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Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' Set For Film Trilogy
Deadline ^ | April 29, 2010 | Mike Fleming

Posted on 05/13/2010 8:42:31 AM PDT by Hoodat

EXCLUSIVE: In a whopping deal coming together quickly, Stephen King, Imagine Entertainment and Weed Road are in discussions to make a screen trilogy and TV series out of King's epic novel series The Dark Tower. Akiva Goldsman will write the script, Ron Howard will direct it, and his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer will produce with Goldsman and King.

Universal is in talks to acquire a package that included the books, and the attachment of the team behind the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. Both Universal –where Imagine is based—and Warner Bros—where Goldsman’s Weed Road banner is housed—have been vying for the project.

The Dark Tower is King’s answer to JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, and the author will get his own screen trilogy. Like Tolkien, King's epic novel series is set in an otherworldly but familiar world, and involves a quest to save the world. The series spanned seven novels that involved Roland Deschain, the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers who exists in a world that has an Old West feel, but which is infused with magic. He is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, a structure that holds the key to the nexus of all universes. He encounters many allies and enemies along the way, as the world crumbles around him.

The book series was once developed by JJ Abrams and his Lost cohorts Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, but they never cracked it. Goldsman, who has become a prolific producer, was the catalyst for securing the rights from King, and he brought it to Howard and Grazer. It was not immediately evident how large the transaction was, but King has often optioned his works for little . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at deadline.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: darktower; stephenking
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To: melissa_in_ga
And I like Ian McShane too much to stick him as Jonas. He'd make a good Steven Deschaines.

You need to recast Jonas ;-)

61 posted on 05/13/2010 12:27:29 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: melissa_in_ga

As I was thinking about “Signs”, I think Joachim Phoenix would make a good Eddie.


62 posted on 05/13/2010 12:30:07 PM PDT by melissa_in_ga (God Bless Sarah Palin)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Gene Hackman? Powers Booth?


63 posted on 05/13/2010 12:31:33 PM PDT by melissa_in_ga (God Bless Sarah Palin)
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To: tumblindice

Oh, I disagree - I think the ending was perfectly appropriate. As the last Gunslinger in a dying world, Roland is destined to relive his past over and over and over, never finding what he seeks. All things follow the Beam, and Roland having to follow the Man in Black across the desert again is a dark, dark version of “Groundhog Day”. Someday, maybe, Roland will get it right. Until then, he’s still following the Beam in some parallel universe right now.


64 posted on 05/13/2010 12:36:03 PM PDT by melissa_in_ga (God Bless Sarah Palin)
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To: melissa_in_ga

Gene Hackman. Perfect. I would have preferred Brion James if he was still alive.


65 posted on 05/13/2010 12:42:27 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

I’ve never seen Costner have any expression on his face other than slightly confused concern. Unless he’s playing a dumb guy in a bad situation (like he did in Open Range) he’s pretty much not good for anything.


66 posted on 05/13/2010 1:11:59 PM PDT by discostu (wanted: brick, must be thick and well kept)
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To: Joe 6-pack

McShane might be a little too heavy, but he’s a great actor. Dalton could be solid. What’s rolling around in my head would be if the guy could do a good job as Lee Marvin’s character in Dirty Dozen or Big Red One they could probably do Roland. That would mean they have the requisite apparent age and world weariness. McShane certainly could pull that off.


67 posted on 05/13/2010 1:15:41 PM PDT by discostu (wanted: brick, must be thick and well kept)
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To: discostu
The tough thing about casting Roland is that you'd have to combine sort of the American, pioneer/wild west gunslinger, with a more chivalristic sort of knight errant.

While he may be a little old for the part now, Jeremy Irons nailed the archetype in "Kingdom of Heaven."


68 posted on 05/13/2010 1:21:04 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Mad Dawgg
We all have our own tastes, which is what makes the world go round, however "Cell" was not about Zombies, The plot concerns a New England artist struggling to reunite with his young son after a mysterious signal broadcast over the global cell-phone network turns the majority of his fellow humans into mindless vicious animals.

Reprogramming the human mind to act contrary to the norm has always been talked about and experimented with for decades.

69 posted on 05/13/2010 1:31:52 PM PDT by Post-Neolithic (Money only makes Communists rich Communists)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Other than the suntan I don’t think there’s much difference between a classic rough and tough good guy western movie gunslinger and a knight errant. Irons could probably pull it off, Tiberias in Kingdom of Heaven did have some world weary but still noble that I think is important for the Roland character.


70 posted on 05/13/2010 1:35:52 PM PDT by discostu (wanted: brick, must be thick and well kept)
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To: Post-Neolithic

In “Cell,” King employed a pretty familiar gimmick that he’s used before, and was really perfected by M.R. James, the “father of the modern ghost story.” It’s also why a lot of King’s work will rapidly slide into obsolescence. What makes it effective horror for the here and now is taking a commonplace, familiar item (a cell phone, a Plymouth sedan, a family dog, etc.) and turning it into something completely horrifying. It does achieve some immediate shock value, enough certainly to sell books and movie tickets, but gets old quick.


71 posted on 05/13/2010 1:41:08 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: discostu
"Other than the suntan I don’t think there’s much difference between a classic rough and tough good guy western movie gunslinger and a knight errant."

Yes and no. The Gilead of Roland's youth was a place of high culture and strict social rules which forged a lot of Roland's character. The gunfighter archetype doesn't necessarily have that courtly foundation. Certainly there's a lot of overlap between the two, but the classic gunslinger needs no past (i.e. Eastwood's High Plains Drifter). A knight's training, upbringing and pedigree are essential elements of his legend.

72 posted on 05/13/2010 1:46:18 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

You’re correct. A simple Gunslinger would never say “I cry your pardon; I have forgotten the face of my father.”


73 posted on 05/13/2010 1:49:35 PM PDT by melissa_in_ga (God Bless Sarah Palin)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Hmm, now that you put high culture and gunfighter in the same paragraph that brings up Val Kilmer. Did a fine job as Doc Holiday, a gunfighter with high culture root, certainly he didn’t wind up as noble as Roland but it’s the other side of the same coin. He might not be weather worn enough, but there’s a definite maybe there.


74 posted on 05/13/2010 1:49:54 PM PDT by discostu (wanted: brick, must be thick and well kept)
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To: discostu

Kilmer can play Alain Johns.


75 posted on 05/13/2010 1:54:03 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

I think he’s too old for Alain, Kilmer is 50 and Alain dies in his late teens or early 20s.


76 posted on 05/13/2010 1:57:59 PM PDT by discostu (wanted: brick, must be thick and well kept)
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To: rintense
‘The Stand’ is my favorite King novel.

Agree. I have read it 3 times. I was really into to the Dark Tower but the long time between 3 and 4 lost me.

77 posted on 05/13/2010 1:58:38 PM PDT by engrpat (A village in Kenya is missing their idiot...lets send him back)
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To: discostu

True enough. I still think there are much better choices for Roland than Kilmer. The more I think about it, the more I like Dalton.


78 posted on 05/13/2010 2:02:06 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: engrpat

The lag between 3 and 4 was long. Then I got volume 4, picked it up, put it down, and then picked it up later an couldn’t put it down again. Out of all 7 of the books, Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla are my favorite, and my favorite plot scene is the ultimate drawing of Jake through the mud door in The Wastelands.


79 posted on 05/13/2010 2:05:09 PM PDT by melissa_in_ga (God Bless Sarah Palin)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Kilmer was just a maybe because of the background similarities between Holiday (which Kilmer did brilliantly) and Roland. Dalton has potential.


80 posted on 05/13/2010 2:08:08 PM PDT by discostu (wanted: brick, must be thick and well kept)
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