The Dark Tower series filmed adaptation

[flaggwalkstheline]

big news!
http://www.superherohype.com/news/ar...or-dark-tower-

Javier Bardem is looking to be the prime candidate for playing Roland!

[DanishCollector]

I like Bardem but don't really see him as Roland. I would prefer Hugh Jackman or Viggo Mortensen.

[pixiedark76]

I like Bardem but don't really see him as Roland. I would prefer Hugh Jackman or Viggo Mortensen.

I felt the same way at first. Then I did some research on Javier Bardem. I saw him in the film "No country for old men" His character Anton Chingurh spooked the shit out of me. The expression on his face when he is hunting someone down to kill them gives me the creeps. After seeing Javier in" No Country for old men" I had to sleep with the lights on.
This is exactly how I feel about Roland. Roland is a mean, unforgettable character. He is also tough as nails and mean as a snake. I now think that Viggo Mortensen and Hugh Jackem could not do half as well as Javier Bardem.

[ICry4Oy]

I would still prefer unknown actors in the main roles.

[pixiedark76]

Roland, to be honest, speaks the "Midworld" or "Gilead" speak. Who's to say what the "accent" is? Aren't we being just a little nit-picky here?


Just saying.................................

Agreed...that being said has anyone listened to the audio books? Did they give him a distinct voice in that? I honestly was BIG against not wanting bardem at first, but the more i think about it and as i said before after starting to re-read the series i actually don't mind it now at all. I looked at some different pictures of him online also and it seems to fit a bit better to me. Just my opinion though...




Blued the eyes up a bit just too see lol

That's pretty cool, dude. Is it just me or do the blue eyes suit him? I thought they might look horribly out of place on his tan face and I was mentally resigned to (and happy with) seeing a dark-eyed Roland. But he looks cool in 'em, I think.

I was on the Wikipedia site for the movie "No country for old men" and in the description of Javier Bardem's character Anton Chigurh, it states that " he has eyes blue as lapis, like wet stones"

So Javier Bardem already played a character with blue eyes. I think he looked great!

[KindredAutmn]

yeep id like to see that too

anyway cant wait till 2013

[Blaine Is A Pain]

I would still prefer unknown actors in the main roles.

I think that is usually a good way to go. In this case it's different though in my opinion. They need to go with someone they already know is a quality actor since Roland is the main character and will be in practically every important scene. Everything revolves around his character to the main story and the main actors. They need a solid actor that they KNOW can do the job well. If you go with an unknown actor for this role it could be doomsday and they all know it. Granted if any actor sucks in the main roles that would be bad but it would kill the project if they go with some unknown that can't pull it off. Who knows if Javier will but it's a much safer bet with an Academy Award winner than an unknown. My opinion or view anyway. Plus, a lot of people actually do NOT know who he is. Everyone knows who Hugh Jackman is. Practically everyone knows who Virgo Mortenson is as well, but not everybody knows Javier Bardem. Yet, the producers and directors know the man has a good chance at pulling it off and you get a little bit of the unknown actor mixed in there as well.

Now for the roles of Susannah and Eddie Dean I think they can get away with more of an unknown actor for those roles. I'm not saying they are not critical but Roland is the Darth Vader of this saga. They literally have to get an actor that can nail down that role. The others you can get away with a bit more there in my opinion. Obviously they have to be quality but not necessarily as critical as Roland.

[Merlin1958]

I would still prefer unknown actors in the main roles.

I think that is usually a good way to go. In this case it's different though in my opinion. They need to go with someone they already know is a quality actor since Roland is the main character and will be in practically every important scene. Everything revolves around his character to the main story and the main actors. They need a solid actor that they KNOW can do the job well. If you go with an unknown actor for this role it could be doomsday and they all know it. Granted if any actor sucks in the main roles that would be bad but it would kill the project if they go with some unknown that can't pull it off. Who knows if Javier will but it's a much safer bet with an Academy Award winner than an unknown. My opinion or view anyway. Plus, a lot of people actually do NOT know who he is. Everyone knows who Hugh Jackman is. Practically everyone knows who Virgo Mortenson is as well, but not everybody knows Javier Bardem. Yet, the producers and directors know the man has a good chance at pulling it off and you get a little bit of the unknown actor mixed in there as well.

Now for the roles of Susannah and Eddie Dean I think they can get away with more of an unknown actor for those roles. I'm not saying they are not critical but Roland is the Darth Vader of this saga. They literally have to get an actor that can nail down that role. The others you can get away with a bit more there in my opinion. Obviously they have to be quality but not necessarily as critical as Roland.

You make some very good points!

[koz]

It's been a while and no news?

[EvaH]

Javier Bardem Closing 'Dark Tower' Deal
http://www.deadline.com/2011/04/javi...rk-tower-deal/

[Séamus]

@Rosenrot You got there before me dammit

P.S I like the name, Rammstein fan?

[EvaH]

Yup. \m/(>_<)\m/

[Ben Staad]

Sorry if this has already been covered....but is there any preference to the rating of this film? IMO whatever the rating ends up being I hope they manage to keep close to the actual story and not adjust it to keep it more open to a larger audience.

[Séamus]

Sorry if this has already been covered....but is there any preference to the rating of this film? IMO whatever the rating ends up being I hope they manage to keep close to the actual story and not adjust it to keep it more open to a larger audience.

Unfortunately, I think it won’t be a matter of “will they cut big chunks out of the book?” but rather “What chunks will they cut?”
I’m thinking that they’ll do what they did to Lord of the Rings and cut what they think is too much “gunk” and unnecessary story detail. Buy hey man it’s Hollywood.

[Jean]

or rather, "what chunks will they keep"

[alinda]

2013 is so far removed from my mind ....hope I am still around

[mae]

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/04/08/st...r-bardem-cast/

For months, Javier Bardem has been in talks for the role of Roland the Gunslinger in the big-screen version of The Dark Tower, and sources close to the production say he is just weeks away from finalizing the deal. But with that key component in place for Ron Howard’s adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy epic, which will span three feature films and two TV miniseries, it’s time to take a closer look at who should play some of the other key roles in Roland’s ka-tet (King’s word for the team joined by fate for the quest).

The series is made up of seven books — so far — with an eighth novel, The Wind Through the Keyhole, planned for publication next year, and set between his previous fourth and fifth books (Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla). The thing is already written, so smart money is that screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, who won the Oscar for Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, is already factoring it into the adaptation. There are also scores of characters in the series, some threading through other King works, so we can’t touch on them all… though, maybe Anthony Hopkins can be persuaded to reprise his role as psychic “breaker” Ted Brautigan from Hearts in Atlantis?

Apart from such colorful side characters, there is the trio that makes up the core team of heroes, Roland’s ka-tet, established in the second novel, The Drawing of the Three. Roland draws them into his Mid-World from various points on the space-time continuum, so who should Howard pull in for his multi-platform epic adaptation? Some of my suggestions below:

– Eddie Dean, the well-meaning but troubled junkie, whom an oracle tells Roland has been “possessed by a demon called Heroin,” in a clever perspective twist on our world. Once he is pulled into Mid-World, Dean becomes a loyal but wisecracking sidekick, offering his own perspective twist on these new surroundings, and helping cutting through some of the mystical mumbo-jumbo with the signature directness of a street kid from Brooklyn.

Casting: A sense of humor is a must, as well as a look that, let’s say, has a certain “lived in” texture. Eddie is a character with rough edges. Patton Oswalt has the comedic chops, and he shows an impressive, powerful, and darkly dramatic side in Big Fan and the upcoming Young Adult, but no one would accuse him of having a “heroin chic” figure. But part of Eddie’s appeal is that he’s not the guy anyone would have expected to take on a heroic mantle.

If you want to go the more traditional leading man route, however, perhaps Justified‘s Timothy Olyphant (whom some would have liked for Roland) would be the right choice. Before commenters crucify me for deigning to suggest someone as far outside the box as Oswalt, I could also see someone like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who’s the right age, can do comedy as well as drama, and can adopt the lean, rangy appearance of a true scumbag while still maintaining an uncanny charm. (See Hesher, opening next month. Seriously — go see it.)

– Susannah, a black woman from 1964 whose legs are missing below the knee after a subway accident. She also has split personality disorder after suffering head trauma as a child. (Both incidents were not accidents, but an attempt to kill her.) Once again, she’s nobody’s idea of a familiar female hero, but her handicaps make her all the more badass. It’s one thing to travel from Mad Men-era New York to a dusty, decimated alternate dimension that has “moved on” toward the apocalypse, but try doing that with your mind in fragments and the inability to walk.

Casting: King himself has said, “I always kind of see Angela Bassett in my mind’s eye,” when writing about Susannah, which is as good a casting suggestion as any, except that at 52, she’s perhaps too far out of the age range at this point. Avatar‘s Zoe Saldana has proven herself to be more than up to the task dramatically, and has the athleticism necessary to pull of a character who struggles so much physically to survive. She’s also well-versed in the kind of special-effects work necessary to create not just this character, but the whole Dark Tower world in general.

Sanaa Lathan also has the strong screen presence to pull off the role. She battled otherworldly beasts in Alien vs. Predator (okay, admittedly not the most dramatically sophisticated film) but she’s also in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming thriller Contagion and earned a Tony nomination for the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun.

One outside the box name to consider: Octavia Spencer, soon to break big in The Help. She’s not a lean, mean, slow-mutant killing machine like some of these other action-oriented actresses, but she’s got attitude and a half and an undeniable charm. In The Help, she’s Minny Jackson, a defiant, outspoken housemaid who is somewhat ahead of her own time. I’m not sure I can picture her sitting on a guy’s shoulders doing this, but we’re just brainstorming, people.

–Jake, the kid. This is a tough one. I’m not sure how you keep this child a child for the full span of years necessary to finish this project (cast Andy Milonakis?). But given that Jake exists in different dimensions and different lives (“there are other worlds than these,” he reassures Roland as one such life is about to end) maybe it’s possible to switch actors. The face changes, but the soul of Jake remains the same. Or maybe they’ll be shot fast enough that the aging of the character matches the aging of the actor. In any case, the father-son relationship that forms between the boy and Roland is a key component of the books, making this one of the most important casting decisions.

Casting: It’s got to be an unknown, right? Ten years ago, maybe The Sixth Sense‘s Haley Joel Osment would be the shoo-in for this role, but I’m not sure there is a prominent young actor today in his very early teens who might be considered a natural for a part like this. Josh Hutcherson from The Kids Are All Right, now playing Peeta in The Hunger Games, is too old, and obviously occupied anyway. If I were Ron Howard, I’d be asking J.J. Abrams if I could check out an early cut of Super 8, because the lead kid in that, Joel Courtney, has a lot of promise.

All right. Have at it. What are your thoughts and choices? Feel free to go deeper into the character bench, and get creative!

[Kidd Ikarus]

Is that guy serious with suggesting Patton Oswalt????

[sullivan19]

Just read the article Rosenrot linked to. I'm interested in the TV segment between the second and third film being a prequel, W&G presumably. From this, how will The Wolves, Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower be covered in the final picture? The ending of The Wolves and the next two books just flow directly into each other, otherwise I would suggested that the film makers are thinking of putting Roland's story further along the line, maybe whilst he and the ka tet are in the Calla.

[Brainslinger]

Maybe they won't cover the Calla stuff much at all. The stuff pertaining to the Keystone world and the door maybe, but not the Bryn Strugis and Wolves part. I'm just thinking that's a self contained story outside of the main narrative so a large part of that could end up cut out.

[The Talisman]

I watched the film - starring Viggo Mortensen - A History Of Violence last night.

Please god; give Viggo the part.

[velcro_fly]

I watched the film - starring Viggo Mortensen - A History Of Violence last night.

Please god; give Viggo the part.

Don't think thats going to happen

[Slender]

A lot of the Calla material is quite slow-paced and (dare I say it) a little bit boring. I never really cared about the villagers. The only parts of that book that I really liked were Callahan, Andy and the Wolves (Doombots, lightsabers, sneetches and all). I think the entire volume could be compressed into a single day of in-universe chronology and perhaps twenty minutes of screentime.

[velcro_fly]

I agree they could speed the Calla story up a little bit, but I hope they don't it all out, I really liked it. I would rather see the entire Calla story, rather than the 'Susannah and her Chap' story, to me it could be cut down alot.

[sullivan19]

Yeah, book 6 can be shortened quite a bit. Plus, we dont really need too much of Callahan's story, whick took up a lot of book 5. I personally think the events of book 2 or book 3 would make for better TV adaptation, with Wizard and Glass making a very good movie. The Wastelands would be very good episodic viewing IMO.