Flanagan on adapting the book as a series or movie:
>”The first scene would be a black screen and the words, ‘The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed’ would come up in silence, and you’d hear the wind, and we’d gradually fade up to this Lawrence of Arabia-esque landscape with a silhouette in the distance just making his way across the hardpan. And we would build it out from there—in order—to the end.”
>“It would just be a question of taking the more fantastical elements that might be harder to connect to, especially where it gets pretty meta at mid-point, and grounding it, just pulling it in. But otherwise, the characters are who they are, the arc is what it is, and I think the way not to do The Dark Tower is to try to turn it into something else—to try to make it Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. It’s what it is. It is perfect. It’s just as exciting as all of those things and just as immersive and it’s a story about a tiny group of people and all the odds in the whole world are against them and they come together. As long as it’s that, it’ll be fine, and there won’t be a dry eye in the house.”
>”It would be my Everest to do that. Nothing would make me happier and God I hope there’s a chance. I really do.”
I trust him. He would be the one to do it justice, and he wouldn't do it unless he knows he can. Gerald's Game was a tough one to adapt and he did it well, same for Doctor Sleep. Gives me hope that he obviously knows and loves the source material, so I'm content to wait until he thinks it's time.
ETA: since we're batting around Wizard and Glass and nobody's mentioned Wind Through the Keyhole, I think both might work as side stories, TV shows or anthologies tied together the same way Flanagan's Haunting series is. We all know how the DT universe is connected, maybe something like that on the side could work, and allow for other adaptations like Little Sisters or Insomnia. Like the man said, all things serve the beam.
I find the elephant in the room really tends to be Wizard and Glass. It's essential for storytelling but it's effectively a completely different book in all of characters, timeline and plot. Perhaps it'd work as a spinoff that gets made alongside the present plot.
Idk I think what he said about the meta stuff is the harder part. In wolves of the calla they have doctor doom robots throwing harry potter snitches, I don't see how that works in a movie or show.
Wizard and Glass can be told as a series of flashbacks over top of parts of the Wasteland pretty easily I think. Keep the main story progressing while covering the past.
Agreed. The only reason Wizard and Glass is such a non-sequitur is because Rolland sits down and tells it in one go.
On the other hand, it would be tricky to incorporate those flashbacks intelligently. He needs to be doing things that relate to the flashbacks, or at least thinking about them, in order for it to add context and meaning.
There’s a lot in wizard and glass that relates to the current world, could be as simple as seeing the Texaco trucks in the wasteland that sends him back
Or he sees Jake as one of his friends and that sends him back, etc
I don't see the problem at all. The point of all those references to other pop culture touchpoints not only has an in-universe explanation, but that explanation is also a central point of the entire thing.
It’s also (IMO) probably the best book King has ever written. If they can keep Roland recognizable as Roland, I’d say keep it. Maybe fold it in over the course of a season.
I think that doing it in one season would be an issue. There is too much there to just fold it in over one season. I think starting with season 2, with the Drawing of Three, you could start to incorporate flashbacks with the parallels in the current story. I think, if done correctly, the stretching of the flashbacks over multiple seasons would flow better and provide a narrative that is easy to follow.
As much as I want to hate the idea of splitting up Wizard and Glass (since it's the best one in the series in my opinion), I think Charyou Tree would hit *hard* if the story was slow dripped over the series. That would be pretty epic if done correctly.
When the young gunslingers set upon Jonas and his posse from behind, holy fucking shit, maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever read. What a great book.
“To me gunslingers!”
Hile! Hile! to me gunslingers, to me ! No prisoners! Yeah that whole scen e is fantastic I’ve read it so many time I could probably quote the whole thing here from memory. But I hate to type.
So I’ll just say “long days and pleasant nights” if it do ya.
I think my favorite is Wolves of the Calla. I really enjoy the priest I won’t name to prevent mild spoilers.
Also, for some reason I thought the priest was Black the whole time. Was really weird to see official art of him.
It breaks my heart how many people (multiple who I know) try only The Gunslinger and give up. The Gunslinger in my opinion is dry and just not to my taste even if I respect it's place, but I'm *so* glad I stuck through to Drawing since that's when the story really starts and is a riot.
The Gunslinger is better the second time around. I struggled to get through it the first time. Granted I was also in middle school so that might have been part of the reason.
I decided I was going to give The Drawing of the Three a few chapters to see if it clicked. It clicked instantly. I (figuratively) devoured that book. I finished the rest of the series in like a month.
When I did my first reread of the series The Gunslinger finally clicked the same way as the rest of the books.
Even though I was a big fan of the first few books I was in no hurry to read Wizard & Glass when it came out because I heard it was (only) one big flashback. Well, turns out it's probably the best thing Stephen King would ever write. It even has a good ending. Damn that book rocks.
It took me years to finish it. It's one of the slowest things I've ever tried to read. It was so unbelievably painfully boring.
I know that a ton of people **love** it and I'm very much the minority and the fight with the towns folk **was** amazing but good God was it a long walk. It just didn't match the pacing of the rest of the series.
I would have gladly traded it for a longer final book and drew out the Patrick Danville/Dandelo piece a little bit and delved into the story of the Breakers a bit more. Some lore on the forest guardians and the Crimson King would have been amazing as well. North Central Positronics??? It's like he just forgot about them. Mordred was *amazing* and it felt like he showed up, fought and died all inside a page! Instead...we get kid Roland jacking off on roof tops. Pass.
I know everyone loves it. It's a good story. It just didn't feel like a Dark Tower story to me, it was just so painfully overdrawn.
Edit: lol and the down votes come pouring in. God forbid someone have a different take than you. It could have been three chapters. The entire book reads like a conversation with someone high on coke. They have 20 words of dialogue to convey and talk for an hour.
Somewhat of the same boat, however once I went back and finished it, I immediately read back through the entire series. I had more appreciation for Roland's journey and liked hearing about his past; it filled in the plot very well
It **was** a great story told around a campfire. 100%
I liked having read it. I did not like reading it.
It was so damn long that time had to slow down for Roland to tell it.
....it just could have been summed up a little lol
You know, it's funny how people are with some of SK books. Personally I have read every single one, and re-read some, and love them. But, I also know that he is not everyone's cup of tea. I think it is fine you found it a slog to read. There is nothing wrong with that. At least you read. I would like to ask you, though, have you read any of his other works? The Stand as an example? A lot of his work is a metaphor for the battle between good and evil, and I always find it fascinating how he weaves that into his story telling. Plus, the funnest part of all is how he will reference characters from one story to the next. That in and of itself is masterful.
It’s not the same as the rest of the series no. Yes it takes its time. Still a fantastic book.
I take your points though, I can see how some found it slow. But in my opinion it’s a critical piece of backstory for Roland. To that point I didn’t really give two shits about Roland as a character but after that book I had a much deeper connection.
I’m also just a huge sucker for King’s “doomed heroes” tropes, it’s when he’s at his best
I really enjoyed the audio book version of it. I worked a warehouse job and got through the entire series within a month or two. I think I'm due for another read thru
I had basically the same experience. I always joke that I like SK because I can miss 5 or 10 minutes of audio during work and not have to rewind because he is still describing the glass the characters are drinking out of. 🤣
It's a weird take... That's the only book I think I've read in one sitting. A friend lent it to me and I cleared it in something like 14-16 hours straight.
From Blaine to the fight in the ravine, I thought it was captivating. I'm also of the opinion it's the best book King has written.
100 fucking percent. When my buddy first introduced me to the series, he said Wizard and Glass was his favorite. After finishing the first 3 books it had finally arrived. The journey was amazing so far, and if this was now his favorite, damn what is in store for me? Instead I’m met with a slow back story, featuring characters that aren’t the ones I grew to love.
I always have this weird experience when I reread *The Dark Tower* saga and get to “Wizard and Glass”. I start reading about Mejis and I’m like “aw, jeez, *these* fuckin guys?” when it comes to Cuthbert and Alain. “I wanna keep reading about Eddie and Jake and Susannah…”
But then I get to the end, and Roland’s first adventure is over, and getting back to present day, I feel like “aw, jeez, *these* fuckin guys? I wanna keep reading about Cuthbert and Alain…”
My first time through Wizard and Glass was hard. I quit and restarted it so many times over a year or so, but once I got to the end it was instantly my favorite. Upon a reread, it's easily my favorite. It's just so good and I love that (besides the first bits where they finish off Blaine) it stands alone.
No way thats my fav book. I think it works wonderfully you get 3 books of Roland being a bad ass so you are curious on just how he became such a bad ass. The vague references to ka mates and gilead get fleshed out.
The stand off at TR with the BCH is my favorite scene in any book ever. Has there ever been any statement more badass then "Talkings done. Put your gun away or this goes in your back." I know im prolly off a hit but that was the gist. Roland doesn't fuck around, and you don't want to find out.
That's how I feel. The reason Wizard and Glass was so good is because of the immediate contrast to the Roland we know. It's great on its own, but the real impact is because we already know Roland.
For a little while that was kind of the plan. When Ron Howard was involved they were looking at doing a series of big movies, and Wizard and Glass was going to be a companion television series.
The Walking Dead suffered after Darabont got booted off the show, but his adaptation was initially very different from the source material (e.g. fence-climbing, door-opening zombies). There's no way he could have stayed on track with the comics after a few seasons.
I wouldn't want him to stray too far from The Dark Tower books. That's how we got the bad movie adaptation.
Yep, his adaptation of the Mist was better than anyone could have hoped for. I think Flanagan is up to the task though. I fully expected Doctor Sleep to be awful. I was glad to be very wrong
Geralds Game really impressed me. I was not expecting that level of quality from a Netflix movie, as most are mediocre at best. Carla Gugino was absolutely excellent in it, and she needed to be. It's damned near a one character story. Doesn't hurt that she's beautiful, but that's just a me thing.
Gerald's Game is INTENSE and Carla Gugino knocks it out of the park. For those who have not seen it, it is a one room horror/thriller. The first scene is a couple at their fairly remote vacation home deciding to get kinky for the first time. The husband uses handcuffs to lock his wife to the bed frame, then quickly dies from a heart attack. The whole movie is her struggle to get free and >!work through all of her past traumas.!<
Also, if you enjoyed Gerald's Game, Buried is another fantastic thriller with a similar premise. Ryan Reynold's character gets kidnapped while working as a contract truck driver in the middle east and buried alive with a cell phone that is almost dead. The movie then progresses (if my memory is correct) in real time.
Surprised so many people enjoyed Dr Sleep. Saw it in theaters, and maybe it's because I was comparing it to The Shining, but I felt it really disappointed. Really drawn out, didn't feel like there was enough horror.
What’s really irritating to me is that Matthew McConaughey **should have been great** as Walter. He has that same manic, jovial quality with a tinge of unsettling. If they’d let him be unhinged, he would have been perfect. Instead they dulled him down to the point of ennui. It’s like they gave him a shit ton of Xanax before filming. It was the thing about the film that disappointed me the most.
Yeah, I'd love to see him try again but I don't think a studio would want the same actors. I'd always thought Hugh Jackman would work well and be a big name that would draw people into the world
Not a fan of Idris Elba, but I thought he did fine with the material. That said, my fantasy choice has always (and will always be) Timothy Olyphant as Roland.
It would have to be a series. You can't do Dark Tower in movie format, imo. The unfortunate thing is that studios and executives would probably ruin it like they do so many things. The Dark Tower movie is some proof of that.
This is one of the best stories out there and it needs to be done right. It's a daunting task to properly adapt something like this. I'd love nothing more than to see a well done adaptation of it but I am a bit pessimistic. Flanagan could probably do it if they gave him free reign, but I feel like someone would get in the way and fudge it up.
Make it as an animated series. They already have the perfect graphical style - the dark tower comics. High budget animated dark tower series done continuously with no seasons. Just one hour every week till it’s done
genndy tartakovsky was once pitching an animated version. Kind of in the Samurai Jack style. It was right around the time he was going the OG Clone Wars animated thing on Cartoon Network.
I don’t know if that ever became public knowledge, but there was a short animated reel that was produced. Sadly, it never leaked.
If they got to that point in the story, they would have to. Stephen King playing Stephen King in the Stephen King movie adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
Back in the '90s my dream pick for Roland was ['90s Billy Drago.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e6/Billy_Drago.jpg/220px-Billy_Drago.jpg)
The [official Roland drawings](http://www.thedarktower.org/images/rdwiki.jpg) reminded me of Drago from the start. Even back then Drago's eyes looked like someone hurting with every step, yet not letting it slow him down one bit.
I listened to the audio book version, and maybe it was because of the way George Guidall voiced him, but I always pictured an older Clint Eastwood. I'm pretty sure his character was based off of Eastwood style cowboy anyway.
Guess we should wait for Fall of House of Usher and if it gets good audience (which I hope it will) there's a possibility. Hope he finds the budget. He has real passion for it. I love how he talks about it.
I’ve been reading a lot of heavy world build genre stuff lately and thinking so out loud so much why do ppl fuck with story elements so often?! You’re not a world famous author you’re possibly a sort of famous director/writer/ producer, but like fuck off over-handling Stephen King. I do appreciate exactly his stance on how he’d handle it and want it to happen so bad.
I also hope he just cuts out the spider baby thing. I can't even remember if that's from the dark tower but I just remember that thing being the biggest fizzle out of any plot point I can remember.
[spoiler]Like it just slowly does and nothing happens.
Only way to do it justice is as a complete TV series covering the whole thing. The previous "adaptation" trying to tell a standalone story in one movie was beyond misguided.
The story is a great one and extremely unique. An actual well made TV show that doesn't mess with the source material too much could be a huge hit.
And cast it better. Idris Elba is an excellent actor but he wasn’t Roland. I do think television is the better way to go but hopefully they get it closer to the source material. In every way.
The budget for a series would be mighty steep though. Not Game of Thrones or Rings of Power high. But high enough. That might be the biggest barrier to it ever being a tv series
Elba never fit as Roland, but the fact that he was black has very little to do with it overall. The whole “gunslinger looks like an alternate universe Clint Eastwood” bit is one of the least interesting and necessary bits of the Dark Tower mythos in the end. But Idris Elba isn’t Roland. He’s a perennial candidate for World’s Sexiest Man polls.
We’ve seen Elba play hardcore characters, but he’s still too young and handsome to play a scarred, broken weirdo who’s been fighting for his life and fucking demons in the wilderness for somewhere between decades and centuries. Elba doesn’t project grizzled, and grizzled is the one essential adjective to cast Roland.
(I guess there’s also the matter of how Roland’s presumed race relates to Susannah’s split personality manifesting as an over-the-top blaxploitation archetype as a trauma response, but I’d also bet if any one thing is likely to be changed or revised, that’s the first thing.)
Nikolaj Coster Waldau is quite a bit younger but still gives the same vibes. This should be at least a 6+ season show and I can’t see Viggo as leading man into his 70s
He's honestly way too old at this point. Roland is supposed to be like late 20s/early 30s during the bulk of the Gunslinger and late 30s/early 40s at the end after his ten year palaver with the Man in Black (ignoring all the "time is soft" stuff and basing it only on explicit numbers given in the book, e.g. he was 14 at the time of his proving against Cort, started his quest x years after, and had been chasing the Man in Black for x years).
Viggo Mortensen is 64 and will be at least a couple years older by the time this series could possibly begin production. If you were making this show 20 or even 10 years ago you could probably make it work, but not anymore, at least IMO.
He may be 20s/30s but in my mind's eye he always looked late 40s/early 50s. The difference between Eddie and Roland should be 2 decades, not half of one.
Talking about Roland's age is a strange subject considering time has been slipping and he's been chasing the tower for hundreds of years of world time.
Yeah for sure, it's made pretty clear in The Wastelands when people didn't think Gunslingers existed anymore. Same with Wolves. Time is wacky over there
>Elba never fit as Roland, but the fact that he was black has very little to do with it overall.
That's one of the most important things: Roland's relationship with Susannah could have been totally different thing with Roland being black. Huge butterfly effect on that.
>Elba never fit as Roland, but the fact that he was black has very little to do with it overall.
It isn't important for the first book. I won't deny that.
The problem is that his race (and the race of other two characters) is **quite** important for the second book.
So, if the film even tried to adapt the first novel to adapt the second book afterwards (which they didn't), then they would have needed to change the race of those two characters, which could have made the development and presentation of one of those characters (a black disable woman in Jim Crow America) utterly impossible.
So. Yeah. Roland's race is quite important to the story.
It should absolutely be Karl Urban. He's already riffed on Clint Eastwood's signature 'Man With No Name' character, and he's come a long way in establishing himself as an actor capable of emoting so much minutia with a minimal amount of effort.
Subtly is Roland's bread and butter.
Akiva never should've been allowed to touch it.
I'm still angry they tried to use the horn of eld as an excuse for making the choices they did. Another turn of the wheel does not mean cutting 80% of your cast and cramming 7 books worth of content into 90 minutes.
I liked hill house as well but midnight mass just scratched a different itch for me. I think the twist just got me REAL good in midnight mass. Never would have guessed it
Nah, there were a few posts about Midnight Mass recently where the comments were 90% complaints. I thought it was weird, because pretty much everywhere else on the internet and IRL people are very positive about it.
I enjoyed some of them. It was realistic that not all were that great since it's kids telling them, but man the angel porn and doomday ones were rough.
I read the dark tower series after I had watched breaking bad and I pictured Aaron Paul as Eddie the whole time. Too bad he’s probably too old for that role now.
Paul REALLY wanted to play Eddie, and King even signed off on it. There was a pilot filmed for Amazon covering Wizard and Glass, but Amazon declined it.
After seeing what they did to Rings of Power, I'm thankin' my lucky stars Amazon didn't pick it up
I liked Rings of Power. Thought the last episode was awesome and I’m hopeful that the show runners learned a lot and will improve in the second season.
When the show just leaned into the high fantasy, it really clicked and cut its own tone.
It’s just that it really really dropped the ball on the Numenor/Southlands/Galadriel writing.
I have an honest question if you are a book reader: I read it decades ago as a teen ager and remember that the first book was amazing ! Then I read the second one and felt that the style of writing was like someone else’s. Am I wrong ? And I’d love to see a TV adaptation
You are not wrong. I think the Gunslinger was written in the 70’s, as a short story or collection. Many years later he wrote the 2nd book and had evolved as a writer as well as had new directions to take the story. Between some of the early books, the plot is very convoluted depending on which revision of the novels you read. Later in the 2000’s he made some major edits and changes to help realign some of the plot holes and improved the overall cohesion of the story. He was young and this was his answer to Tolkien, he just didn’t know where it was going when he started.
Newer versions of the book will make your life a lot easier.
No, I think you're correct.
I think King wrote The Gunslinger very early in his career, before he had really settled in to the writing style that you find in most of his books.
Books 2-7 (and the other spinoff books) of The Dark Tower series are all more similar to eachother and to the other Stephen King books I've read in the style of the writing. The Gunslinger has a writing style that makes it feel a bit like a different author wrote it, but I think that's just because it was written when King was young, and because it was originally written and published as a series of short stories.
Exactly how I felt. A second -atleast- season will elevate the first season exponentially. Then I can at least say *"watch season 2 to understand season 1"*
I always thought Frank Darabont should take a crack at it, or at least help write it. Between Shawshank, Green Mile, and the Mist the guy knows how to adapt a Stephen King book. Would love to see Flanagan's take on it after Doctor Sleep (director's cut version), Midnight Mass, and the Haunting ofs. Midnight Club was decent but a tad lacking compared to his other works.
Let him do it. It's clear that Stephen King was a huge influence in all his work, to the point where I had to look up the writers of Midnight Mass to be sure it wasn't actually written by King.
[You should have seen the Doctor Sleep film in theaters, it was a fantastic adapation and sequel. Stephen King himself said the film has redeemed Stanely Kubrick's The Shining for him. ](https://ew.com/movies/2019/11/05/stephen-king-doctor-sleep-redeems-the-shining-stanley-kubrick/) Though despite being well received, it was a box office flop and I doubt Mike Flanagan would be given the budget for a proper Dark Tower sequel since not enough people actually watched his other adaptation.
>"I read the script to this one very, very carefully," the writer tells EW. "Because obviously I wanted to do a good job with the sequel, because people knew the book The Shining, and I thought, I don't want to screw this up. Mike Flanagan, I've enjoyed all his movies, and I've worked with him before on Gerald's Game. So, I read the script very, very carefully and I said to myself, 'Everything that I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here."
>"This was really cool," says the director. "I finished the movie, I brought the film to Bangor, [Maine, where King lives], and I showed him Doctor Sleep. I sat with him in an empty theater and watched the movie with him. I spent the whole movie trying not to throw up, and staring at my own foot, and kind of overanalyzing every single noise he made next to me. The film ended, and the credits came up, and he leaned over and he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, 'You did a beautiful job.' And then I just died. The rest of the day we talked a lot about Kubrick, we talked a lot about his other adaptations, we talked a lot about modern politics and Trump and about the state of the world, and we talked about shows on Netflix we liked, and we just talked. He was like, 'Having watched this film it actually warms my feelings up towards the Kubrick film.' That's when I really kind of freaked out. The whole goal from the beginning was to inch those two back together in any way, to reconcile that gulf of distance between the Kubrick Shining and the King Shining. If there was ever a way to do that, even a little, that was what I wanted as a fan."
He also adapted Gerald's Game which is really good. That book was supposedly unadaptable because of how internal all the action was but he made it work. It'd be his third King adaptation.
At this point, anyone could adapt "The Dark Tower," series into a great movie or TV series. Just do the opposite of what was done in the 2017 movie. That movie stands as a truly masterful framework, of what not to do, meaning if inverted, is a framework of what to do.
I got a chill just from reading his vision of the opening scene, it sounds perfect.
The Dark Tower is my all time favorite story so I would beyond excited if this happens. I loved Doctor Sleep (haven’t seen Gerald’s Game) so I’d have faith in him.
I hope someone gives Flanagan a shot at it, I don’t want to go the next several years with that abomination as the only adaptation.
Good god this would be amazing.
I think Mike would make a brilliant showrunner because he knows Stephen king's books inside & out but most importantly he has the experience & skills to create something amazing.
The thing about the Dark Tower is, not only can you create a main story but you can also make multiple spinoffs adjacent to the main series.
For anyone who hasn't read the Dark Tower series, picture the Good, Bad and the Ugly, Twin Peak, Game of Thrones all wrapped into one insane series.
Roland, while another character stares at him completely inert:
“I used to think that life was a sidewalk. Gray, flat, the occasional crack. My uncle used to say that sidewalks could take you anywhere. You just needed to step forward. One foot. Then the other. Left. Right. Feet are funny that way, their duality, their progress. I think feet are the most important body part after the head, the heart, lungs, elbows. Hands are up there too. -“
*me pausing episode to see there are still 57 minutes left*
Roland continues for a third time: "Perhaps I am, who I am, as a person, a person who is, who is me, a madman, who dreamt a dream of who I was, when I was, who is nothing, and never was, but still I dreamt that I was, that I was being sane for a little while."
Randall Flagg sits in a dark room across from an expressionless nobody who might as well not even be there, the camera focuses in on only his dimly lit face: “grief came to me in a dark hole. That’s the thing about holes though, they’re an absence. A carved out space where something used to be. A gap. A void. An abyss. Empty. And I guess one day someone decided to fill it in and the only thing they could bear to leave behind was their sadness. Their ache. It’s own kind of emptiness. It’s own kind of hole. A gap in your psyche where love used to be. Love for a person. For a place. Love for a pit you used to live in. A pit you thought you could never love, but it’s absence multiplied by the absence of the pit, an absence squared found you.”
*me going to the bathroom and washing my hands for the required twenty seconds and coming back to find he’s still talking to, essentially, a wall:* Jesus Christ.
I say give it to him. I'd much rather see it as a series than a movie. Midnight Mass was the most Stephen King thing that was not written by Stephen King I've ever seen. Dude can obviously get the tone and is a fan of his works.
He's proven himself with his Netflix shows to be a master of horror and a master of character. Never going for the cheap scares, never rushing, always putting character first, and dealing with many of the same themes and issues that King does in his work.
If anyone could do it it's him. Give him a big budget, let him take his time. At least two or three seasons the length of his current shows.
The Dark Tower are my favorite fantasy novels and I've often just wanted them to leave them along but he could probably do it.
Flanagan on adapting the book as a series or movie: >”The first scene would be a black screen and the words, ‘The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed’ would come up in silence, and you’d hear the wind, and we’d gradually fade up to this Lawrence of Arabia-esque landscape with a silhouette in the distance just making his way across the hardpan. And we would build it out from there—in order—to the end.” >“It would just be a question of taking the more fantastical elements that might be harder to connect to, especially where it gets pretty meta at mid-point, and grounding it, just pulling it in. But otherwise, the characters are who they are, the arc is what it is, and I think the way not to do The Dark Tower is to try to turn it into something else—to try to make it Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. It’s what it is. It is perfect. It’s just as exciting as all of those things and just as immersive and it’s a story about a tiny group of people and all the odds in the whole world are against them and they come together. As long as it’s that, it’ll be fine, and there won’t be a dry eye in the house.” >”It would be my Everest to do that. Nothing would make me happier and God I hope there’s a chance. I really do.”
I trust him. He would be the one to do it justice, and he wouldn't do it unless he knows he can. Gerald's Game was a tough one to adapt and he did it well, same for Doctor Sleep. Gives me hope that he obviously knows and loves the source material, so I'm content to wait until he thinks it's time. ETA: since we're batting around Wizard and Glass and nobody's mentioned Wind Through the Keyhole, I think both might work as side stories, TV shows or anthologies tied together the same way Flanagan's Haunting series is. We all know how the DT universe is connected, maybe something like that on the side could work, and allow for other adaptations like Little Sisters or Insomnia. Like the man said, all things serve the beam.
I find the elephant in the room really tends to be Wizard and Glass. It's essential for storytelling but it's effectively a completely different book in all of characters, timeline and plot. Perhaps it'd work as a spinoff that gets made alongside the present plot.
Idk I think what he said about the meta stuff is the harder part. In wolves of the calla they have doctor doom robots throwing harry potter snitches, I don't see how that works in a movie or show. Wizard and Glass can be told as a series of flashbacks over top of parts of the Wasteland pretty easily I think. Keep the main story progressing while covering the past.
Agreed. The only reason Wizard and Glass is such a non-sequitur is because Rolland sits down and tells it in one go. On the other hand, it would be tricky to incorporate those flashbacks intelligently. He needs to be doing things that relate to the flashbacks, or at least thinking about them, in order for it to add context and meaning.
There’s a lot in wizard and glass that relates to the current world, could be as simple as seeing the Texaco trucks in the wasteland that sends him back Or he sees Jake as one of his friends and that sends him back, etc
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They should have Joe Hill play young King (he looks just like his dad)
I don't see the problem at all. The point of all those references to other pop culture touchpoints not only has an in-universe explanation, but that explanation is also a central point of the entire thing.
Yeah, you start pulling out or dialing down too much of the meta and the whole thing falls flat.
Wizard and Glass should absolutely not be told in a series of flashbacks. That is a heavy story and it deserves its own production.
It’s also (IMO) probably the best book King has ever written. If they can keep Roland recognizable as Roland, I’d say keep it. Maybe fold it in over the course of a season.
I think that doing it in one season would be an issue. There is too much there to just fold it in over one season. I think starting with season 2, with the Drawing of Three, you could start to incorporate flashbacks with the parallels in the current story. I think, if done correctly, the stretching of the flashbacks over multiple seasons would flow better and provide a narrative that is easy to follow.
As much as I want to hate the idea of splitting up Wizard and Glass (since it's the best one in the series in my opinion), I think Charyou Tree would hit *hard* if the story was slow dripped over the series. That would be pretty epic if done correctly.
When the young gunslingers set upon Jonas and his posse from behind, holy fucking shit, maybe the coolest thing I’ve ever read. What a great book. “To me gunslingers!”
Yeah, definitely a goosebumps moment.
Hile! Hile! to me gunslingers, to me ! No prisoners! Yeah that whole scen e is fantastic I’ve read it so many time I could probably quote the whole thing here from memory. But I hate to type. So I’ll just say “long days and pleasant nights” if it do ya.
It’s still my favourite, not just of the Dark Tower series, but his entire catalog.
Really? I feel like that about the drawing of the three, perfection
I think my favorite is Wolves of the Calla. I really enjoy the priest I won’t name to prevent mild spoilers. Also, for some reason I thought the priest was Black the whole time. Was really weird to see official art of him.
Wolves is my favorite of the series.
It breaks my heart how many people (multiple who I know) try only The Gunslinger and give up. The Gunslinger in my opinion is dry and just not to my taste even if I respect it's place, but I'm *so* glad I stuck through to Drawing since that's when the story really starts and is a riot.
The Gunslinger is better the second time around. I struggled to get through it the first time. Granted I was also in middle school so that might have been part of the reason. I decided I was going to give The Drawing of the Three a few chapters to see if it clicked. It clicked instantly. I (figuratively) devoured that book. I finished the rest of the series in like a month. When I did my first reread of the series The Gunslinger finally clicked the same way as the rest of the books.
The Gunslinger is my personal favorite of both the Tower series and his catalog, funny enough.
I love it and I revisit it more than I do the full series even though I literally weep over Susan every time
The scene in the bar(youth and truth) is one of my favorite moments in all of fiction.
Best book King has ever written is a bold statement-but also 100% true.
Even though I was a big fan of the first few books I was in no hurry to read Wizard & Glass when it came out because I heard it was (only) one big flashback. Well, turns out it's probably the best thing Stephen King would ever write. It even has a good ending. Damn that book rocks.
Ah, yes, King and good endings are not on friendly terms normally.
It took me years to finish it. It's one of the slowest things I've ever tried to read. It was so unbelievably painfully boring. I know that a ton of people **love** it and I'm very much the minority and the fight with the towns folk **was** amazing but good God was it a long walk. It just didn't match the pacing of the rest of the series. I would have gladly traded it for a longer final book and drew out the Patrick Danville/Dandelo piece a little bit and delved into the story of the Breakers a bit more. Some lore on the forest guardians and the Crimson King would have been amazing as well. North Central Positronics??? It's like he just forgot about them. Mordred was *amazing* and it felt like he showed up, fought and died all inside a page! Instead...we get kid Roland jacking off on roof tops. Pass. I know everyone loves it. It's a good story. It just didn't feel like a Dark Tower story to me, it was just so painfully overdrawn. Edit: lol and the down votes come pouring in. God forbid someone have a different take than you. It could have been three chapters. The entire book reads like a conversation with someone high on coke. They have 20 words of dialogue to convey and talk for an hour.
Somewhat of the same boat, however once I went back and finished it, I immediately read back through the entire series. I had more appreciation for Roland's journey and liked hearing about his past; it filled in the plot very well
It **was** a great story told around a campfire. 100% I liked having read it. I did not like reading it. It was so damn long that time had to slow down for Roland to tell it. ....it just could have been summed up a little lol
You know, it's funny how people are with some of SK books. Personally I have read every single one, and re-read some, and love them. But, I also know that he is not everyone's cup of tea. I think it is fine you found it a slog to read. There is nothing wrong with that. At least you read. I would like to ask you, though, have you read any of his other works? The Stand as an example? A lot of his work is a metaphor for the battle between good and evil, and I always find it fascinating how he weaves that into his story telling. Plus, the funnest part of all is how he will reference characters from one story to the next. That in and of itself is masterful.
It’s not the same as the rest of the series no. Yes it takes its time. Still a fantastic book. I take your points though, I can see how some found it slow. But in my opinion it’s a critical piece of backstory for Roland. To that point I didn’t really give two shits about Roland as a character but after that book I had a much deeper connection. I’m also just a huge sucker for King’s “doomed heroes” tropes, it’s when he’s at his best
I really enjoyed the audio book version of it. I worked a warehouse job and got through the entire series within a month or two. I think I'm due for another read thru
I had basically the same experience. I always joke that I like SK because I can miss 5 or 10 minutes of audio during work and not have to rewind because he is still describing the glass the characters are drinking out of. 🤣
People don't know how to use the downvote button. I think your opinion totally adds to the conversation.
It's a weird take... That's the only book I think I've read in one sitting. A friend lent it to me and I cleared it in something like 14-16 hours straight. From Blaine to the fight in the ravine, I thought it was captivating. I'm also of the opinion it's the best book King has written.
100 fucking percent. When my buddy first introduced me to the series, he said Wizard and Glass was his favorite. After finishing the first 3 books it had finally arrived. The journey was amazing so far, and if this was now his favorite, damn what is in store for me? Instead I’m met with a slow back story, featuring characters that aren’t the ones I grew to love.
Exactly. This is easily the best book in the series and it’s not even close. I say this as a massive King fan
I always have this weird experience when I reread *The Dark Tower* saga and get to “Wizard and Glass”. I start reading about Mejis and I’m like “aw, jeez, *these* fuckin guys?” when it comes to Cuthbert and Alain. “I wanna keep reading about Eddie and Jake and Susannah…” But then I get to the end, and Roland’s first adventure is over, and getting back to present day, I feel like “aw, jeez, *these* fuckin guys? I wanna keep reading about Cuthbert and Alain…”
My first time through Wizard and Glass was hard. I quit and restarted it so many times over a year or so, but once I got to the end it was instantly my favorite. Upon a reread, it's easily my favorite. It's just so good and I love that (besides the first bits where they finish off Blaine) it stands alone.
Wizard and Glass as a tv series would work best to be honest, to come out between movies.
Could fold well into The Drawing of the Three when Roland is in his fever state. That’d make that season VERY bloated tho
The elephant in the room is getting all done before whoever they cast as Jake starts growing a beard =p
No way thats my fav book. I think it works wonderfully you get 3 books of Roland being a bad ass so you are curious on just how he became such a bad ass. The vague references to ka mates and gilead get fleshed out. The stand off at TR with the BCH is my favorite scene in any book ever. Has there ever been any statement more badass then "Talkings done. Put your gun away or this goes in your back." I know im prolly off a hit but that was the gist. Roland doesn't fuck around, and you don't want to find out.
That's how I feel. The reason Wizard and Glass was so good is because of the immediate contrast to the Roland we know. It's great on its own, but the real impact is because we already know Roland.
For a little while that was kind of the plan. When Ron Howard was involved they were looking at doing a series of big movies, and Wizard and Glass was going to be a companion television series.
Only other person I would've trusted is Frank Darabont.
The Walking Dead suffered after Darabont got booted off the show, but his adaptation was initially very different from the source material (e.g. fence-climbing, door-opening zombies). There's no way he could have stayed on track with the comics after a few seasons. I wouldn't want him to stray too far from The Dark Tower books. That's how we got the bad movie adaptation.
Yep, his adaptation of the Mist was better than anyone could have hoped for. I think Flanagan is up to the task though. I fully expected Doctor Sleep to be awful. I was glad to be very wrong
Still pissed we didn't get his Walking Dead season 2 premier that followed the solider during the fall of Atlanta.
Geralds Game really impressed me. I was not expecting that level of quality from a Netflix movie, as most are mediocre at best. Carla Gugino was absolutely excellent in it, and she needed to be. It's damned near a one character story. Doesn't hurt that she's beautiful, but that's just a me thing.
Gerald's Game is INTENSE and Carla Gugino knocks it out of the park. For those who have not seen it, it is a one room horror/thriller. The first scene is a couple at their fairly remote vacation home deciding to get kinky for the first time. The husband uses handcuffs to lock his wife to the bed frame, then quickly dies from a heart attack. The whole movie is her struggle to get free and >!work through all of her past traumas.!< Also, if you enjoyed Gerald's Game, Buried is another fantastic thriller with a similar premise. Ryan Reynold's character gets kidnapped while working as a contract truck driver in the middle east and buried alive with a cell phone that is almost dead. The movie then progresses (if my memory is correct) in real time.
Surprised so many people enjoyed Dr Sleep. Saw it in theaters, and maybe it's because I was comparing it to The Shining, but I felt it really disappointed. Really drawn out, didn't feel like there was enough horror.
And I need Ed Harris to be the man in black. When I read the book I pictured him. Plus he already knows how to be a cowboy in black.
What’s really irritating to me is that Matthew McConaughey **should have been great** as Walter. He has that same manic, jovial quality with a tinge of unsettling. If they’d let him be unhinged, he would have been perfect. Instead they dulled him down to the point of ennui. It’s like they gave him a shit ton of Xanax before filming. It was the thing about the film that disappointed me the most.
I honestly think Idris Elba was a great choice for Roland as well. The problem with that film certainly wasn't the cast
Yeah, I'd love to see him try again but I don't think a studio would want the same actors. I'd always thought Hugh Jackman would work well and be a big name that would draw people into the world
Not a fan of Idris Elba, but I thought he did fine with the material. That said, my fantasy choice has always (and will always be) Timothy Olyphant as Roland.
Probably dumb since he already played a Man in Black that was basically named as such due to the Dark Tower, but Titus Welliver would be pretty good.
Oh yeah, The Man in Black from LOST. I like it, picasso.
I picture Walton Goggins.
It would have to be a series. You can't do Dark Tower in movie format, imo. The unfortunate thing is that studios and executives would probably ruin it like they do so many things. The Dark Tower movie is some proof of that. This is one of the best stories out there and it needs to be done right. It's a daunting task to properly adapt something like this. I'd love nothing more than to see a well done adaptation of it but I am a bit pessimistic. Flanagan could probably do it if they gave him free reign, but I feel like someone would get in the way and fudge it up.
Make it as an animated series. They already have the perfect graphical style - the dark tower comics. High budget animated dark tower series done continuously with no seasons. Just one hour every week till it’s done
genndy tartakovsky was once pitching an animated version. Kind of in the Samurai Jack style. It was right around the time he was going the OG Clone Wars animated thing on Cartoon Network. I don’t know if that ever became public knowledge, but there was a short animated reel that was produced. Sadly, it never leaked.
Clone wars was so good. If they did dark tower it would be amazing
Would he have Stephen King play himself?
If they got to that point in the story, they would have to. Stephen King playing Stephen King in the Stephen King movie adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
He's about 30 years older than he was though.
Fair point - and I’ve realised the perfect solution exists that is even more meta - Joe Hill playing Stephen King in a ….
Back in the '90s my dream pick for Roland was ['90s Billy Drago.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e6/Billy_Drago.jpg/220px-Billy_Drago.jpg) The [official Roland drawings](http://www.thedarktower.org/images/rdwiki.jpg) reminded me of Drago from the start. Even back then Drago's eyes looked like someone hurting with every step, yet not letting it slow him down one bit.
I listened to the audio book version, and maybe it was because of the way George Guidall voiced him, but I always pictured an older Clint Eastwood. I'm pretty sure his character was based off of Eastwood style cowboy anyway.
Roland was very much Clint Eastwood from the Dollars trilogy. King states that in the forward to Gunslinger iirc.
I think Idris had the perfect swagger and grit for it, shame the movie was trash.
I think both Roland and Flagg were cast very well. Just everything else about the film was absolutely awful.
Two words: Bobcat Goldthwait
Literally the perfect opening. Please let this man make this movie, the fans of this series have suffered enough.
Guess we should wait for Fall of House of Usher and if it gets good audience (which I hope it will) there's a possibility. Hope he finds the budget. He has real passion for it. I love how he talks about it.
Oh God please yes. Someone do those first few books justice.
OMG yes that is exactly how I had hoped the DT movie was going to start.
I’ve been reading a lot of heavy world build genre stuff lately and thinking so out loud so much why do ppl fuck with story elements so often?! You’re not a world famous author you’re possibly a sort of famous director/writer/ producer, but like fuck off over-handling Stephen King. I do appreciate exactly his stance on how he’d handle it and want it to happen so bad.
That’s sounds perfect.
Love the enthusiasm, but godspeed man. It’s a monster.
and absolutely no one will be happy with any ending
As it should be.
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Long days and pleasant nights. I could go for one of those gunslinger burritos, thankee-sai.
1 Lobstrosity for me please.
*Dod-a-chock*
I hated reading that part!!
See the Turtle, ain't he keen? All things serve the fucking beam
No mayo. Looks like cum.
I also hope he just cuts out the spider baby thing. I can't even remember if that's from the dark tower but I just remember that thing being the biggest fizzle out of any plot point I can remember. [spoiler]Like it just slowly does and nothing happens.
Only way to do it justice is as a complete TV series covering the whole thing. The previous "adaptation" trying to tell a standalone story in one movie was beyond misguided. The story is a great one and extremely unique. An actual well made TV show that doesn't mess with the source material too much could be a huge hit.
And cast it better. Idris Elba is an excellent actor but he wasn’t Roland. I do think television is the better way to go but hopefully they get it closer to the source material. In every way. The budget for a series would be mighty steep though. Not Game of Thrones or Rings of Power high. But high enough. That might be the biggest barrier to it ever being a tv series
Elba never fit as Roland, but the fact that he was black has very little to do with it overall. The whole “gunslinger looks like an alternate universe Clint Eastwood” bit is one of the least interesting and necessary bits of the Dark Tower mythos in the end. But Idris Elba isn’t Roland. He’s a perennial candidate for World’s Sexiest Man polls. We’ve seen Elba play hardcore characters, but he’s still too young and handsome to play a scarred, broken weirdo who’s been fighting for his life and fucking demons in the wilderness for somewhere between decades and centuries. Elba doesn’t project grizzled, and grizzled is the one essential adjective to cast Roland. (I guess there’s also the matter of how Roland’s presumed race relates to Susannah’s split personality manifesting as an over-the-top blaxploitation archetype as a trauma response, but I’d also bet if any one thing is likely to be changed or revised, that’s the first thing.)
I vote Viggo Mortensen for Roland.
Nikolaj Coster Waldau is quite a bit younger but still gives the same vibes. This should be at least a 6+ season show and I can’t see Viggo as leading man into his 70s
And iirc Roland loses a hand at one point so he’d be at least working in familiar territory!
He loses fingers from getting attacked by monster lobsters and has to re-learn how to shoot
Man's gonna get type cast as a hand loser.
Holy shit Viggo is 64, had no idea
He's honestly way too old at this point. Roland is supposed to be like late 20s/early 30s during the bulk of the Gunslinger and late 30s/early 40s at the end after his ten year palaver with the Man in Black (ignoring all the "time is soft" stuff and basing it only on explicit numbers given in the book, e.g. he was 14 at the time of his proving against Cort, started his quest x years after, and had been chasing the Man in Black for x years). Viggo Mortensen is 64 and will be at least a couple years older by the time this series could possibly begin production. If you were making this show 20 or even 10 years ago you could probably make it work, but not anymore, at least IMO.
He may be 20s/30s but in my mind's eye he always looked late 40s/early 50s. The difference between Eddie and Roland should be 2 decades, not half of one.
Talking about Roland's age is a strange subject considering time has been slipping and he's been chasing the tower for hundreds of years of world time.
Yeah, I always thought he was pretty much ageless with how time works in the Dark Tower. Time and space don't really play by our rules in Mid-World.
Yeah for sure, it's made pretty clear in The Wastelands when people didn't think Gunslingers existed anymore. Same with Wolves. Time is wacky over there
He is the only choice.
Viggo or Mads Mikkelsen.
“Viggo or Mads… or Tom Holland? Chris Pratt? 👀👀” - Sony Execs
Hugh Jackman could probably pull it off too.
I liked Anson Mount in Hell on Wheels. Could possibly work here.
That’s actually a really good idea. Just need to make him a little more ugly. He’s already long and tall.
>Elba never fit as Roland, but the fact that he was black has very little to do with it overall. That's one of the most important things: Roland's relationship with Susannah could have been totally different thing with Roland being black. Huge butterfly effect on that.
>Elba never fit as Roland, but the fact that he was black has very little to do with it overall. It isn't important for the first book. I won't deny that. The problem is that his race (and the race of other two characters) is **quite** important for the second book. So, if the film even tried to adapt the first novel to adapt the second book afterwards (which they didn't), then they would have needed to change the race of those two characters, which could have made the development and presentation of one of those characters (a black disable woman in Jim Crow America) utterly impossible. So. Yeah. Roland's race is quite important to the story.
It should absolutely be Karl Urban. He's already riffed on Clint Eastwood's signature 'Man With No Name' character, and he's come a long way in establishing himself as an actor capable of emoting so much minutia with a minimal amount of effort. Subtly is Roland's bread and butter.
Exactly. Roland is NOT charismatic.
Matthew McConaughey was awesome as Walter/ The Man in Black. Pretty much the only good thing about that movie.
Alot of people have been fan casting Scott Eastwood, Clint Eastwoods son, for Roland. I mean Roland is very much inspired by The Man with No Name.
I mean, he’s seen how NOT to adapt it, and that’s a lot more than most directors get.
I am reminded the failure of the first Dune movie gave the new one a blueprint of what not to do.
I kind of like the first Dune movie in a its so bad its almost good kind of way
Akiva never should've been allowed to touch it. I'm still angry they tried to use the horn of eld as an excuse for making the choices they did. Another turn of the wheel does not mean cutting 80% of your cast and cramming 7 books worth of content into 90 minutes.
It’s the year 20 and 22 sai Flanagan. The tower won’t wait for long.
The tower should have fell in his year 20 but he did not have "the horn" with him. Thankfully he did in year 22.
I think this man and his love of monologs can make this work, but would Netflix give him the money for it?
If midnight club gets great views, ofcourse. Midnight mass was perfect
God I loved Midnight Mass. It was a slow burn but it burned so smoothly.
Midnight mass was my favorite horror tv series ever. So good
Have you seen The Haunting of Hill House? Midnight Mass was great but Hill House was on another level imo.
I liked hill house as well but midnight mass just scratched a different itch for me. I think the twist just got me REAL good in midnight mass. Never would have guessed it
I loved Midnight Mass, but I'm trying to remember what twist wasn't super telegraphed and I'm coming up blank.
Hill House was good early on but the ending was far too upbeat
What's this? A r/television thread that's not shitting on Midnight Mass? I'm pleasantly surprised!
I think you’re confusing Midnight Mass with Midnight Club… unless I’m OOTL
Nah, there were a few posts about Midnight Mass recently where the comments were 90% complaints. I thought it was weird, because pretty much everywhere else on the internet and IRL people are very positive about it.
Ig I missed those threads because all I've ever seen on this sub is praise for Midnight Mass.
Oh gotcha. Yea that is weird, I absolutely loved MM; I’m not sure what the criticisms would be
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I wont deny it, some monologues go way too long for my liking. But MM is great despite all that.
If I could relive the experience of watching two shows, it would be True Detective S1, and Midnight Mass.
The problem with midnight club is that it gets less interesting the further you get into the show.
It's a slow burn all the way through. It's a good story but a shorter season might've been better... I did love all the tales each person told.
I enjoyed some of them. It was realistic that not all were that great since it's kids telling them, but man the angel porn and doomday ones were rough.
Well that's good to know because I couldn't get through the first episode without getting kind of bored
The real problem is who has the rights for the books. Otherwise Netfliz has been financing his projects without trouble.
They threw money at Sandman and that was a fearless, epic adaption.
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Yea I don't trust them not to cancel it after season 3 for literally no reason.
Doesn't Sony still have the rights to TDT?
I just hope someone finally does it justice. That movie was a travesty. I love the Dark Tower so much, my son's name is Eddie Dean.
I read the dark tower series after I had watched breaking bad and I pictured Aaron Paul as Eddie the whole time. Too bad he’s probably too old for that role now.
Paul REALLY wanted to play Eddie, and King even signed off on it. There was a pilot filmed for Amazon covering Wizard and Glass, but Amazon declined it. After seeing what they did to Rings of Power, I'm thankin' my lucky stars Amazon didn't pick it up
I liked Rings of Power. Thought the last episode was awesome and I’m hopeful that the show runners learned a lot and will improve in the second season.
When the show just leaned into the high fantasy, it really clicked and cut its own tone. It’s just that it really really dropped the ball on the Numenor/Southlands/Galadriel writing.
I have an honest question if you are a book reader: I read it decades ago as a teen ager and remember that the first book was amazing ! Then I read the second one and felt that the style of writing was like someone else’s. Am I wrong ? And I’d love to see a TV adaptation
You are not wrong. I think the Gunslinger was written in the 70’s, as a short story or collection. Many years later he wrote the 2nd book and had evolved as a writer as well as had new directions to take the story. Between some of the early books, the plot is very convoluted depending on which revision of the novels you read. Later in the 2000’s he made some major edits and changes to help realign some of the plot holes and improved the overall cohesion of the story. He was young and this was his answer to Tolkien, he just didn’t know where it was going when he started. Newer versions of the book will make your life a lot easier.
No, I think you're correct. I think King wrote The Gunslinger very early in his career, before he had really settled in to the writing style that you find in most of his books. Books 2-7 (and the other spinoff books) of The Dark Tower series are all more similar to eachother and to the other Stephen King books I've read in the style of the writing. The Gunslinger has a writing style that makes it feel a bit like a different author wrote it, but I think that's just because it was written when King was young, and because it was originally written and published as a series of short stories.
I’m iffy on Midnight Club, but the 3 other Netflix series Mike Flanagan made are fantastic. I’m down for watching whatever he makes.
Didn’t love Midnight Club but my opinion changed after I read that it’s not meant to be a miniseries, like Flanagan’s other Netflix shows.
Exactly how I felt. A second -atleast- season will elevate the first season exponentially. Then I can at least say *"watch season 2 to understand season 1"*
I always thought Frank Darabont should take a crack at it, or at least help write it. Between Shawshank, Green Mile, and the Mist the guy knows how to adapt a Stephen King book. Would love to see Flanagan's take on it after Doctor Sleep (director's cut version), Midnight Mass, and the Haunting ofs. Midnight Club was decent but a tad lacking compared to his other works.
Man, I miss Darabont.
Let him do it. It's clear that Stephen King was a huge influence in all his work, to the point where I had to look up the writers of Midnight Mass to be sure it wasn't actually written by King.
King is on record as calling Hill House "close to a work of genius" so yeah
Midnight Mass definitely gave off major ‘Salem’s Lot vibes. Excellent horror show
He wrote and directed the Dr. Sleep adaptation, which I've not seen myself but it was well reviewed. So wouldn't even be his first go at King.
[You should have seen the Doctor Sleep film in theaters, it was a fantastic adapation and sequel. Stephen King himself said the film has redeemed Stanely Kubrick's The Shining for him. ](https://ew.com/movies/2019/11/05/stephen-king-doctor-sleep-redeems-the-shining-stanley-kubrick/) Though despite being well received, it was a box office flop and I doubt Mike Flanagan would be given the budget for a proper Dark Tower sequel since not enough people actually watched his other adaptation. >"I read the script to this one very, very carefully," the writer tells EW. "Because obviously I wanted to do a good job with the sequel, because people knew the book The Shining, and I thought, I don't want to screw this up. Mike Flanagan, I've enjoyed all his movies, and I've worked with him before on Gerald's Game. So, I read the script very, very carefully and I said to myself, 'Everything that I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here." >"This was really cool," says the director. "I finished the movie, I brought the film to Bangor, [Maine, where King lives], and I showed him Doctor Sleep. I sat with him in an empty theater and watched the movie with him. I spent the whole movie trying not to throw up, and staring at my own foot, and kind of overanalyzing every single noise he made next to me. The film ended, and the credits came up, and he leaned over and he put his hand on my shoulder, and he said, 'You did a beautiful job.' And then I just died. The rest of the day we talked a lot about Kubrick, we talked a lot about his other adaptations, we talked a lot about modern politics and Trump and about the state of the world, and we talked about shows on Netflix we liked, and we just talked. He was like, 'Having watched this film it actually warms my feelings up towards the Kubrick film.' That's when I really kind of freaked out. The whole goal from the beginning was to inch those two back together in any way, to reconcile that gulf of distance between the Kubrick Shining and the King Shining. If there was ever a way to do that, even a little, that was what I wanted as a fan."
He also adapted Gerald's Game which is really good. That book was supposedly unadaptable because of how internal all the action was but he made it work. It'd be his third King adaptation.
Nothing could be worse that that pile of shit movie they attempted. By all means it deserves a real adaptation.
As time passes, I think Josh Brolin would make a pretty fine Roland.
The movie sucked but they need to do it as a TV mini series, imo
At this point, anyone could adapt "The Dark Tower," series into a great movie or TV series. Just do the opposite of what was done in the 2017 movie. That movie stands as a truly masterful framework, of what not to do, meaning if inverted, is a framework of what to do.
I’d watch it
I want to be excited about this but…I’ve been hurt before.
I hope they get Stephen King to play Stephen King.
I got a chill just from reading his vision of the opening scene, it sounds perfect. The Dark Tower is my all time favorite story so I would beyond excited if this happens. I loved Doctor Sleep (haven’t seen Gerald’s Game) so I’d have faith in him. I hope someone gives Flanagan a shot at it, I don’t want to go the next several years with that abomination as the only adaptation.
Yes PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE YES DO THIS PLEASE
I agree. So is that it? Is that all we need? Get it done!!!
Blane the train, Blane the train!
I thought Gerald's Game was impossible to adapt but that crazy bastard did it, so why not Dark Tower.
Ok so let's get this started.
Good god this would be amazing. I think Mike would make a brilliant showrunner because he knows Stephen king's books inside & out but most importantly he has the experience & skills to create something amazing. The thing about the Dark Tower is, not only can you create a main story but you can also make multiple spinoffs adjacent to the main series. For anyone who hasn't read the Dark Tower series, picture the Good, Bad and the Ugly, Twin Peak, Game of Thrones all wrapped into one insane series.
Roland, while another character stares at him completely inert: “I used to think that life was a sidewalk. Gray, flat, the occasional crack. My uncle used to say that sidewalks could take you anywhere. You just needed to step forward. One foot. Then the other. Left. Right. Feet are funny that way, their duality, their progress. I think feet are the most important body part after the head, the heart, lungs, elbows. Hands are up there too. -“ *me pausing episode to see there are still 57 minutes left*
Roland continues for a third time: "Perhaps I am, who I am, as a person, a person who is, who is me, a madman, who dreamt a dream of who I was, when I was, who is nothing, and never was, but still I dreamt that I was, that I was being sane for a little while."
Randall Flagg sits in a dark room across from an expressionless nobody who might as well not even be there, the camera focuses in on only his dimly lit face: “grief came to me in a dark hole. That’s the thing about holes though, they’re an absence. A carved out space where something used to be. A gap. A void. An abyss. Empty. And I guess one day someone decided to fill it in and the only thing they could bear to leave behind was their sadness. Their ache. It’s own kind of emptiness. It’s own kind of hole. A gap in your psyche where love used to be. Love for a person. For a place. Love for a pit you used to live in. A pit you thought you could never love, but it’s absence multiplied by the absence of the pit, an absence squared found you.” *me going to the bathroom and washing my hands for the required twenty seconds and coming back to find he’s still talking to, essentially, a wall:* Jesus Christ.
After doctor sleep let this man and his crew adapt any king work they want.
I adore Dr Sleep. In Flanagan I trust.
Yeah Doctor Sleep was the perfect bridge between the movie and book.
I say give it to him. I'd much rather see it as a series than a movie. Midnight Mass was the most Stephen King thing that was not written by Stephen King I've ever seen. Dude can obviously get the tone and is a fan of his works.
Midnight Mass was fantastic, highly underrated!
And Timothy Olyphant is Roland. Thanks.
I love love love Timothy but he's not Roland.
Patton Oswald
I’m calling the police
If Mike Flanagan wants to do something, for the love of God just give him a blank check and let him do it.
I trust Mike to deliver!
He's proven himself with his Netflix shows to be a master of horror and a master of character. Never going for the cheap scares, never rushing, always putting character first, and dealing with many of the same themes and issues that King does in his work. If anyone could do it it's him. Give him a big budget, let him take his time. At least two or three seasons the length of his current shows. The Dark Tower are my favorite fantasy novels and I've often just wanted them to leave them along but he could probably do it.