Universal Lands Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' & Plans Unprecedented Feature/Network TV Adaptation

I have no idea if this is still allowed, as it pertains to a movie/TV series, but since it's also been realized in graphic novel form, I'm giving it a shot.

There are very few stories that haunt me quite as much as the Dark Tower series, both books and graphic novels. In fact, just last night I was plagued by dreams that reenacted the heartbreaking events that led to the downfall of Gilead and the breaking of Roland's first Ka-tet, and it's been months since I've read that particular chapter in the series' history.

How coincidental, then, that I should happen on news that I have been waiting to hear for years now:

TV and Movie News are still allowed. It is just Video Game stuff that is verboten.

It's a shame that J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse, and Damon Lindelof had to give up the rights to do the movies. Because who better to adapt a series of novels that some say ended poorly and frustratingly than the brains behind Lost?

I actually wished i had stopped reading when he had told me to.

I'm another who agrees that the ending was fitting and fine...it's the few thousand pages or so just before the ending that were so mind numbingly lame that I have a problem with.

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Firstly all of the blending of other fictional worlds just doesn't work. From the end of Wolves of the Calla, where the Wolves turn out to be Doombots wielding lightsabers, to the presence of King himself in the story...all of that is just horrid, and hopefully they jettison every bit of it from a film adaptation.

Then there's the fantastically anti-climactic way the confrontation with the Crimson King played out...again, I hope that gets entirely redone. The very existence of Mordred is something that needs eliminated, especially the way that Flagg went out.

The first 4 books (although the very end of 4 was starting to stray into lame territory) were excellent. Everything that came after was weak and full of fail, and even though I agree that the loop was a fitting ending (even if it was blindingly obvious that's what was going to happen if you read the revised first book), I still don't think it was handled as well as it could have been.

I'd have preferred he take another 20 years and get the books done right, but I suppose after his accident he felt like he'd better just get through them. Unfortunately, the last three books are left feeling rushed and full of bad ideas.

I want to be happy but per IMDB Akiva Goldsman is the writer behind
Lost in space
Batman and Robin
Batman Forever
I Robot
I am Legend
The Client
quite a few episodes of FRINGE


Sort of a mixed bag there. This could be all my dreams come true or my worst effin nightmare!!! I'm sure Frank Drabont could free up some time to work on this....please!?

I like the whole series, and I watch this eagerly. I do need to read the graphic novels though.

I too felt the ending was rushed after King's accident. I remember reading at one point that he felt the story of Roland would outlive him and he hoped one of his sons would pick it up and carry it on. I personally always hung on that notion. The whole point of the book to me was a way for King to bring together all the worlds he had created in his other books. I know there are still books never touched on in the Dark Tower series.

I'm interested to see how this movie/TV adaptation progresses. I was very impressed with the graphic novel adaptation. Plus the art was great. But it will always be interesting to see who they cast as Roland because he is supposed to be a cross of John Wayne and King himself (If I remember correctly but seeing as it's been a few years I could be wrong). That should make for one rough looking lead character. LOL

If anyone can make this happen I think it's Ron Howard. He's done some truly amazing things in the world of film. It would be nice for him to return to TV with something just as great!

I can't top Warren Ellis's comments on this news:

I concur where the last three books are concerned; there's a feel to 1 - 4 that is lost when you get to the first of the last three. As for the rewrite of the first book, I look on that as I do the changes that were done to the original Star Wars movies. The original book was so raw, and that feeling persisted through the following three.

Be that as it may, I still enjoyed the heck out of the last books, and the graphic novels captured the rawness of the first four; it's this feeling that I hope the movies and TV series captures. There will always be some details changed, that's pretty much inevitable, but the world in which Roland resides is one in a state of flux; some small changes can be accepted, as long as they make sense.

Eerie. Just this morning I caught myself saying "All things serve the beam." Then you put this bit of news up.

Though, I was comparing the way the Island in Lost used people to a purpose. A purpose, though ultimately good, would seem cold and uncaring. Which made me think of the Dark Tower series.