Looks like we are closer to seeing Stephen King’s Dark Tower being made than we thought.
I kind of hope it never happens, but this is the news so far:
It now looks likely that Imagine trio Akiva Goldsman (‘Batman & Robin’, ‘Lost in Space’) would adapt, Ron Howard would direct and Brian Grazer would produce King’s seven novel series for screen, in conjunction with Universal Pictures.
However, there are two conflicting reports tonight over Imagine’s planned execution of King’s work. Mike Fleming at Deadline hints at a big budget movie trilogy ala ‘The Lord of the Rings’ with potentially a t.v. series to follow, whereas Borys Kit at THR say only the first in the series ‘The Gunslinger’ will be adapted as a big screen movie, with the further six stories adapted for HBO, or another t.v. network soon after.
Despite Stephen King’s elaborate library of horror, this is still considered to be his Magnum Opus.
But its a tough peice of meat to chew in any format. Its one of those adaptations that are just frought with problems before a single word is typed for the screenplay.
The Gunslinger (first book of the seven book series) is a confusing mess of questions, many of which do not get answered until much later in the series. At its core its a journey of a gunslinger hunting down another man. The why unfolds as the story goes. The story is revealed in chronologically jumping mini stories, but still no questions are really answered. The Dark Tower itself is barely explained, and this world he lives in makes no sense. Don’t even get me started on Jake.
But if you JUST read Gunslinger, there is no movie there. Its a massively detailed prologue to the real story. If they make the first book into a movie, they will have to change so much to make it Hollywood appeal that it wont be much of the Dark Tower’s appeal.
I predict this will be a lot like Watchmen.
This amazing peice of work will be made in one way or another (faithful or adapted), people will either love it or hate it. But it will have narrow public appeal and flop critically and financially.
And I don’t have a lot of faith with Batman & Robin and Lost in Space writer Akiva Goldsman with the pen either. Ron Howard gives me some hope.
