Randall Flagg from The Stand, but that’s not really relevant until much later in the timeline from the books.
...
The plan for the series is to follow Roland as he first becomes a Gunslinger (basically a cowboy knight), which means it’ll be pulling from the flashback adventures in King’s Wizard And Glass book. That also means the core Dark Tower cast won’t be showing up, but we should theoretically get a glimpse of some sweet Dark Tower mythology in the form of Roland’s doomed Gunslinger pals, his similarly doomed girlfriend, and a magical ball called Maerlyn’s Grapefruit. Like everything related to The Dark Tower, this could end up being either delightfully weird or annoyingly stupid.

I've read about half of the graphic novels - which cover all kinds of missing time from the books. If this show is half as good as those comics, it'll be a winner.