Seems the progress to bring The Dark Tower series to life on the big and small screens is closer than we think. As it stands they plan to have cast in place by next week!
MTV spoke to producer Brian Grazer who mentioned that there would be news on the casting soon.
“Within a week,” he said. “Seriously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seriously.”
Howard has spoken about his plans for the films and TV. “Right now what we’re talking about is a movie and six or eight hours of television to bridge. My plan is to do most of those TV hours, if not all, and certainly the movies.”
They are planning to present this as a movie series, but not all books will get the big screen treatment. The intention is to bridge some of the other books with TV miniseries to complete the cycle.
Its a bold undertaking and something I could see done if handled right. But also something that is going to take a long while! To find a known actor who will take on the role of Roland for that extended period might be good job security, but also limits the other jobs they can potentially take.
Do you think they will get Javier Bardem or Viggo Mortensen as reported to be front runners for the role?
I vote Viggo myself.
I forgot about that scene from the Mist, or maybe it was stuck in the back of my brain. I agree with Rodney about Ron Howard, I don’t know who in their right mind would have a problem with that. Early speculation was JJ Abrams, which I thought was awesome, but I don’t know if that was ever the case. Was Darabond not available? I thought he was like the designated Stephen King guy?
I think Thomas Jane could do it. Would also put a nice tie in as they had his character painting Roland in The Mist. But really if they are gonna go by the books all the people mentioned would have to reach pretty far to make the perfect Roland
I vote Karl Urban or Daniel Day Lewis. Also is this still going to be handed over the Ron Howard? Really? Please say someone has put a stop to that insanity!
What insanity? Where do you get the idea that Ron Howard would be a bad idea for this??
I see nothing that indicates that this esteemed and recognized director/producer would be anything but a good thing for this challenging production.
I’m more worried about Akiva Goldsman’s screen writing more than anything. Yeah he did A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, but he also wrote Batman & Robin,Batman Forever, I Am Legend, I, Robot and Lost In Space. No where does any of his writing credits does it scream out that he can do this type of material justice.FoonZee
I pray to God that they don’t use the Mid World language at all, or if they do that they keep it to a bare minimum. It was annoying and silly when I was reading it so it’ll definitely be worse on screen.
As far as casting I have nothing against Bardem but he is no Roland. King flat out said that he always had an image of Clint in his head when he pictured Roland and thats how I always pictured him too. Viggo would be really good, Kurt Russell wouldn’t be bad or even a more ragged looking dark haired Sawyer from Lost (forget the actors name) would work well.
For some reason, I can see Thomas Jane as Roland. I think he could pull it off. Of the others mentioned, the only one I don’t think would work is Jon Hamm. I like him, but I don’t think he fits as Roland. Can’t wait to see what happens…
I would rather see someone else given that Viggo has already been in another fantasy trilogy and 2 westerns before. Maybe, I hate to type cast, Hugh Jackman could be up for the role. Plus I wonder if they’ll include the language Roland speaks in his world.