Stephen King announces Dark Tower movie adaptation

Mar 1, 2007   By: Michael | #Damon Lindelof  #J.J. Abrams  #Marvel Comics  

In a world exclusive over at IGN.com, an announcement was made that King is going to allow his multi volume epic tale, The Dark Tower, to be adapted to the screen, by none other than Lost co-creators, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof.

The Dark Tower series consists of seven separate books; The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard’s Glass, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower. The tale follows the adventures of the gunslinger, Roland Deschain of Gilead on his quest for the Dark Tower.

the man in black fled across the desert…and the gunslinger followed.

We don’t know yet if they will be adapted for the big screen or as a TV mini-series. If they are made for the big screen, it will likely be done so as a trilogy, much in the vain of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

During the launching of the Marvel Comics release of the The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born comic series at the New York Comic-Con on February 24th, King confirmed the news during a panel discussion saying, “I said no to everybody until recently, because I didn’t think much of the chances of it being a good movie.”

Stephen King is a huge fan of the Lost series, so when the creators approached him about adapting his Dark Tower series, King offered them an option to buy the rights – for just $19!

8 responses

1. I would l love to see a dark tower movie.I believe it will be the best movie made . From steven kings books. They should of made it already.

   joe – January 30th, 2009

2. Hi Joe,

   I don’t think anyone around here will disagree! We should remember though, that for a long time King said he would never allow a film made of the Dark Tower. It was only because he is such a huge fan of the TV series LOST, that he sold the rights to J.J. Abrams.

   Michael – January 31st,  2009

3. I would like to see the movie but I have my doubts to it living up to the books. Everything would have to be perfect. Who could play roland? A young clint eastwood would have been great! I honesty think it can’t be done.

   chris – February 5th, 2009

4. Although I don’t like to keep using Lord of the Rings as a comparison, it is a great example to use.

   If you have ever read the LotR books then you’ll know that there were a lot of sacrifices made and there’s not doubt the movies don’t do the books justice…yet they are still very good movies. In contrast, the Harry Potter movies have on the whole been very faithful to the books, yet I find them somewhat boring.

   Perhaps the LotR movies don’t live up to the books, but I do think Peter Jackson has done a fantastic job. I just hope J.J. Abrams (or whichever other director) achieves at least what Jackson did.

   And of course we all live in hope that the movies are faithful to King’s vision!

   Michael – February 5th, 2009

5. How ‘bout this line up?

   Roland- Hugh Jackman

   Oh, and this next would be perfect… Eddie- Shia laBeouf….Oh, man.. I could see that clear as day!!!

   Susannah- Gabriel Union

   Jake- Josh Hutcheson (Older brother from that movie Zethura)

   What do you guys think?

   steve – March 20th, 2009

6. Roland is older: Clint Eastwood , Sam Elliot, Captain Jean Luke Picard Eddie is a grease ball : Micheal Madsen (kill bill: the cowboy in the trailor) I agree with Jake: Josh Hutcheson (Zathura) Odetta : Jada Pinkett Smith (Niobe from Matrix Reloaded)

   Kurt – July 2nd,  2009

7. Steve and Kurt:

   I think clint/Sam are too old in my opinion. and II just am not impressed with Shia Lebeouf, he is good in some things but I just don’t see him as Eddie. Eddie is a 20 year old scarcastic joker who never takes anything seriously. I love michael Madsen and I think he has the personality but I think he is a bit too old looking now. The same with Gabriel Union, she is a bit too young looking, and I have never seen anything of hers so I am not sure she can “pull off” the complexity of Odetta. She is supposed to be in her late 30s as well, if I remember correctly. In the modeling world a 30 year old looks like an 18 year old to me and that just doesn’t work with the “older woman” thang with Eddie.

   Here is my Idea line up…Let me know what ya think!

   Roland =#1 Viggo Mortensen, Hugh Jackman (Clint is perfect but too old now, sadly, in my opinion) Eddie = Jason Lee (My name is Earl, plus he already played The Beav” in Dreamcatcher) Odetta/Detta/Susanah = Angela Bassett (beautiful lady and an amazing range of emotion)

   Nahnia – July 11th, 2009

8. Much like all of you, when I learned that there was talk of a Dark Tower adaptation for film, I was at first extremely excited. That was about a year ago now.

   Now, I just can’t see it happening, no way in Hell no thank you. Someone needs to talk Stephen King out of handing over his life’s work and masterpiece to the likes of hollywood. I have seen too many other movies which had really good acclaim completely bomb, many of them being adapted from books.

   The big wigs in tinseltown will rip through this work of art, gut it out and rebuild on it’s foundation until we can’t recognize it anymore. Some books, some stories are just too good or too beautiful (or both) to have their insides hollowed out and filled with something lighter rather than staying heavy with deep meaning and feeling.

   Maybe that’s just me, but I’m sure people are going to start agreeing with the idea that this story is just too precious and epic to be torn open, pulled inside out and thrown onto a screen. In the event that The Dark Tower is made and released to theaters or, god unwilling, television then I’ll have to go and see it.

   Contradictive to my point, I know. But God help me, I want nothing more than to see the ‘territories’ I want to explore Mid-World and End-World. In Eddie Dean’s words in The Waste Lands, Book 3 of The Dark Tower “I want to see it Roland. Can you dig what I’m telling you? I want to see the Tower.” Or in Jake Chambers’ words “And that’s the truth”

   What I mean to say is, isn’t reading the books and now graphic novels enough? What are our imaginations for anyway if we never use them?

   All of us King fans should be happy, lucky, blessed enough that Mr. King even got to finish his masterpiece which is The Dark Tower. For those of you old enough to remember (most likely all of you) Mr. King was in a near fatal car accident some years ago. He almost didn’t get to finish The Dark Tower. Where would we all be today if he had died? Ultimately, we would be left with a void in our lives. We’d be left wondering if Roland and his friends, his ka-tet ever reach the Tower because The Dark Tower would have never been finished.

   If you fellow fans care enough even one iota about The Dark Tower, then we can all speak out against it being adapted to film. We can’t let hollywood have it’s way with a story as epic or masterful as this. We mustn’t allow hollywood to reach The Dark Tower.

   Patrick – July 9th, 2010