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Thread: The Dark Tower movie adaptation

  1. #1
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    The Dark Tower movie adaptation

    So i couldn't find a thread about this yet. Sorry if this has to get moved.

    The long awaited film adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower stars Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers, and Matthew Mcconaughey as The Man in Black, and will be helmed by Nikolaj Arcel, the director of the original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

    I've read that people are thinking that a lot of the action will be drawn from later books in the series, but i'm not certain about this, and that it will work as a sort of adaptation/sequel. This does sound plausible, as characters who don't show up until pretty late in the series have been cast, including Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Tirana, Jackie Earle Haley (The Watchmen) as Sayre, and Fran Kranz (The Dollhouse) as Pimli.

    Back in may, Stephen King tweeted a picture of an ancient looking horn with the words Last Time Around, and the caption "The Dark Tower is close, now. The Crimson King awaits. Soon Roland will raise the Horn of Eld. And blow." If you've read the books, you know what this means. It also excites me, because it appears that Stephen King is fully on board with this.

    Here is the synopsis of the film, which will be released 2-17-17

    In his first step towards the powerful and mysterious Dark Tower, Roland encounters an alluring woman names Alice, begins a friendship with Jake, a kid from New York, and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues the Man in Black. Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is Stephen King's most visionary piece of storytelling that may well be his crowning achievement.

    Here are the photos that have been released.

    [IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG][IMG][/IMG]

    Ka is a wheel and we all say thankya.

    I REALLY wanted a full on adaptation, with each film followed by a television season as was discussed before, but this actually looks like it could work to me, and at least we are getting a movie featuring Roland, Jake, and Mid World.

    So who is fired up, or at least cautiously optimistic?
    @Jinsai @mrselfdestruct94 @Ryan @miss k bee @decadent @fillow @onthewall2983 @frankie teardrop @NYRexall @The_Prowler @slave2thewage @aggroculture@Pillfred @tommygunn @Aywok ?

    Thoughts? Hopes? Fears?

    Oh, and btw, we are supposed to get a trailer in October.
    Last edited by elevenism; 08-25-2016 at 03:38 PM.

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    The Entertainment Weekly article had the director openly state it works as a sequel for book readers.

    I'm very hopeful but won't let myself have any expectations. This is a series where I immediately thought "this will never work as anything other than a book." It's got a great cast, looks beautiful and the fact they've confirmed the Horn of Eld being with Roland at the start has me wanting to get excited, but I've seen enough awful adaptations of easier-adapted material.

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    I'm pumped. Adapting the whole thing would be a massive undertaking. I'm cool with this sequel thing to see how it goes

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    So is it safe to assume Spoiler: it picks up right at the end of DT7 as a new iteration of Roland's eternal quest, so they can change whatever they want in the story and justify it by DT7 ending?

    Also, seeing that King is fully on board doesn't mean a lot in terms of adaptation quality. So much wrong shit was filmed before with King being closely involved.

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    Quote Originally Posted by fillow View Post
    Also, seeing that King is fully on board doesn't mean a lot in terms of adaptation quality. So much wrong shit was filmed before with King being closely involved.
    i'm a little scared too, @fillow and @kleiner352

    I was SOOOOO fucking excited for the Under the Dome tv show, and good god it was awful.

    But i am optimistic.

    There have been some great SK adaptations: Secret Window, Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and Misery to name a few.
    And this is the man's life's work, so he has more skin in the game with this one than ever before, i think.

    The second picture i posted has me excited because of how barren and vast the land looks.
    Last edited by elevenism; 08-25-2016 at 04:49 PM.

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    I hated the book Under the Dome so avoided the show entirely and am so glad I did. I remember it being advertised as a miniseries only to suddenly become multiseason and knew it was fucked from the get-go.

    The best adaptations are of smaller subjects, smaller plots and smaller locales. Shawkshank, Shining, Misery, Green Mile and Secret Window are basically bottle stories focused on one location for most scenes. I also don't think Secret Window is particularly great but still. Also 1408 which I found totally average in every way is just a hotel room. A lot love The Mist and that, too, is, what, a grocery store for most of the film?

    Stand By Me is the only adaptation I can think of that I loved that is more than one place for most of the movie.

    The director of this as far as I recall has no track record. With as large and winding a plot as it is, I'm skeptical of that, immensely so. But I'd love to be surprised.

    Basically I want to have as few expectations as possible, hope for nothing, and if it has positive reviews and is liked by fans I'll go and I'll see it and hopefully be shocked.

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    @kleiner352 , how could i forget stand by me.

    Also, we have very different tastes. UTD is one of my favorite books of all time!

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    color me cautiously optimistic

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    I'm a longtime fan of the books, and like some of you am going into this with as little expectations as possible, as there are so many possible ways, and I would assume a lot of potential, for Hollywood to fuck this up. The stills look cool and I'm fine with a black dude playing Roland, and Matthew M. looks somewhat like I pictured Walter to look like, but I have a lot of doubt that full-length films are the best way to tell this story.

    What I WISH they would have done was made it a series on HBO. With Thrones ending soon it would have been good timing to fill that spot, and Dark Tower could likely be done justice similarly over the course of 7 seasons I bet. It would be better for pacing the whole thing definitely, and giving an audience time to warm to it. Like, if the movie flops in theaters, is that it then? I would like to see it at least get a chance to get on its feet and introduce Eddie, Susannah and Oy before the whole thing is shit canned.

    Ultimately, the acting will likely be great and there will be a lot of visual eye candy. On the other side of the coin, it's not the easiest tale to translate to film emotionally, or simply just getting the feeling right, they're going to probably take a shit ton of liberties from the books since it's not the "same" story, and the nature of the story itself will probably leave a number of moviegoers confused (alternate dimensions, etc).

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    It and The Mist were solid too.

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    Quote Originally Posted by perceptionnexus View Post

    What I WISH they would have done was made it a series on HBO.
    oh yeah, that could have been amazing... Though I still have very high hopes for Westworld.

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    Quote Originally Posted by perceptionnexus View Post
    What I WISH they would have done was made it a series on HBO.
    With the amount of CGI (and lots of it in motion) and opportunities for T&A nearing absolute zero ? Not a chance.

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    what's T&A?

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    Tits and ass.
    What I meant is, TDT would cost a whole lot more to produce than GoT, at least when it comes to CGI. So you have to sell that show. The most straightforward way is sex. Except there are very few opportunities to provide that in the book (and if I remember correctly, even those aren't especially sexy sexy times afaik).

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    Good point, but t's a different story now than the books, so they could just add a bunch of random scenes of banging here and there

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    it just occurred to me that the "choice between damnation and salvation" mentioned in the synopsis most likely refers to a certain point in the story in which the Ka-Tet is nowhere near the tower.
    Also, no eddie and no detta casting talk so far.

    So, is this going to be a trilogy like?

    ( in case you are keeping score, the new definition of trilogy is four movies with the last third being split into two parts.if this is decent, then that would be damn exciting)
    Last edited by elevenism; 08-26-2016 at 05:17 PM.

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    it really sounds to me like they're loosely adapting the story. i don't think this movie will be like the first book. Jake will be in it, but i've seen promo stills with modern city background. i'm fine with them not following the books closely, so long as the characters are still true to the book versions. in a perfect world, their would be seven films for seven books, but i'd be surprised if the entire saga isn't told in four movies, like you said.

    i'm just curious how they'll handle some of the multiverse plot points, like thinnies and twinners. can they use characters from other books that are tied to the Dark Tower saga? i doubt it.

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    Well, Idris Elba looks fucking amazing...

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    Tone looks off IMO. Hopefully it's just the trailer editing.

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    Yesterday, Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey were tweeting each other in character. It was fabulous.

    That trailer brought tears to my eyes. Elba is going to kill it as Roland. FUCK THE HATERS!

    I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
    I aim with my eye.

    I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
    I shoot with my mind.

    I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
    I kill with my heart.

    So: who else spotted the Overlook Hotel?

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    Quote Originally Posted by marodi View Post
    Yesterday, Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey were tweeting each other in character. It was fabulous.

    That trailer brought tears to my eyes. Elba is going to kill it as Roland. FUCK THE HATERS!

    So: who else spotted the Overlook Hotel?
    alright! I'm with you. If we get a decent movie that's even just INSPIRED by TDT, I will love it.

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    I jumped up when I saw the Overlook hotel.

    Wasn't a Shining prequel being planned about the ghosts' stories? Haven't heard much about it since it was first announced.

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    ... I want to be so much more confident in this than I am. I hate being the contrarian when it comes to these kinds of things but I'm hoping heavily that this is just a trailer made to appeal to a general audience and that the actual movie is nothing like it.

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    Quote Originally Posted by neorev View Post
    I jumped up when I saw the Overlook hotel.

    Wasn't a Shining prequel being planned about the ghosts' stories? Haven't heard much about it since it was first announced.
    Yeah, I remember that too. I wonder what became of it. Also: maybe I'm over reaching a bit the picture seems to be on the desk of Jake's therapist and he's trying to convince Jake that his visions aren't real. I take it that the therapist is trying to prevent Jake from entering Mid-World and by that, he is doing the work of the Man in Black.

    Quote Originally Posted by kleiner352 View Post
    ... I want to be so much more confident in this than I am. I hate being the contrarian when it comes to these kinds of things but I'm hoping heavily that this is just a trailer made to appeal to a general audience and that the actual movie is nothing like it.
    In a way, we don't know what the movie is going to be like since it follows up the book series. I guess it is a way to appeal to fans of the book and to general audience alike.

    Also: who saw the IT Easter Egg? It's pretty neat!

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    Honestly i'm VERY CAUTIOUSLY optimistic.

    we know there is know way in hell that they can capture the dark tower in a two hour movie.

    here is what i am thinking: if Roland kills The Man in Black, or if he ascends the fucking tower, there will be no more room for continuation.

    I hope that this film is left open for sequels. There is still talk of a TV series.

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    Quote Originally Posted by elevenism View Post
    Honestly i'm VERY CAUTIOUSLY optimistic.

    we know there is know way in hell that they can capture the dark tower in a two hour movie.

    here is what i am thinking: if Roland kills The Man in Black, or if he ascends the fucking tower, there will be no more room for continuation.

    I hope that this film is left open for sequels. There is still talk of a TV series.
    On last update:

    MRC and Sony Pictures, which is releasing the film, have committed not just to financing a pilot but a full run of between 10 and 13 episodes, depending on how the scripts and story arcs develop. The Dark Tower show will begin shooting in 2017 with plans to premiere it in 2018, ideally around the time the film becomes available on cable or streaming services

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    On last update:
    That's fucking great

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    Looks sorta action heavy, but I realize it's a teaser trailer, and that they're trying to hit with a Summer blockbuster.

    I just hope the spirit of the books is retained. This is an incredibly difficult story to adapt.

    I am super amped that both this and IT are getting releases a month apart. Those are definitely my favorite Stephen King books, please, please don't fuck them up or the disappointment will be legendary.

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    Some reports are coming out that the runtime is 85 minutes

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