JJ Abrams with a short update on The Dark Tower *spoilers*

OneTooFree

http://movies.ign.com/dor/objects/88514 ... 42809.html

very short clip, but he & Lindelof are gonna wait until after LOST is finished before getting to work on it

ValleyGal

Thanks for sharing!!!

I had no idea they were even considering making that series a movie. I'm totally stoked for it to happen . . . but they had better not screw it up, those are some great books!

OneTooFree

the first 4.5 are great... the second half of Wolves of Calla, Song of Susannah & The Dark Tower are not of the same quality. it is still one of my favorite stories of all time however

but still, i am very excited that JJ & Damon are working on this project! it was announced a year or two ago that they were working on it. apparently, King has been very very very selective about who does what with this material (the prequel comics that Marvel has put out the last few years have been phenomenal btw), but after speaking to the two creators King agreed to sell the movie rights to them... for $19!

soulsinging

Interesting. I read the Gunslinger, but never continued on with the series. It seemed like a huge time investment and I've got other stuff I've been wanting to read. Still, I liked the Gunslinger pretty well so maybe one day I'll give the rest of the series a go.

I'm more excited about HBO's series on George RR Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire.'

BlackThirteen

FuzzyDunlop wrote:

the first 4.5 are great... the second half of Wolves of Calla, Song of Susannah & The Dark Tower are not of the same quality. it is still one of my favorite stories of all time however

but still, i am very excited that JJ & Damon are working on this project! it was announced a year or two ago that they were working on it. apparently, King has been very very very selective about who does what with this material (the prequel comics that Marvel has put out the last few years have been phenomenal btw), but after speaking to the two creators King agreed to sell the movie rights to them... for $19!

Really? I think out of all the books wolves of the calla was my favorite.

strummers

JJ Abrams?? :? Love the books - not sure about how it'll transfer over.

milarso

strummers wrote:

JJ Abrams?? :? Love the books - not sure about how it'll transfer over.

I remember either reading about, or seeing Stephen King talk about it, and say he wouldn't want it to be a movie, or even a movie series, but rather like a weekly, hour-long HBO or Showtime series that would span a season or two or three or whatever. His line of thought, especially after seeing some many of his books adapted into movies (some great, some flops) was that the Dark Tower was such a robust, intricate story, he didn't want anything left out. It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

LikeAnOcean

soulsinging wrote:

Interesting. I read the Gunslinger, but never continued on with the series. It seemed like a huge time investment and I've got other stuff I've been wanting to read. Still, I liked the Gunslinger pretty well so maybe one day I'll give the rest of the series a go.

I'm more excited about HBO's series on George RR Martin's 'Song of Ice and Fire.'

I only made it through the 4th book, but I must say, The Wastelands (3rd book) was my favorite.

PearlJamaholic

ok i hope lost gets canceled asap!!!

there is no way they can make the dark tower one movie but they could do something like lord of the rings and do all the shooting at once and then edit it down to movies so it feels like one big thing and they wont have to worry about cast members and all that junk between sequels. since i first read the gunslinger the other year i was hoping for a movie, surprised there wasnt one already.

and agreed on the comics being awesome. i think there is one more to go.

OneTooFree

if they decide to do it as movies, i've been saying for a while that they don't need 7 or even 5 movies for this story line. you can make 3 movies around the 2 1/2-3 hour mark and still capture everything that King put into these stories...

Movie 1: Gunslinger (should really only be about 20 minutes) + Drawing of the Three + the first 1/3 of Wastelands (after Jake joins them... which i always thought should've been the ending to Drawing of the Three anyway)

Movie 2: the rest of the Wastelands + Wizard & Glass + first 1/3 of Wolves

Movie 3: the rest of Wolves + Song of Susannah (which is my least favorite of all the books) + The Dark Tower


HOWEVER, i think that Abrams & Lindelof should be going to HBO or Showtime and try to put this down as a 10 part miniseries (like Band of Brothers)...

no matter what route they take, i don't think the material could be in better hands than these 2 guys

BlackThirteen

I think the biggest problem with making the dark tower an ongoing tv series is going to be Jake. If it lasts for more than a year or so the actor playing Jake would age in real life and look older. It would almost be like the actor that played Walt in Lost. They had to write that kid off cause he was looking a lot older than the time frame would allow.

OneTooFree

BlackThirteen wrote:

I think the biggest problem with making the dark tower an ongoing tv series is going to be Jake. If it lasts for more than a year or so the actor playing Jake would age in real life and look older. It would almost be like the actor that played Walt in Lost. They had to write that kid off cause he was looking a lot older than the time frame would allow.

there's no way it should be an ongoing TV series

i was saying it should be 10 one-hour episodes, a mini-series like Band of Brothers

Flagg

This is something I have been waiting for a long time. And I go back and forth on the format. Part of me wants to see animation, part of me wants an HBO mini-series, and part of me wants to see it condensed into a theater movie trilogy.

I like JJ Abrams. I think he'll bring a nice vision to it and he has experience with stories involving flashback and time travel and all of that. King has been a big fan of his and I think its a good match as well.

It is going to depend on the casting though. Who do you cast as Roland?

As far as the books go, obviously he changed direction after his accident. I wonder how he would have finished it if not for that. I rank the books:

1. Wizard and Glass
2. The Drawing of the Three
3. The Wastelands
4. The Dark Tower
5. Wolves of the Calla
6. The Gunslinger
7. Song of Susannah

strummers

Roland - possibly Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassell or Christian Bale. Probably go for Christian Bale.

A little outside the box - Guy Pierce anyone??

youngster

strummers wrote:

Roland - possibly Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassell or Christian Bale. Probably go for Christian Bale.

A little outside the box - Guy Pierce anyone??

I know this is probably a stretch, but I always figured Hugh Jackman would make a kickass Roland.

strummers

cropduster82 wrote:

strummers wrote:

Roland - possibly Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassell or Christian Bale. Probably go for Christian Bale.

A little outside the box - Guy Pierce anyone??

I know this is probably a stretch, but I always figured Hugh Jackman would make a kickass Roland.

Nah - think there's better options for a more 'rugged' looking lead. Although I wouldn't be surprised if he was offered it!

OneTooFree

and now Lindelof has chimed in too

[url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/982/982305p1.html]IGN.com[/url] wrote:

UK, May 13, 2009 - Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams could begin work on their long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' series, as soon as they wrap hit TV show Lost.

The writer has been speaking to MTV News about the hotly anticipated project, and he admitted the scale of the challenge was on a par with adapting Alan Moore's similarly seminal tome - Watchmen.

"Having seen [Watchmen director] Zack [Snyder] go through what he went through on Watchmen in terms of saying 'where can I digress from the material', I just get headaches thinking about changing anything" he said. "It was the defining literary tale of my young adulthood."

His attachment to the material which makes writing the script difficult, says Lindelof: "My reverence for Stephen King is now getting in the way of what any good writer would do first when they're adapting a book, which is take creative license in changing stuff."

King's seven book series has become a cult classic due to its ambitious mix of fantasy, philosophy and narrative complexity. Such a wealth of source material would make it franchise material, according to Lindelof.

"Paramount is certainly looking at it as a franchise movie and thinking about sequels," he said. "But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Ideas have been thrown around that are very informal at this point."

as for the casting

strummers wrote:

Roland - possibly Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassell or Christian Bale. Probably go for Christian Bale.

A little outside the box - Guy Pierce anyone??

all those guys are too young for Roland. he should be closer to 60 than to 40... if they're gonna get someone from LOST to be Roland, it should be this guy

MayDay10

I gotta start reading this.

I love Stephen King. Havent read this series yet. The best of all time is The Stand, and The Dark Tower seems to have the same type of following.

Drowned Out

MayDay10 wrote:

I gotta start reading this.

I love Stephen King. Havent read this series yet. The best of all time is The Stand, and The Dark Tower seems to have the same type of following.

ditto.
....even tho I haven't read the series ('cept for the Dark Tower), friends' whose opinions I trust have told me it's King's best work...The Stand was the first thing I thought of when I read the talk of a mini-series for the Dark Tower....it's my fav boook of King's, and I didn't like the series at all....don't do it with the Dark Tower! I like the LOTR - style idea. Big budget, epic length, multi-movies....King has had enough film duds, if this series lives up to the hype, I'd hate to see the film version suck.

Flagg

FuzzyDunlop wrote:

and now Lindelof has chimed in too

[url=http://movies.ign.com/articles/982/982305p1.html]IGN.com[/url] wrote:

UK, May 13, 2009 - Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams could begin work on their long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' series, as soon as they wrap hit TV show Lost.

The writer has been speaking to MTV News about the hotly anticipated project, and he admitted the scale of the challenge was on a par with adapting Alan Moore's similarly seminal tome - Watchmen.

"Having seen [Watchmen director] Zack [Snyder] go through what he went through on Watchmen in terms of saying 'where can I digress from the material', I just get headaches thinking about changing anything" he said. "It was the defining literary tale of my young adulthood."

His attachment to the material which makes writing the script difficult, says Lindelof: "My reverence for Stephen King is now getting in the way of what any good writer would do first when they're adapting a book, which is take creative license in changing stuff."

King's seven book series has become a cult classic due to its ambitious mix of fantasy, philosophy and narrative complexity. Such a wealth of source material would make it franchise material, according to Lindelof.

"Paramount is certainly looking at it as a franchise movie and thinking about sequels," he said. "But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Ideas have been thrown around that are very informal at this point."

as for the casting

strummers wrote:

Roland - possibly Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassell or Christian Bale. Probably go for Christian Bale.

A little outside the box - Guy Pierce anyone??

all those guys are too young for Roland. he should be closer to 60 than to 40... if they're gonna get someone from LOST to be Roland, it should be this guy

Officially excited after reading those quotes.

strummers

Yeah, I agree Roland should probably be played by an older guy - but it's being made in Hollywood !

They may go for Harrison Ford though