What the hell is going on with The Dark Tower movie?

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the December King

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I found The Wind through The Keyhole to be the most entertaining of the stories, but to be fair, I haven't read The Dark Tower series proper in a long time. Think I might go back and start from the beginning.
 

Imre Csete

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Oy boy, boy Oy. Trailer is up.


Seems like a very broad strokes adaptation of the first two or three books (iirc they get Jake again in the first part of the 3rd). It could work, depends how much plot they'll leave hanging because you have to establish multiple sequels nowdays.
 

the December King

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Imre Csete said:
Oy boy, boy Oy. Trailer is up.


Seems like a very broad strokes adaptation of the first two or three books (iirc they get Jake again in the first part of the 3rd). It could work, depends how much plot they'll leave hanging because you have to establish multiple sequels nowdays.
Oooh, that was cute, the music from the duel in For A Few Dollars More. Nice touch.
 

happyninja42

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Trailer looks decent, I think the fact that they have two really good actors as the primary cast is going to help a lot. And yeah, it seems like they are skipping a good bit of book 1, and introducing Jake in his later variation, as I don't remember him having visions of the Tower from book 1. I recall that being a later thing, due to....stuff that happens.
 

SirSullymore

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Yeah, looks like they're pretty much skipping the first book, that sucks. Would have liked to see Tull and the seen in the cavern scene with the slow muties.

I'll go in with an open mind, knowing that this is not an adaptation. Still think it should have been a television series though.
 

Scarytown_v1legacy

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Imre Csete said:
Oy boy, boy Oy. Trailer is up.


Seems like a very broad strokes adaptation of the first two or three books (iirc they get Jake again in the first part of the 3rd). It could work, depends how much plot they'll leave hanging because you have to establish multiple sequels nowdays.
Well I'm starting to get an idea of what the movie is going to cover now. The new trailer is definitely better than the leaked version (Give a gold star to whoever replaced the shitty Behind Blue Eyes remix with the Ennio Morricone score). It seemed to cannibalized most of what was in the leaked, but focused more on midworld, which is good. Idris still seems just okay to me, but he looks like he's getting the job done. I have a feeling that Matthew McConaughy will steal most of the scenes. Why oh why did they have to go with this kid as Jake though? I'm not a big fan of child actors and so far he seems fairly cringe worthy. I think a lot has to do with his dialog being all exposition in the trailer. Still, I wish they would have had Eddie/Susannah to help balance things out. CG bullets are kind of meh. Overall I still have no expectations from this movie. The good news is that you have nothing but up to look when you're at the bottom of the barrel. So I have that at least.

Oh, and nice touch with putting the Overlook Hotel at 40 seconds in.
 

Scarytown_v1legacy

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SirSullymore said:
Yeah, looks like they're pretty much skipping the first book, that sucks. Would have liked to see Tull and the seen in the cavern scene with the slow muties.

I'll go in with an open mind, knowing that this is not an adaptation. Still think it should have been a television series though.
I think some version of Tull is still in the movie, but it looks like instead of Roland massacring a town of brainwashed innocent people, he's blowing away Taheen (or ninjas) to save Jake.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Ehhh... okay, it does look like a typical dumbed down "things go boom" Hollywood adaptation. Nothing out of the ordinary.

But here's the thing: I don't think The Dark Tower is even that great as a series. Granted, I've only read it all the way through only once. I tried to re-read it a few years ago, but after they get Jake into Roland's world in book 3, the plot essentially deflates like a balloon if you blew it full of air and then let it loose. It goes both everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and a lot of the time it feels really self-indulgent. There's so much stuff that can be removed without it affecting the overarching narrative in the slightest that in a way it can actually benefit from a scaled down adaptation. Hell, Song of Susannah is over 400 pages long, and I struggle to remember anything about it, save for Mordred's birth and King's batshit weird self insert appearance. I remember Wizard and Glass being a boring slog that could have been told in 300, hell, 400 pages less. Wolves of Calla... just what in the hell was it about? They fight some weird robo wolves, that's about all I remember.

The first two books, about half of the third, and the final book I remember being the only ones with a decent narrative focus. And even the final book seriously drops the ball in the end. The rest just feels like piddling around that King put in the series just because he came up with a bunch of ideas and wanted to put them in a story, narrative consistency be damned.

So no, I'm not heartbroken over this in the slightest. Hell, if it gets even halfway decent reviews I even might go see it, if only just for Elba and McConaughey. It's about time Hollywood realized how effective and creepy McConaughey can be as a villain, and his casting in this is a stroke of pure genius.
 

JimB

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SirSullymore said:
Yeah, looks like they're pretty much skipping the first book, that sucks.
Without wanting to get into spoilers, they're going to skip all the books. The movie series (assuming it gets to be a series) is not a direct adaptation of the Dark Tower series. It's a sequel.
 

Dalisclock

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JimB said:
SirSullymore said:
Yeah, looks like they're pretty much skipping the first book, that sucks.
Without wanting to get into spoilers, they're going to skip all the books. The movie series (assuming it gets to be a series) is not a direct adaptation of the Dark Tower series. It's a sequel.
I'm fine with this. honestly. Barring a gurenteed 7 movie deal with some very good editing, it's gonna be some kind of condensed adaptation. 7 movies is just not gonna happen unless the first couple make a boat load of money and the last time we saw anyone attempt something like that was the Narnia films, which made it all the way out to 3 films before stopping.

I don't think I'd want a full film of wizard and glass(maybe a heavily condensed addendum to Wolves or Wastland), and the last 3 books would need a lot of editing to make it work coherently.
 

Scarytown_v1legacy

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Dalisclock said:
JimB said:
SirSullymore said:
Yeah, looks like they're pretty much skipping the first book, that sucks.
Without wanting to get into spoilers, they're going to skip all the books. The movie series (assuming it gets to be a series) is not a direct adaptation of the Dark Tower series. It's a sequel.
I'm fine with this. honestly. Barring a gurenteed 7 movie deal with some very good editing, it's gonna be some kind of condensed adaptation. 7 movies is just not gonna happen unless the first couple make a boat load of money and the last time we saw anyone attempt something like that was the Narnia films, which made it all the way out to 3 films before stopping.

I don't think I'd want a full film of wizard and glass(maybe a heavily condensed addendum to Wolves or Wastland), and the last 3 books would need a lot of editing to make it work coherently.
Sony plans on following the movie with a TV series that does Roland's past from the Wizard and Glass, minus Eddie, Susannah, and Blaine. Wolves of Calla could be a fun movie if they do the whole Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven bit. Song of Susannah could probably be gutted and have the plot points moved to different movies/tv series IMO. There is plenty of room for Sony to help condense and possibly improve the series, but I'm convinced the Sony Pictures is run by Lizard People purposely trying to break our will by destroying our entertainment.