Slog
News & ArtsTuesday, August 21, 2012
Books / Film Warner Brothers Passes on The Dark Tower: What Do You Think?
Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 4:53 PM
Looks like those who'd like to see a film or TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series are going to be waiting for a while:
Warner Bros. has gone the same route as Universal, passing on Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman's planned two-platform adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower. The proposal, a simultaneous multi-film and television series, is certainly ambitious, but also expensive and risky.
Clearly, the time has come for a TV series/movie crossover event. Marvel is in the early stages of planning an Avengers TV show with Joss Whedon, but this Dark Tower series sounds riskier because it's a finite story with no proven movie property to tie the whole thing to. What do you think?
1
THANK GOD.
So much of the Dark Tower series hinges on intertextuality -- King's books with his other books, King writing himself in as a text -- that I don't think, and haven't thought, that there's any way in hell a Dark Tower adaptation could work on screen. The Dark Tower comics are flat and lifeless, too, which also doesn't make me think moving pictures of any kind would help at all.
So much of the Dark Tower series hinges on intertextuality -- King's books with his other books, King writing himself in as a text -- that I don't think, and haven't thought, that there's any way in hell a Dark Tower adaptation could work on screen. The Dark Tower comics are flat and lifeless, too, which also doesn't make me think moving pictures of any kind would help at all.
2
You're forgetting the part of the story where Media Rights Capital is in talks to finance it and distribute it through Universal.
3
Nothing against King as an author, but unless I'm missing something, he his material hasn't performed very well on screen in the last decade (or two).
5
I love the Dark Tower, but I freely admit that my love for it verges on the pornographic because the whole series is Stephen King's long-running wank. As @1 pointed out - with admirable eloquence - the books are dense with literary metaphor and allusion, and a lot of it points back to King's earlier works. I just don't think that would translate well to visual media. King is a man of words.
That said, if they wanted to make a property set in the Dark Tower universe, or perhaps to give the screenplay adaptation of the series itself over to someone who really gets it and can actually adapt the core of the story, rather than slavishly transliterating it in a way that is bound to suck, I could get behind that. I wouldn't mind actually seeing the man in black flee across the desert while the gunslinger follows.
But see? Even that invocation illustrates the earlier point. What was one of the most iconic first lines in modern pop literature would just become a fairly cliché opener in visual language. People walking in a desert? SEEN IT.
That said, if they wanted to make a property set in the Dark Tower universe, or perhaps to give the screenplay adaptation of the series itself over to someone who really gets it and can actually adapt the core of the story, rather than slavishly transliterating it in a way that is bound to suck, I could get behind that. I wouldn't mind actually seeing the man in black flee across the desert while the gunslinger follows.
But see? Even that invocation illustrates the earlier point. What was one of the most iconic first lines in modern pop literature would just become a fairly cliché opener in visual language. People walking in a desert? SEEN IT.
6
On the other hand, Stephen King's son, who goes by Joe Hill because he doesn't want people to associate him with his dad because he is a reasonable human being who is anxious about being seen as riding on coattails, has written a comic called Locke & Key which, being a comic, is already well adapted to visual media and which would make a super goddamn rad set of movies. It is a fairly original and very charming utilization of the Lovecraft mythos and would make a wonderful comedic horror flick.
8
I voted for "I hate those fucking books," but to fair, I only hate the last 3. Everything King has written since the accident makes me wish that van had been a little more, or a little less, accurate.
9
I have been dying for this project to come to fruition IF AND ONLY IF it picks up at the end of the last book. If it starts the way the first book started, and ends the way the last book ends, I will feel Lost-level cheated.
Y'all who have finished the series, you know what I mean.
Y'all who have finished the series, you know what I mean.
11
@9: I had never thought to approach it that way, and you're right that it's absolutely the best way to go about it. I tip my hat to you, sir (or madam).
Also, @5: A Deadwood-style Western series in the DT universe would be something I would watch. You and @9 should get together and hammer this fucker out.
Also, @5: A Deadwood-style Western series in the DT universe would be something I would watch. You and @9 should get together and hammer this fucker out.
Advertisement
Most Commented on Slog
-
It's Spring! Who's Ready for Street Harassment? by Cienna Madrid
-
New Gun Enthusiast... by Dan Savage
-
SL Letter of the Day: Gonna Boil My Laptop After Answering This One by Dan Savage
-
America Doesn't Care About Black People by Charles Mudede
-
Bigot Florist Files Countersuit by Dominic Holden
-
US Military Grants Itself the Power to Police American Streets and "Quell" "Civil Disturbances" by Brendan Kiley
-
SL Letter of the Day: Living Discomfortably by Dan Savage
-
Slog Super Poll: Who Should Be Mayor? by Dominic Holden
-
Black Market Elimination Fail: Draft Pot Rules Call for Ban on Hash and Hash Oil by Ben Livingston
-
Tim Burgess Quits the Mayor's Race by Dominic Holden
Stranger Personals
The Stranger
RSSSeattle Art & Performance Quarterly
A complete guide to Seattle's current art, film, dance, and theater season.
Facebook
Twitter
Comments (11) RSS