The Dark Tower series filmed adaptation

[Merlin1958]

Whatever studio finally green-lights this project is still taking a big risk. There is obviously a huge fanbase for the Dark Tower Series, but the fanbase is much less broad than Harry Potter or even Hunger Games. Plus, those series have the added bonus of children dragging their parents along (or vice versa). I don't think DT appeals to the younger audience.

I'm very very worried that DT will fall victim to the usuall Hollywood attempts to market the series to a wider audience, dumb it down, and throw in rediculous Hollywood archetypes to increase their revenue. Just look at what Orson Scott Card has gone through trying to get the Ender's Game movie made. He's faced constant attempts to re-organize and change his work to fit the big screen. Luckily, he has refused for the past 20 something years, but I'm not sure what's going on now especially since the director of the new Ender's Game movie's last work was the Wolverine Origins movie, which was horrible.

I really hope this project gets the treatment it deserves.

I hear ya. That's why I agree HBO (under "Pablo's" terms) would be the ideal vehicle. Anything less than that kind of commitment from HBO though............................................ .......Anyone remember "Carnivale"? LOL

[BigSchu22]

I hear ya. That's why I agree HBO (under "Pablo's" terms) would be the ideal vehicle. Anything less than that kind of commitment from HBO though............................................ .......Anyone remember "Carnivale"? LOL

Yeah, HBO may be the way to go. The budget and production value is much much higher than the typical miniseries adaptation and we all know how past TV miniseries adaptations of King novels usually turn out; although, I do enjoy some of them. HBO would probably have the balls as well since it's a subscriber channel, they can get away with a more limited focus. Either way, I really hope Hollywood/corporate intervention doesn't ruin this.

[Iwritecode]

I'm very very worried that DT will fall victim to the usual Hollywood attempts to market the series to a wider audience, dumb it down, and throw in ridiculous Hollywood archetypes to increase their revenue.

This is my biggest fear as well. It's exactly what they did with the Hearts in Atlantis movie. In fact, with the changes they made, the title "Hearts in Atlantis" didn't fit at all since they didn't include the story from the book that referred to that phrase.

They also changed the ending and the fate of Carol, which really sucked. I liked the ending of the book much better.

[CaptHowdy]

From Ron Howards twitter:

"Ron Howard ‏ @RealRonHoward
Spent day today in a story session on...Dark Tower :-) Terrific meeting w/ Akiva Goldsman & Erica Huggins No timetables but very positive"

[fernandito]

YES.

I'm hoping that the delay causes Bardem to resign and we're able to make another attempt at bringing Viggo Mortensen on board.

[WeDealInLead]

YES.

I'm hoping that the delay causes Bardem to resign and we're able to make another attempt at bringing Viggo Mortensen on board.

agreed

[pooloftears]

http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=24766

[XerxesRex]

I wish HBO would just commit to a 19-episode epic series, with a two-hour premiere and a two-hour finale. I think 21 hours should be plenty to tell the entire saga without cutting too much or too much padding.

Well said, although the other premium cable production companies are doing awesome work as well!

[neosatus]

Please no Bardem... Has anyone else ever thought that Josh Holloway might play a good Roland?

[DanishCollector]

I still want either Viggo or Hugh Jackman as Roland.

[Robert Fulman]

My fear with HBO is that some genius would say, "How about we give Susannah legs, but no shirt, huh?"

[beam*seeker]

My fear with HBO is that some genius would say, "How about we give Susannah legs, but no shirt, huh?"

Well if it was Starz, I would be more worried about that

[Merlin1958]

My fear with HBO is that some genius would say, "How about we give Susannah legs, but no shirt, huh?"

Funny, yet deeply disturbing in that it just could happen with those "Bozo's"!!!

[Brice]

Well, if they MUST do that I hope they pick the right ummm....actress.

[Asharak]

Definitely think a TV series adaption of the entire series is the only way to go. Don’t really see how a total of three movies, with a tigh in series (meaning not essential to get the story) would resemble the 8 book series at all. There’s just too much story, to make anything less than 7 - 9 movies. How would one build an effective narrative for a trilogy and still have anything resembling the books? So much plot would have to be dropped, I doubt there would be much similarity between the movies and the books except for the characters themselves.

An HBO adaption would be ideal, 3 seasons of 12 episodes would work well I think, my suggestion for how they should do it:

S1: Books 1-3
S2: Books 4, 8, Little Sisters of Eluria
s3: Books 5-7

[oil-man]

If hollywood can take Lt. Dan's legs away digitally, they can take Suze's legs away. No problem. In your listing of the film, are you including THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE?

[Merlin1958]

If hollywood can take Lt. Dan's legs away digitally, they can take Suze's legs away. No problem. In your listing of the film, are you including THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE?

Yeah, I don't think it's feasible to include TWTTKH. I'm sure the contractual rights were restricted to the first 7 volumes only

[Brainslinger]

And most of The Wind...consists of back-stories, separate separate from the main narrative. Nothing wrong with dealing with that in a series, I guess, where a tangent episode or two may even be welcome, but in a more limited film series they're going to want more concision in their material.

[sgc1999]

Whatever studio finally green-lights this project is still taking a big risk. There is obviously a huge fanbase for the Dark Tower Series, but the fanbase is much less broad than Harry Potter or even Hunger Games. Plus, those series have the added bonus of children dragging their parents along (or vice versa). I don't think DT appeals to the younger audience.

I'm very very worried that DT will fall victim to the usuall Hollywood attempts to market the series to a wider audience, dumb it down, and throw in rediculous Hollywood archetypes to increase their revenue. Just look at what Orson Scott Card has gone through trying to get the Ender's Game movie made. He's faced constant attempts to re-organize and change his work to fit the big screen. Luckily, he has refused for the past 20 something years, but I'm not sure what's going on now especially since the director of the new Ender's Game movie's last work was the Wolverine Origins movie, which was horrible.

I really hope this project gets the treatment it deserves.

I agree, remember Jah Jah Binx, ouch.

[domomuffin]

you don't want DT to be adapted as strictly a mini series. HBO doesn't have the kind of money needed to do the story justice. no network has that kind of money.
remember "the stand"? that's what you get when you try to fit a massive story into a tight budget.
for a story with such epic proportions you either go big or go home. and only WB have pockets deep enough to finance this.they also have experience with epic adaptations. unfortunately for them 3 movies are not enough to tell the whole story so extending it to 2 series on HBO is really the only formula to actually do this . HBO is owned by Time Warner so essentially WB+HBO can be seen as one studio in this case.
and even though there's alot of Bardem hate around these parts, you're gonna need him because he has "academy award winner" in his title. "academy award winner" makes studios feel much better when they have to commit to gigantic budgets.

that being said it's more likely than not that someone will pull the plug on this project before it even starts.

[CyberGhostface]

you don't want DT to be adapted as strictly a mini series. HBO doesn't have the kind of money needed to do the story justice. no network has that kind of money.
remember "the stand"? that's what you get when you try to fit a massive story into a tight budget.
for a story with such epic proportions you either go big or go home. and only WB have pockets deep enough to finance this.they also have experience with epic adaptations. unfortunately for them 3 movies are not enough to tell the whole story so extending it to 2 series on HBO is really the only formula to actually do this . HBO is owned by Time Warner so essentially WB+HBO can be seen as one studio in this case.
and even though there's alot of Bardem hate around these parts, you're gonna need him because he has "academy award winner" in his title. "academy award winner" makes studios feel much better when they have to commit to gigantic budgets.

I don't think DT's any more epic than A Song of Ice and Fire and HBO's 'Game of Thrones' hasn't been lacking in that area. I mean The Gunslinger and Drawing of Three alone could be done on a fairly minimal budget given that there's only a handful of characters and not a lot of effects-heavy stuff. It's not like there are lots of huge battle scenes like Lord of the Rings.

I mean the only issue is that HBO might bail midstory like they did with Carnivale, Rome and Deadwood if it doesn't do well but that's also a potential issue with Hollywood.

Three movies and two seasons is not nearly enough to faithfully tell all seven books. You would either have to rush through it or excise huge chunks of material. I think some of the stuff in the latter three books could be condensed without much harm (I love Callahan's story but that could probably go, and Song of Susannah could easily be shortened) but even then you have a lot of material to through. Plus such a back and forth format is just asking for trouble in the long run.
------
Also casting update: looks like Russell Crowe may be Roland.

http://collider.com/the-dark-tower-russell-crowe/186047

[mae]

http://www.deadline.com/2012/08/warn...is-in-the-mix/

I’m told that Warner Bros is getting a new script from Akiva Goldsman for the first installment of Stephen King’s mammoth Western The Dark Tower, and that within two weeks, the studio will be making a decision on whether to green light the first leg of one of the most daring and ambitious projects to come along since The Lord Of The Rings. And here is a new wrinkle to add to the mix. Javier Bardem is no longer in the mix as gunslinger Roland Deschain. I’m told that director Ron Howard and producers Brian Grazer and Goldsman have been talking with their A Beautiful Mind star Russell Crowe about playing Deschain. While there is no deal with Crowe, that is the star that Warner Bros will be evaluating as the studio decides on whether to take a leap on a nine-volume book that has a huge following, with Howard, King and their partners planning a multi-platform presentation that could be unforgettable. The story will be told through three films and two limited run TV series.

The Dark Tower is about the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers, with Deschain becoming humanity’s last hope to save civilization as he hits the road to find the Dark Tower. Along the way, he encounters characters, good and bad, in a world that has an Old West feel. When I last wrote about this, Universal had dropped out and Warner Bros had sparked to the idea of taking on this franchise, possibly with HBO handling the TV component that would bridge the the first and second feature films, with another limited run TV series to follow. Given HBO’s adventurous forays into fantasy with Game of Thrones, it seems like the ideal venue.

If Crowe stepped up as the gunslinger, it would certainly help the project. He has clearly gotten back into the leading man game where he was when making films like Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind. Crowe played a big role of Jor-El in Warner Bros’s Man of Steel relaunch of the Superman franchise, and he is currently playing the title Biblical hero in the Darren Aronofsky-directed Noah for New Regency and Paramount. We’ll know soon if that regurgence takes him into an Old West fantasy, courtesy of what King has called his answer to JRR Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

In a climate of fear and remakes–is Sony Pictures actually remaking Jumanji, a film that came out less than 20 years ago?–it would be grand to see Warner Bros have the stones to take the kind of daring risk that seems only to be taken by the likes of HBO, Showtime, AMC and other pay and cable networks. It’s that risk taking that has put those networks in a position of being at the center what will eventually be viewed as a golden age for daring quality TV series.

[neosatus]

^Thanks for posting. I think Crowe would do well--definitely better than Bardem. I hope it gets the green light!

[CyberGhostface]

Russell doesn't do much for me. Javier would have been more interesting.

[costanza]

With Crowe as Roland the hamburger scene in Tull may turn into a hamburger eating contest. LARD ASS! LARD ASS!