NBC Universal has announced plans to adapt Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower. You may ask why Big Shiny Robot (BSR) is not giving the public news on this; well, I am the rebel who is filling you in on this breaking news!
For all of you who are unfamiliar with the awesome book series, here is a quick synopsis. The main protagonist, Roland Deschain, is the last Gunslinger in Mid-World in search of the legendary Dark Tower (envision King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, but with guns. Then throw in elements of the old west, magic, and violence!). As the series progresses, you realize that Mid-World and our world are linked together, as if they intersect on dimensional plains.
Stephen King reveals Roland’s story over the course of seven volumes. There has also been six comic book mini-series, one short story (written by King), and the announcement of an eighth book entitled, The Wind Through the Keyhole, which I believe will take place between books five and six.
The epic series encompasses every genre possible, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Western, Horror, Romance, Drama, and even pieces of an autobiography, just to name a few. It also intersects with almost all of King’s other works. For example, book five of the series, Wolves of the Calla, is a fine semi-sequel to his other novel, Salem’s Lot.
Weeks ago, it was reported that Ron Howard and Brian Grazer made a deal with NBC Universal to adapt this larger-than-life book series into a movie trilogy AND a television series at the same time. The reason they would add the television series to run around the same time as the movie is because the source material is enormous, to say the least. I think they understand that a story this complex would need more than three movies to completely explain this great series to an audience. And just to let you know my opinion, I do not believe they could re-create the complex world of The Dark Tower with any sort of justice even if it was adapted into seven movies.
From the limited news available, they will have Ron Howard direct the first movie as well as the first season of the television series. From there it seems there will be another movie followed by another television season, but no mention of the director. Supposedly, J. J. Abrams has had the rights to the film for years, as it is rumored he personally bought the rights from Stephen King himself for a whole $1! I think an Abrams adaptation would have been amazing, but they never called to get my opinion. Oh well. We can only hope for the best as no other adaptation has taken such a huge undertaking and risk since The Lord of the Rings and I believe that it will be an even bigger risk than the LOTR!
However, there are major drawbacks of adapting this movie; there always is. First, Akiva Goldsman who, admittedly, has written some great things like A Beautiful Mind, The Client, and various episodes of Fringe is writing the adaption. But all of his previous written comic book adaption’s he has written have ruined some of the best characters in comics. I mean, his adaption of Batman and Robin and Jonah Hex took these books and turned them into evil. He crushed and mutilated them!
Howard stated, “We are excited to have found partners at Universal who understand and embrace our approach to King’s remarkable epic … by using both scope and scale of theatrical filmmaking and the intimacy of television, we hope to more comprehensively do justice to the characters, themes, and amazing sequences King had given us in The Dark Tower novels. It might be the challenge of a lifetime but clearly a thrilling one to take on and explore.”
If anyone out there reading BSR wants to keep getting updates on the development of The Dark Tower adaption, feel free to let me and those at BSR know, and for all of you who have not read the novels, I urge you to start now! For the full press releases from NBC Universal go to the following site: http://www.stephenking.com/DarkTower/pdfs/dark_tower_pr1.pdf.