The Dark Tower Thread

Flagg

JJ Abrams has the film rights. Hopefully something will come of it.

PearlJamaholic

merkinball wrote:

It's tough to get burned out on the D/T series. Even if it gets to be a lot, there is so much else in the King universe that ties into it along the way, you can pick up any one of his books and pick up some side information.

Insomnia is the book that really kicked it in for me on King, but the two books he did with Peter Straub (Talisman and Black House) are very much entwined in the Dark Tower series, as are the (King Written) Richard Bachman books The Regulators and Desperation.

read the talisman and aside from liking the comics this book was one of the reasons i tried the dark tower stuff. i was always under the impression that king was a horror writer. but since talisman was great i figured hey maybe he can do more non-horror. but now his non-horror stuff is easily my favorite.

smarchee

The Dark Tower overtook my life for about 3 months in the summer of 1999. I had not picked up any of these books yet and I was a huge fan of King and I met a buddy in college who was also a huge fan of King and recommend I pick the first 4 books up (which were the only ones out at the time) and wow, I was completely sucked into to that world.

My favourite series of books ever, I am going to return to them sometime in the future and read them again

Flagg

I was thinking about starting over again. I read 1-4 a few years ago and re-read them before 5 came out. Then I went straight through 5-7.

Wizard and Glass is still my favorite. That world he created is incredible. And he managed to keep the tension up even though you already knew how it was going to end.

NothingSound

I read the first three earlier this year. I have Wizard and Glass at home and just ordered book 5. I love the story, but I needed to take a break for a few months. Everyone seems to say Wizard & Glass is the best one so I'm looking forward to that.

smarchee

Flagg wrote:

I was thinking about starting over again. I read 1-4 a few years ago and re-read them before 5 came out. Then I went straight through 5-7.

Wizard and Glass is still my favorite. That world he created is incredible. And he managed to keep the tension up even though you already knew how it was going to end.

yes, it was mine as well

I totally fell in love with Susan Delgado, lol

am I not the only one ?

Vedderlution_Baby

smarchee wrote:

yes, it was mine as well

I totally fell in love with Susan Delgado, lol

am I not the only one ?

Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler











I cried.

PearlJamaholic

Flagg wrote:

JJ Abrams has the film rights. Hopefully something will come of it.

thats the guy that does lost right? if so thats the same dude i read about months ago. i like the books ive read and dont think a movie can be better, but seeing how lotr was done i think if treated right they could make a very good movie. so you need a guy that actually respects the story to start. and it seems abrams could be that guy.

these are one of the few books while reading i kept thinking, that would be cool in a movie.

merkinball

PearlJamaholic wrote:

these are one of the few books while reading i kept thinking, that would be cool in a movie.

**************HUGE SPOILERS*****************






************Really, big spoilers if you haven't finished the series*********









Except the ending of the 7th (last) book. It took a while to get what was Kings intent there, I doubt that would pay off well in a movie. And, no offense to King, but they'd have to up Flagg's death. That was one of the more disappointing aspects of the book.

Ledbetterman10

StateOfLoveBoatCptn. wrote:

Is this like where Batman lives or works or something?

hahaha

I was wondering myself if this was just a mistitled Batman thread

Flagg

merkinball - totally agree. I was really disappointed with that, but I did like Book 7 very much.

Pearljamaholic - yes, JJ Abrams is the guy that did Lost. King has mentioned before how much he likes that show and respects him. He is currently working on the Star Trek reboot but maybe after that . . .

Vedderlution_Baby

merkinball wrote:

**************HUGE SPOILERS*****************






************Really, big spoilers if you haven't finished the series*********









Except the ending of the 7th (last) book. It took a while to get what was Kings intent there, I doubt that would pay off well in a movie. And, no offense to King, but they'd have to up Flagg's death. That was one of the more disappointing aspects of the book.

SPOILER****************************************************













I greatly enjoyed how the book ended. The whole...finishing as it started...i just enjoy that. Add the fact that was his last go around...I thought it was satisfying.

juliefer

I've put a lot of thought into who would play Roland in a movie, and the closest person I can think of is this guy:

http://www.carlosbernard.com/

I think his raspy voice would be great, and he looks pretty rugged when beat up.

Flagg

Ed Norton as Eddie Dean would be cool.

merkinball

Vedderlution_Baby! wrote:

SPOILER****************************************************













I greatly enjoyed how the book ended. The whole...finishing as it started...i just enjoy that. Add the fact that was his last go around...I thought it was satisfying.

****************SPOILER********************








Yeah, I agree. I thought the ending was great. But, I don't know how that would play out in a movie. I can imagine a theater full of people going 'wtf?'. It's not the typical ending of a hollywood blockbuster.

smarchee

merkinball wrote:

****************SPOILER********************








Yeah, I agree. I thought the ending was great. But, I don't know how that would play out in a movie. I can imagine a theater full of people going 'wtf?'. It's not the typical ending of a hollywood blockbuster.

yeah, but they kept the end of The Mist like the book and it wasn't necessarily a nice, clean Hollywood ending

vduboise

I can see Clive Owen playing Roland.

muppet

First three books are brilliant. I thought Wizard and Glass was okay but after reading all of the books, the backstory isn't really that important - so that's like, what, 500+ pages of interesting but ultimately unnecessary stuff? . Wolves of the Calla was great but the last two were a bit crap.

NothingSound

100 pages into book IV. Most people say that it's the best, but I am not really excited about the thought of 500 pages of backstory. Someone psych me up for this.

Flagg

NothingSound wrote:

100 pages into book IV. Most people say that it's the best, but I am not really excited about the thought of 500 pages of backstory. Someone psych me up for this.

If you are really into the overall story, the backstory provides some fascinating insights in that world and Roland's background. I found the backstory far more interesting than the rest of W&G and a nice break.

The whole idea of this feudal society in a post apocalyptic world with knights (gunslingers) and royalty, etc. that King created amazes me. And it is a really good adventure story too, complete with young disguised gunslingers on their first covert mission, a conspiracy, corruption, a powerfull object everyone is after, romance, fallen gunslingers for hire. I don't know, the whole thing is just great. I think King was on top of his game here.

W&G is probably the one that is most readily adaptable to film, which I guess is why it was chosen to kick off the comic book series.

I thought there were a lot of parallels to Star Wars too. Moreso in W&G than the other books. The gunslingers are like Jedi Knights - supurb skills, unique weapons, highly trained from childhood, emissaries for the ruling class - struggling to hold onto civilization in the face of oncoming darkness. Ultimately complancency and betrayal leads to their downfall. This was before the Star Wars prequels came out but I couldn't help thinking about when readind W&G.