J.J. Abrams to Climb Stephen King's "Dark Tower"

[b]theres something......[/b]
i really feel is good 'bout this....i think abrams n' king could be wonderboys on this stuff......ZOLTAN!!!!

Feb 15 - 04:33 AM

Adam Foskey

I think this is the worst idea ever. Not so much the tv or mini series, or even a film itself. But J.J. Abrams???? C'mon! I am not a fan of "lost" or "MI:3", and I certainly don't want to risk a series I love as much as the Dark Tower on him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! King and co. can do so much better....so much better. In fact, I would go and cast Joel Schumaker.....one of the worst directors of all time, and have him do the Dark Tower series over J.J. Abram

Feb 15 - 11:54 AM

Craig Storey

I agree! I've read some Dark Tower and I think J.J. Abrams would definatly do it justice.
I'd love to see it with a huge budget but it's not like TV series's arnt awsome these days too. It has some huge potential!

Feb 15 - 05:15 AM

Travis G

A movie, 2 sequels and a prequel??? There are SEVEN books!

Anyway, however they do it, they better make it GOOD.

Feb 15 - 05:24 AM

Big Brother

Yeah, but keep in mind the first book could easily be an opening 25 minutes of a movie. So much of the books is detail and description that can translate itself much faster to film. I'm more concerned about how they're going to address the changes that Roland goes thru from start to finish in such a compacted medium as film. Roland is definately not the same character at the end as he was at the beginning and you didn't really object over the 25 years it took from first book to last, but I'm not sure if they're going to be able to achieve that with 7 or 8 hours of film. Might just seem a bit off.

Feb 15 - 08:25 AM

joe fish

Lost has been losing me lately, and I've watched faithfully from the beginning. It's all about the heroes now.

Feb 15 - 05:32 AM

Jeremiah Rancourt

TV series or several mini-series, feels like the way to go with this. There are only a few set big action pieces per long book. All the details and information about the characters would come in better through television, than action packed movie. But I don't know, we'll have to see, as long Abrams is attached. Still it will be interesting to see how they do everything in the books, regarding copyright laws. I cites many of his own books as well as other pop culture references (like Harry Potter), will that info make it on screen?

Feb 15 - 06:01 AM

Justin Tate

I'm sick of TV adaptations, make it a collection of films!

Feb 15 - 06:32 AM

Brave Sir Rob

This material is way too complicated for a big screen adaptation - they'll have to to chop and rearrange too much to make it fit, even if they get a trilogy. Not that I think the books couldn't use trimming, and I'd bet "Wizard and Glass" gets the classic Lost flashback treatment rather than its own feature, but it would lose a lot if they tried to condense it for film.

I've been a huge Dark Tower fan for years but I've been more nervous about them doing this than I've been excited. It's just so cerebral - making the transition to screen will be difficult at best. Though, if anyone can do it, it's Abrams...

Feb 15 - 06:34 AM

Brad Arnold

[b]hmmm[/b]
King just said in the last EW that he wasn't going to let anyone do The Dark Tower, unless maybe Peter Jackson made up with New Line and they gave him a billion dollars to make the movies with. Now one week later and he's made a deal?

My guess as to the typr of project is a big screen movie series based directly on the books with a TV series spinoff that is some kind of side story.

Feb 15 - 06:59 AM

Big Brother

I think Mr. King has kind of a love hate relationship with fans. On one hand I think he really enjoys bringing folks along for the ride and knowing his works touch a lot of peoples lives, but hates all the speculation and guesswork fans try to do and how they feel like he owes them certain things. The kind of misdirection you descibed sounds just about right and I for one am glad for it. As it's creator he can do with it what he wants and doesn't owe us an explanation one way or another. Plus I kinda like the surprise. We don't need to have everything announced 5 years in advance. I'd actually kinda like to see once people be smart enough to keep something a secret until a few months before it's released. That way it's not ruined by endless fan speculation and "insider info" being leaked.

P.S. I'm well aware of how hypocritical that sounds on a website dedicated to movie news, but keep in mind I just said sometimes.

Feb 15 - 08:21 AM

Josh Quarles

Hmmm... I hate when people get on here and have knee-jerk negative reactions to announcements, but this is something I've thought about a lot. I've always thought an adaptation would be interesting, but most likely impossible. I just don't know that there's any way to even approach the quality of the series. I think unless it was a series on HBO or Showtime, it would have to be severely neutered for TV. But in order for justice to be done to it on the big screen, I think no less than the LotR treatment would suffice.
I hate to say it, but King's stuff doesn't have the best track record for adaptation. And this one seems much more difficult than most.
To be honest, I almost would think an animated series would work well if the budget wasn't there for a full-on epic live action movie. But I'd hope it would have stellar voice acting.

Feb 15 - 07:30 AM

Sharon Petersen

I love this book series. Although I'd love to see it on the big screen, I'd have to say that a mini-series would probably work better for this series. Many of the books are made up of a)lots of dialogue that can be trimmed and b)description. I can't really see them smushing all the material into a set of movies.

Feb 15 - 08:41 AM

Matthew Haynes

This seems more like a finite tv series then a movie trilogy of course I'm only on the 5th book in the series...anyway love them so far and I love JJ so this is fine with me!
but I really want to see the Talisman. Maybe what they should do is make a TV series that tells The Dark Tower story and every Steve King story that has any relation to the Dark Tower mixed in...

Feb 15 - 09:07 AM

Nancy Elizabeth

I think that a mini series, or a series of mini-series, would be the best way to go with these.

Feb 15 - 10:16 AM

Aaron Boedeker

Best way to do it is on HBO. If only to show how brutal Roland is in the first book, wiping out that whole town. If you don't capture that, you won't get the ending (which I won't mention for those who haven't finished the series).

Feb 15 - 10:22 AM

Travis G

YES, HBO is the way to go with this. I have to agree with Silverence, though. The books got a little out of hand after King's hiatus. I still liked the series as a whole, but the last three books just have a completely different feel, kinda like the Star Wars prequels.

Feb 15 - 01:54 PM

Brendan Daly

Thanks for the agreement. You actually brought up a point that I was afraid to for fear of being flamed to hell. The first four books were quite good and even thought they were out there were still pretty interesting. Then King got hit by that car. And I seriously hate to say this, I really do, but the next three were kinda terrible. Comparing them to the Star Wars prequels is right on. (although sith was alright)
Plus theres this other little thing... the end. I, personally, hated it but respect the opinions of those who liked it and think they have some pretty valid points. That being said, it being what it is, what do you think the average movie watchers response is going to be to that? I mean imagine watching all 7 movies over the span of AT LEAST a decade, were talking maybe more then 20 hours here total, then that ending hitting you. Like the ending or not in the books, if i saw that on the screen after all that, I would promptly walk out of the theater and off the nearest cliff.
And really. Who cares what JJ did with lost. I've never seen, but here its PLOT is spectacular. What baring does that have when hes adapting someone else's (epic) story.
Side note: whats the deal with people hating on Stephen King movies? The Green Mile, Hearts in Atlantis um THE SHINNING and THE SHAW SHANK REDEMPTION? Arent those last two supposed to be two of the best movies ever? And if I remember Carrie was supposed to be pretty good, and i thought Dreamcatcher was alright too. In fact, besides that horrible the Stand thing with like Gary Senese I can't think of any Stephen King movies that were THAT bad...

Feb 21 - 11:21 PM

Brendan Daly

oh god. i pray this doesn't happen. the gunslinger (pre-revisit) was fantastic, the drawing of the three was even pretty damn good but it became a slippery slope really quickly. I honestly don't think the plot of the books is cohesive enough, at all, to make some sort of adaptation from them. seriously think about it. how are you going to start with a mysterious post apocalyptic western (kinda), do the whole blaine thing, then fight dr. dooms in the calla THEN end it the way the series ended?! it was just way too all over the place for someone to get just by watching it.

Feb 15 - 10:53 AM

Nicole Kearns

If you think the story can't get the treatment it deserves...check out the DT comic books that Marvel developed w/ Stephen King. They're doing a total of 7, and the first was released last week. A-Maze-ing. I have read these books and always thought that there was NO way that the story could be told in an abbreviated format, but the first comic is beautiful, and the story is told chronologically, so...I say give it a chance. King has always said that Roland's story is his opus, and I'm sure he won't let anyone butcher it the way Hollywood usually butchers his books.

Feb 15 - 02:06 PM

Jon Sanford

This will never happen.

Feb 15 - 05:37 PM

richard harris

[b]Gotta be done right[/b]
There is no way you could do this on film, what with seven books to screenwrite for and most of them over 500 pages in length. The only way to do this and to do it properly is a TV series

If they do go the TV route, then it absolutely has to be with an uncensored network like HBO. If they try to water the material down (a la "The Stand" telemovie) it'll just be crap.

With abrams helming the project I definitely have high hopes that they will do this right. The most important thing is they get the right actor for Roland. The only person can think (lookswise) to play him is Jim Cavieziel. Any other suggestions out there?

Feb 15 - 05:46 PM

Josh Quarles

Too bad Clint Eastwood doesn't have a son.

Feb 16 - 07:46 AM

steve forsyth

I think they need to tie Abrams to a chair and make him finish LOST before moving to something else. I don't want LOST to go the way of ALIAS seasons 4 and 5!

Feb 15 - 06:52 PM

myles sherrill

i think that tv wouldn't do it justice, unless it was like hbo, simply because of the brutality of so many of the scenes. i don't think any less than 7 movies would do it any good, and i'd want more movies than that. how can you divide the wastelands or the dark tower(the final book) into any less than a couple movies?!? i sound like a hardcore uber-nerd fan, but i guess i kinda am. i don't want it to be ruined.

Feb 16 - 03:48 AM

myles sherrill

they should send it to japan and do an ANIME. that is the only way this is going to get the treatment it deserves.

Feb 16 - 03:49 AM

Big Brother

Yeah that way instead of being a Gunslinger Roland could be a Pokemon master. Anime Sucks!!!! I have no use for nonsensical subtitled crap unless it's being made fun of on South Park.

To the point of who should play Roland I'm gonna say Daniel Day Lewis. He's got that hard man look Roland needs and no one throws themselves into a role like Lewis. Plus, he's not the flavor of the month like everybody seems to pick when these questions are asked. Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman and Terrence Howard can't be in everything people!!!!

Feb 17 - 07:18 AM