• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Stephen King's DARK TOWER TV & movie franchise
0

Started by Bosco685,

139 posts in this topic

▫️

▫️

Posted
Posted (edited)

Exactly.  An HBO ten-episode run for each novel.  Nine times out of ten I hate movies that come from books I love.  Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me were fantastic though still managed to leave a lot of content out and these were relatively short novellas by King.

Edited by Grails
Link to comment
Share on other sites
bronze_rules

bronze_rules

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've read all the books, and thought I'd hate it after reading all the reviews.  But just got back and really enjoyed it.

Thought it was a good standalone compressed presentation of the story and an entertaining one.  Lots of easter eggs for King fans as well,

I noticed one of the portals was 14 08, the other 19 19, both nice homages. There was the shining photo in psych office.  The men in yellow coats were pursuing jake. Jake had the shine (shining). The other guy could have been sheemie.

Those were just a few I caught, I'm sure there were more.

Only complaint is they couldn't do it justice, since it was only a 2 hour flick. But not terribly bad at all.

Edited by bronze_rules
Link to comment
Share on other sites
mattn792

mattn792

Posted
Posted

My mind got to wandering so I thought I'd check in on this disaster's aftermath, and I found this article from late October:

http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/news/a841430/stephen-king-says-dark-tower-tv-series-is-complete-reboot/

Maybe there's renewed hope going forward?  Assuming its a completely clean slate of course.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Stephen King gives his thoughts on the failure of The Dark Tower

Quote

After so many years spent in development hell, it's certainly a shame that the long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King's series didn't succeed, and King recently spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the failure of the film.

 

Stephen King is always careful regarding what he says about THE DARK TOWER as he's said that he likes everyone involved with the film, but he did say that trying to fit the story into the mold of a PG-13 blockbuster was a mistake.

 

"But I will say this, okay? The real problem, as far as I’m concerned is, they went in to this movie, and I think this was a studio edict pretty much: this is going to be a PG-13 movie. It’s going to be a tentpole movie. We want to make sure that we get people in there from the ages of, let’s say, 12 right on up to whatever the target age is. Let’s say 12 to 35. That’s what we want. So it has to be PG-13, and when they did that I think that they lost a lot of the toughness of it and it became something where people went to it and said, Well yeah, but it’s really not anything that we haven’t seen before."

 

After seeing what Sony's plan was for THE DARK TOWER early on, Stephen King attempted to express his doubts about the direction they were taking, but it seems that they were set on sticking with what they had.

 

"When they actually made the movie I had doubts about it from the beginning, and expressed them, and didn’t really get too far," King said. "Sometimes when people have made up their mind, the creative team that’s actually going to go and shoot the movie, it’s a little bit like hitting your fist against hard rubber, you know? It doesn’t really hurt, but you don’t get anywhere. It just sort of bounces back. And I thought to myself, Well, people are going to be really puzzled by this, and they were. So there was some of that problem, too."

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
mattn792

mattn792

Posted
Posted

"When they actually made the movie I had doubts about it from the beginning, and expressed them, and didn’t really get too far," King said. "Sometimes when people have made up their mind, the creative team that’s actually going to go and shoot the movie, it’s a little bit like hitting your fist against hard rubber, you know? It doesn’t really hurt, but you don’t get anywhere. It just sort of bounces back. And I thought to myself, Well, people are going to be really puzzled by this, and they were. So there was some of that problem, too."

If this is to be believed (I recall a number of pre-release hype statements from King), King should've tried to quash this project from the start (it's his material after all).  Sony left the Tower in developmental hell for so long that I think by the time the ball got rolling they were just throwing default concepts at the wall (name actors, loud noises, cliche one liners) in the hope that they would draw some eyes.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
  • Author
Posted
1 minute ago, mattn792 said:

If this is to be believed (I recall a number of pre-release hype statements from King), King should've tried to quash this project from the start (it's his material after all).  Sony left the Tower in developmental hell for so long that I think by the time the ball got rolling they were just throwing default concepts at the wall (name actors, loud noises, cliche one liners) in the hope that they would draw some eyes. 

It does sound a little bit like washing his hands of the failure by distancing himself from the decision-making.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bosco685

Bosco685

Posted
  • Author
Posted

‘The Dark Tower’ Casts Sam Strike As Gunslinger Roland Deschain, Plus Jasper Pääkkönen As Amazon Nears Pilot Order

Quote

Amazon’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower book series has found its Gunslinger. Sam Strike (Nightflyers) has been cast as the lead, Roland Deschain, in the project, which I hear is nearing a formal pilot order at the streaming platform.

 

Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings, BlacKkKlansman) will co-star in the drama, from executive producer/showrunner Glen Mazzara and MRC. The project had had a blinking green light for a couple of months, with casting quietly underway. It had been in development at Amazon for almost a year. Pääkkönen is believed to be playing Marten, the character Roland is out to kill.

 

jasper-pc3a4c3a4kkc3b6nen.jpg?w=191&h=25

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Crimebuster

Crimebuster

Posted
Posted (edited)

I have only read part of the series, but in the thing here that jumped out to me is this:

"Pääkkönen is believed to be playing Marten, the character Roland is out to kill."

I think this explains why Sam Strike is such a young actor for the role of Roland - this isn't following adult Roland, it's from when he's a kid. Marten is a bad guy in flashback sequences to Roland's youth; Walter is the Man in Black Roland is chasing as an adult. 

Have they said before that this series is going to essentially be a prequel? 

 

Edited by Crimebuster
Link to comment
Share on other sites
RedRaven

RedRaven

Posted
Posted
17 hours ago, Crimebuster said:

 

Have they said before that this series is going to essentially be a prequel? 

 

Good call!

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7215646/

Quote

The television series, based on Stephen King's novel Wizard and Glass, will serve as a prequel to The Dark Tower film.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
RedRaven

RedRaven

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, bane said:

Wizard and Glass was the most drawn out and boring book of the entire series!

I assume they are setting the stage for the main storyline to be adapted as well. Hopefully they do a good enough job with the material where that happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
0
Go to topic listing