[bestworkothlo]

Please don't.

Not everything needs to be turned into a film

[gamblingstats]

This sounds terrible. The story seems as if it's not going to translate well in film format. I know Lord of the Rings was supposed to be unfilmable and then it worked out great, but at the same time that is mostly a linear and grounded storyline even if it is complex. The Dark Tower absolutely isn't and actually includes references to being a book series within the narrative so I don't know how that will work. Maybe we'll be surprised but I'm in the 'this is a bad idea' camp at the minute.

Also, I hated large parts of the final books and think the storyline becomes too spastic even in book form.

[bestworkothlo]

The final books seemed rushed to me. The last one aggravated me to some degree. My husband is finally almost finished reading the entire series. He had previously stopped at book 4. He's frowned through most of this last book. I told him he wouldn't like it, but that he probably should read how it all ends.

[JaK_MarkoV_Pi]

"No," was IMMEDIATELY what I thought when I read it.

Ron Howard is the only glimmer of hope it gives me. That and if they change the fuck out of post-accident crappy plot developments in the last 3 books.

I could see the first book could be translated well as a sparse Western, like David the Hawk would be cool... IF it was done right.

Some other elements, like Eddie's fight at the gangster club, when Jake was kidnapped by that freaky pirate dude, Blaine, etc could be done well too.

But.... lobstrosities? The twin people of Calla? Detta/Odetta? Some things would almost certainly be comically bad.

Plus I also learned he is supposedly working on a new book in the series. I don't know what I think about that.

[pobrierce]

NO, NO, NO! Just....NO! Can you tell how I feel about this? LOL! While reading the books I pictured them as movies in my head, but I also thought that if anyone ever dared to try it would be one gigantic mess. Yeah, Ron Howard is a fantastic director, but I don't know how even he will make it work, especially with the do a movie, do a tv season, do a movie, etc. thing. These books, even the last few, are so dear to me that if they changed much it would probably really upset me. The Lord of the Rings is, too, and they did change some stuff in those films, but I completely understood why they did what they did and they were still done very well.
I am curious about what they would do with Oy, what they would have him look like, but, then again, if it were way off from my imagination it would probably piss me off, lol.
@ Scarlet, yeah, if it wasn't done in just the right way, the lobstrosities & Detta/Odetta could wind up being uber cheesy!

[NikkitaZ]

Stephen King exclusive: Who should star in 'The Dark Tower'? 'The Twilight cast, of course!'


With news that Stephen King’s enormously popular book series The Dark Tower will be coming to a big and small screen near you, we here at EW.com could not stop ourselves from reaching out to the bestselling author (and EW columnist) via email to get a few more answers about the highly-anticipated project. Here’s what he had to say:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Dark Tower is such a dense series — did you always think it needed more than a single movie or TV show treatment?
STEPHEN KING: I always thought it would take more than a single movie, but I didn’t see this solution coming — i.e., several movies and TV series. It was Ron [Howard] and Akiva [Goldsman]‘s idea. Once it was raised, I thought at once it was the solution.

What about Ron Howard and NBC makes them a good fit for the franchise?
When working as a director, Ron is very similar to the way I work as a writer. We both tell honest stories that have (I flatter myself) style and substance but not a lot of show-offy frills.

In a perfect world, who would play Roland? Eddie? Susannah? Jake?
The Twilight cast, of course! Just kidding. I haven’t got as far as casting in my thoughts, but when I write about Susannah Dean, I always kind of see Angela Bassett in my mind’s eye. Mostly I just want good people in those parts. Ron Howard will find them, I’m sure.

And who would you want to play?
I’d love to be the voice of Blaine the Mono.

There’s a lot of blood in the series — how much is the TV series going to be censored? It likely would have been easier to join forces with a network without restrictions, à la HBO, no?
I don’t see that as a problem at all! We’ll have just enough latitude to make a great series. I’ve worked in network TV before, and every time I was squeezed a little, it just made me look for creative solutions. Besides, I always like to play in the biggest auditorium available!
I'll also say that I think this is one of the worst ideas ever, guaranteed to be screwed up. But I'll also admit that his Angel Bassett nod made me say, "YES!" [but still.. no.. just no no no. ]

[JaK_MarkoV_Pi]

Blaine the mono with his thick Maine accent?

"Ayuh Roland. Come on in he-ah and do some riddles."

[Gymngatagaica]

I'll also say that I think this is one of the worst ideas ever, guaranteed to be screwed up.

Exactly. This is doomed to fail. There are definite parts of the books that have cinematic potential - lots of places in The Drawing of the Three and The Wastelands as well as some of the adventure parts of the final three - but there's so much that just isn't going to work. And don't forget all of the SK interconnections - reading The Dark Tower without reading almost everything else in the King canon is almost a waste.

[bestworkothlo]

Ok, Angela Bassett as Susannah. Yes, she's be great. Over all though. Please stop the film mono, I want to get off.

And a new book. I just can't wrap my head around that.

[NikkitaZ]

Oh, Sue, I thought you knew about the book! I found out about that last year some time.... I thought we talked about it briefly, but I guess I must be thinking about someone else. hrm.

[bestworkothlo]

Is another book really necessary? Unless he's going to expand on Jerico Hill (which would be nice), I don't know that I'm all that interested.

[NikkitaZ]

I don't think it's needed, either. Any expanding he wanted to do could be/could have been tackled in The Dark Tower graphic novels, imo. I guess it'll be interesting what he felt so important to reopen a series he put paid to long ago, if nothing else, but it is annoying in general.

[bestworkothlo]

Here's a case of me being torn. While I love Viggo, I just don't think he's the right fit. I'm not sure anyone known actor is actually. Since Howard is going through with this I think he needs to use unknowns for this or relative unknowns.

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/wood...SyoAhcuPfV0a0H

[pobrierce]

^ Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure how to feel about this - I'm still not sure I like the idea of them making movies /tv show of these books. But I think Viggo is a better fit than Javier Bardem, though, if it really is between those two (and I think Bardem is a fantastic actor).

[NikkitaZ]

I'm not sure what to think about the "epic movie", tv series, movie, tv series, movie... THING. what what? what the hell? This is not going to go down well.

[bestworkothlo]

It's going to be like the first go round of the Lord of the Rings in the 70's. Animated, story truncated almost to non-recognition and just a general mess. When the trio of movies came out, very little in the way of high hopes were expressed by my husband and many other LotR fans. As good as I thought they were, he was still not entirely pleased (hard-core LotR person).

So once this mess is out of the way, maybe in about 30 years someone will come around and do it better.

[NikkitaZ]

I wish people would just give up on trying to put Stephen King books into movie format. It doesn't work. The Shining is the only one that made it through!

[JaK_MarkoV_Pi]

I wish people would just give up on trying to put Stephen King books into movie format. It doesn't work. The Shining is the only one that made it through!

I think more of them were good (Shawshank! Green Mile! Stand by Me!), but I agree with too many of them sucked (Dreamcatcher! Hearts in Atlantis!).

And yet a few of his stories would translate to the screen very well and haven't been adapted. Bag of Bones in the hand of a competent writer and director could be very scary and suspenseful.

Eyes of the Dragon could be EPIC. Maybe not live action unless it was done as well as LOTR or Harry Potter visually, but stop motion like Coraline or Nightmare Before Christmas? Flagg could totally be as creepy as Oogie Boogie.

[bestworkothlo]

The Shining is the least favorite SK movie translated to film.

Shawshank - yes
Green MIle - yes
Stand by Me - yes
Misery - liked.
Delores Claiborne - also liked

When I tell people who haven't read SK that the first 3 above were written by him I am always met with disbelief. I think those films worked because there's no horror/supernatural element in them.

The Mist - scared me in written form and didn't disappoint in film.

The horror type adaptations leave me flat. I think The Dome might work as the setting is very small, but the otherworldly aspect is sure to be bungled.

TV adaptations of The Stand and It weren't too bad but always room for improvement. The Langoliers - not so much. Same for Desperation.

[NikkitaZ]

The Dark Tower Becomes A Video Game
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/a...ideo-game.aspx

A post over at Ain't It Cool News has some interesting details about the planned film and TV adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. The ambitious approach is to create three feature films, but with TV series that link together the stories between each of the films. A "source with verifiable info on The Dark Tower" suggests that the first film may hit on May 13th, 2013. Of greater note for followers of interactive entertainment is the following quote from the tipster: "There's also a very ambitious game component being planned that will further utilize elements from the books." Sadly, there's no further information about the direction of such a game, or what development studio might be attached.

For those not in the know, The Dark Tower is a multi-volume series by Stephen King written across much of his career and published between 1982 and 2004. The story details the life of Roland Deschain, a gunslinger traveling on an epic quest to reach a mysterious tower. Many elements of The Dark Tower series connect to other books and stories written by King.

There's enormous potential for some cool games within the universe of The Dark Tower. The mixture of fantasy, horror, and western vibes is different than almost anything else in fiction, and gunslingers, as King writes them, are some of the sweetest heroes around. If the powers that be manage to find a strong studio to helm a game adaptation, and they're planning ahead this far in advance, we might have an impressive licensed release on our hands.

It's worth noting that while we've yet to see any big-budget games within the Dark Tower universe, there is an online game called Discordia that is a part of the fiction. *taps fingers and remains quite skeptical*
I ain't gonna lie, though, I'd buy it. Well, if it comes out on a console I have!