Stephen King's The Dark Tower

Liam McPoyle

beans wrote: »

Good call on 'The Stand', it's awesome. I'd read 'Salem's Lot', if you've not already. Maybe 'Insomnia'. And The Mist, which is in the compilation 'Skeleton Key'.

Having said that, 'Lot' is probably the only one that actually gets kinda spoiled by the Dark Tower, should you read DT first. 'Lot' is a good read, you'll fly though it.

Hearts in Atlantis has a huge amount of crossover with TDT also.

Corholio

The kid in the trailer already sort of annoys me, the first half of the trailer felt like a Disney action adventure film like Jumanji etc. It didn't feel like The Dark Tower at all. They definitely could have expressed the two worlds in a better, non Hollywood way imo. Hopefully the actual film doesn't quite come across as the trailer does.

faceman

Corholio wrote: »

The kid in the trailer already sort of annoys me, the first half of the trailer felt like a Disney action adventure film like Jumanji etc. It didn't feel like The Dark Tower at all. They definitely could have expressed the two worlds in a better, non Hollywood way imo. Hopefully the actual film doesn't quite come across as the trailer does.

The kid was annoying in the book tbf.

OwaynOTT

The books with Peter Straub have crossover with the dark tower too. The Talisman and black house.
There's a third planned in that series too.
Randall Flagg is in the eyes of the dragon.
Desperation has some crossover too.
And the writer/artist in Cell is basically writing his own version of the dark tower.

Sad Professor

The rights are all over the place, so references to other King works may be limited. It's been suggested that since CBS own the rights to The Stand they also own the rights to the character of Randall Flagg, so MM will only be referred to as MIB in this.

OwaynOTT

It like mutants with fox and marvel.

Suppose they can call him Walter

Burgo

Sad Professor wrote: »

The rights are all over the place, so references to other King works may be limited. It's been suggested that since CBS own the rights to The Stand they also own the rights to the character of Randall Flagg, so MM will only be referred to as MIB in this.

Well he's not referred to as Randall Flagg in the books in any case, mostly Walter Padick/O'Dim.

Agent Coulson

International trailer.

Agent Coulson

Intro from King himself.

Slydice

I don't know much about the Dark Tower but I've seen some folks who are fans seems to be disappointed in the trailers so far. Bringing King out like this .. feels like .. it's kinda reaching.

Avatar MIA

Slydice wrote: »

I don't know much about the Dark Tower but I've seen some folks who are fans seems to be disappointed in the trailers so far. Bringing King out like this .. feels like .. it's kinda reaching.

I've read the books, but in the trailer it said he has been chasing the man in black

for centuries

Really, I don't remember that.

Makes me want to read the books again though. :pac:

I think the fans (I'm one) possibly think the film is missing its soul. Per the trailer Roland is magician marksman rather than extremely skilled gunslinger.

B_Wayne

Avatar MIA wrote: »

I've read the books, but in the trailer it said he has been chasing the man in black

for centuries

Really, I don't remember that.

Makes me want to read the books again though. :pac:

I think the fans (I'm one) possibly think the film is missing its soul. Per the trailer Roland is magician marksman rather than extremely skilled gunslinger.

Spoilers so don't read unless you've read book.

Time became a lot looser in the books. The closer they got to Tower, time became less defined. In Calla he referenced a thousand years searching for Tower. There's also a point where he ended up sleeping for a decade. So centuries is definitely in line with book.

I'm a book skeptical of film overall but I'm cautiously hopeful.

Liam McPoyle

The film is only 95 minutes long which I'm happy about. The Gunslinger was short in comparison to the other volumes so TDT movie should serve to introduce some of the charectors which will be fleshed out in later movies.

There are also constant rumblings that Wizard and Glass will be done as a tv mini series.

tommythecat

Avatar MIA wrote: »

I've read the books, but in the trailer it said he has been chasing the man in black

for centuries

Really, I don't remember that.

Makes me want to read the books again though. :pac:

I think the fans (I'm one) possibly think the film is missing its soul. Per the trailer Roland is magician marksman rather than extremely skilled gunslinger.

But isn't the whole thing that this begins from the end of the book when Roland now has the Horn of Eld. There is a whole time loop thing where he keeps repeating the journey over and over.

Avatar MIA

tommythecat wrote: »

Avatar MIA wrote: »

I've read the books, but in the trailer it said he has been chasing the man in black

for centuries

Really, I don't remember that.

Makes me want to read the books again though. :pac:

I think the fans (I'm one) possibly think the film is missing its soul. Per the trailer Roland is magician marksman rather than extremely skilled gunslinger.

But isn't the whole thing that this begins from the end of the book when Roland now has the Horn of Eld. There is a whole time loop thing where he keeps repeating the journey over and over.

Interesting, didn know the film was starting there.

tommythecat

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Interesting, didn know the film was starting there.

Yep. And in doing that it gives them massive leeway I guess.

GerB40

Avatar MIA wrote: »

Interesting, didn know the film was starting there.

By right it should be called The Dark Tower Continued or something like that because technically it's not a movie version of The Dark Tower books. It's what happens after the books.

Heckler

GerB40 wrote: »

By right it should be called The Dark Tower Continued or something like that because technically it's not a movie version of The Dark Tower books. It's what happens after the books.

Ah I didn't know this.

As a massive fan of the tower series I still haven't finished VII. It disappeared up its own ass when King wrote himself into it.

Didn't like the choice of Elba from the start. Nothing to do with him but just not what the books portrayed. Pages are lost to Rolands fair blond hair and blue 'bombardier' eyes.

Its like Cruise as Reacher. A stretch at best.

The gunplay looks ok apart from that gravity drop reload. The fast finger reload was good.

Its been a long time since I read the books but they definitely weren't action orientated.

The Drawing of the Three was the most interesting. Roland waking up in Eddie on a plane.

Susannah/Odetta's overt racism is going to be a hurdle considering its Elba.

Can hardly call him a Honky cracker now can she...

Avatar MIA

Heckler wrote: »

Its been a long time since I read the books but they definitely weren't action orientated.

Yeah, that's what I got from the trailer too. There's going to be loads of peew peew

Heckler

Even if Roland was white there's no way Hollywood would allow the racial slurs that happen in the book. The snowflakes would have a meltdown.

Liam McPoyle

Heckler wrote: »

Even if Roland was white there's no way Hollywood would allow the racial slurs that happen in the book. The snowflakes would have a meltdown.

I dont buy that tbh.

Tarantino for one gets away with it.

kerplun k

I was reading a recent Reddit AMA with Nik Arcel and he basically said that he thought a lot about the racial tension between Detta and Roland and how casting Elba would affect it. He didn't want to give too much away but said he was definitely not going to leave the issue unaddressed.

I have no idea what he plans if a sequel does get made, but sounds like he has a plan

Liam McPoyle

kerplun k wrote: »

I was reading a recent Reddit AMA with Nik Arcel and he basically said that he thought a lot about the racial tension between Detta and Roland and how casting Elba would affect it. He didn't want to give too much away but said he was definitely not going to leave the issue unaddressed.

I have no idea what he plans if a sequel does get made, but sounds like he has a plan

Could be Detta as a white supremacist?

kerplun k

Rod Munch wrote: »

Could be Detta as a white supremacist?

Ahhhhhh. Never thought of that. Yes. That would be friggin awesome. Completely reverse it from the books... and as an added bonus I'd enjoy the hilarity of everyone losing their sh1t over a white Susannah Dean.

razorblunt

Are the books worth reading? Will be going on holiday in a few weeks and normally get through a few books over the fortnight.

Avatar MIA

razorblunt wrote: »

Are the books worth reading? Will be going on holiday in a few weeks and normally get through a few books over the fortnight.

Most posters here are going to be biased, but yes, IMO.

tommythecat

razorblunt wrote: »

Are the books worth reading? Will be going on holiday in a few weeks and normally get through a few books over the fortnight.

I hope you have a kindle!! Cos they are hefty books! You wouldn't have much room to pack anything else!

faceman

B_Wayne wrote: »

Spoilers so don't read unless you've read book.

Time became a lot looser in the books. The closer they got to Tower, time became less defined. In Calla he referenced a thousand years searching for Tower. There's also a point where he ended up sleeping for a decade. So centuries is definitely in line with book.

I'm a book skeptical of film overall but I'm cautiously hopeful.

Unfortunately rumblings from the film set aren't painting a pretty picture.

I have low expectations only so that I can be any more disappointed than I'm expecting!

razorblunt

tommythecat wrote: »

I hope you have a kindle!! Cos they are hefty books! You wouldn't have much room to pack anything else!

Ah I wouldn't buy all of them, will grab the first 3.

Heckler

Rod Munch wrote: »

I dont buy that tbh.

Tarantino for one gets away with it.

Tarantino gets away with it because he has razor sharp dialogue. Somehow I don't think the dark tower is going to match.

I hope to be surprised but I can't help wishing this was a made a HBO mini series. I feel it would have served the story better.