The Dark Tower Series

There are some things book readers will have to accept going in:

1. This, purportedly, takes place after the reset in book 7.

2. Roland is black, somehow.

2b. Roland must have always been black because there's no way the reset would have changed the color of his skin.

3. There will be elements from multiple books in this movie.

4. This is an adaptation of elements from The Dark Tower series, not an adaptation of The Gunslinger. Note that "adaptation of elements," I really believe that's what this is. This is an alternate telling of the story with some things from the books in it.

5. Jake is the main character.

6. I could go on.

Almost not worth watching for point 1 alone, not to mention 5...

And how come Jake is in, but Eddie and Susannah aren't?

I finished Wolves of the Calla, finally! I'm rather... underwhelmed. Considering how long it took to get to the final showdown.

I liked Wizard and Glass better than Wolves of the Calla, and I was way more impressed with the showdown in W&G than the one in the latter. Bungo disagrees, though Song of Susannah is more action-packed, I'd say, and a much faster read. The Tower draws near, Forest!

Book 6 is fast, but I did have some problems with it! Glad to hear you're still reading the series, Forest. You're so close!

Now I'm thinking about book 7; this movie series/tv series (or whatever it turns out to be) will never be able to match the powerful emotional moments in the books.

Trailer release pushed back to December! Just two months before release of the film? That is not a good sign!

http://lrmonline.com/news/first-dark-tower-trailer-to-hit-this-december

Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman:
“All I can say about it is that it manages that rare feat of being very satisfying for fans — because it’s deeply loyal to the underlying material and Stephen King’s mythology — but also I think is going to introduce a bunch of new things…I will tell you this: I have seen days and days of dailies, and Idris as Roland, and Matthew as the Man in Black…we couldn’t have done better”

That doesn't sound very encouraging!

Still want to read the books at some point, but I have no interest in seeing the film.

It's not double-speak even, it's just contradictory -- the way they talk about movies.

"It's very loyal to the original; it's full of changes we've made."

{{That leaked trailer has popped up again if you missed it first time round}}

http://www.zakazanaplaneta.pl/2016/10/11/trailer-dark-tower/

Apparently the film has been pushed back to July so they can finish Post-production. That's good news right?

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/dark-tower-stephen-king-delayed-1201908359/

At a Culver's in the middle of Wisconsin. And what's on the Muzak? Someone saved my life tonight by Elton John!

bungobaggins wrote:At a Culver's in the middle of Wisconsin. And what's on the Muzak? Someone saved my life tonight by Elton John!

Nice one

Pretty sure it was Ka.

[quote="Forest Shepherd"]Apparently the film has been pushed back to July so they can finish Post-production. That's good news right?

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/dark-tower-stephen-king-delayed-1201908359/[/quote]

Well, I'd say it's bad news either way. This thing has been in production hell for nearly 10 years and they couldn't even map out all the time they would need in post to finish the movie so they had to push it back again. Clearly they have no idea what they're doing.

Not impressed, but definitely going to watch it. Talked about the books and the plot to my sister the other day and got the urge to reread the series. Perhaps after I've seen the film

Hm... Some trendy one-liners. Was that Imogen Poots as Jake's mom?? Oh, apparently not. Katheryn Winnick. From the show Vikings. They have similarly pointy noses. 

The trailer seems to suggest that Jake first enters Roland's world via that old house, rather than by being killed. But in that case, why is the Man in Black in New York? Might be a trailer trick.

Holy crow are those slo-mo reloadings a dorkfest or what? Who the hell are these generic bullshit orc-creatures? Degenerative people from the city of Lud or whatever it was called?

And no sign of the other members of the ka-tet, but that was decided a while ago as I recall. 

Stephen King must hold the record for number of crappy film-adaptations. I think he might get another addition to his collection come August.

Forest Shepherd wrote:

Stephen King must hold the record for number of crappy film-adaptations. I think he might get another addition to his collection come August.

I want you to be wrong, but I don't think that will help This looks pretty bad already.

I suppose I sort of found the trailer intriguing because I haven't read the books.

I don't doubt the film could turn out OK if you haven't read the books or care much about faithful adaptations, and I will watch it myself first chance I get. It's just that from what I've read and seen so far, they're not making a faithful adaptation or anything close to that. They're making a movie inspired by ideas and characters from the books, and that seldom works for me.

Yeah, you don't want to end up with something like John Boorman's ludicrous script for Lord of the Rings. But Stephen King seems to approve of the approach, so if you can forget anything except a general impression of the books you may be happy.

That is the main reason I'm somewhat excited about it, so I'll withhold any judgement until I've seen it

Oh you know how it is, author's get wooed by the film-makers with promises of quality. I remember hearing about how Douglas Gresham (C.S. Lewis' step-son) was quite pleased, and continues to be pleased, with the Chronicles of Narnia adaptations, even the garbled and flawed Voyage of the Dawn Treader.