Quote Originally Posted by Bev Vincent View Post
‘The Dark Tower’ Casts Sam Strike As Gunslinger Roland Deschain, Plus Jasper Pääkkönen As Amazon Nears Pilot Order

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.

The Dark Tower TV series is independent from the film and is meant to be a more faithful retelling of the book than the movie was. I hear it will take place many years before the events depicted in the feature and will focus on Roland Deschain’s (Strike) origin story – how he first became a gunslinger and got his guns, his first conflict with the man in black, his first love and his first mission as a gunslinger.

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

The 2017 Sony/MRC feature The Dark Tower starred Idris Elba as Roland Deschain.

King’s eight Dark Tower books draw from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western.

Strike is coming off a series regular role on the Syfy/Netflix series Nightflyers, based on the novella by George R.R. Martin. The English actor launched his acting career with main roles on the British series M.I. High and EastEnders. He will next be seen in the HBO/Sky miniseries Chernobyl and will reprise his guest starring role on the second season of David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter. He is repped by Gersh, Circle of Confusion and UK’s The Artists Partnership.

Finnish actor Pääkkönen played Halfdan the Black on History’s Vikings and recently co-starred in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman.
So, let's see if I have this right. The Amazon feature will be basically the re-telling of the events in W&G and possibly beyond? Whereas the feature film was obstensively a telling of the 20th loop, basically following the 8 book story, right? BTW I recently re-watched the film and it wasn't quite as bad as I remember it the first time through. lol Don't get me wrong, it was bad just not quite as bad as I initially thought. There were some good bits that they represented well, but overall it lacked a continuity with the books in any real way IMHO. You guys remember the trailer fluff with the horn, right? The horn never gets touched on in the film.

I suppose this could be a good show (Amazon version), but focusing on the W&G portion sure takes a lot of meat off the bones. In fact, as I recall, it will be more or less a plain old western maybe along the lines of "Jonah Hex"? I mean to my memory there is very little magic and/or monster mayhem in that story, right? You basically have, Rhea, the BCH and a thinny or two. Oh, and a little Farson reference. Seems to me it will lack a lot of content that could make it successful, but I guess we'll see in the end, huh?