I came across an article on CHUD saying that director Ron Howard is interested in adapting Stephen King's Dark Tower series to film.
You'll recall that for a while, J.J. Abrams had plans for the series, but decided to bow out after deciding that he couldn't do the series justice. Along with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman are said to be the ones who will be working behind the scenes.
Rather than do a series of movies, the plan, according to the rumor, is to have the movie act as a sort of pilot for a television series.
This is a weird plan, I must admit. I know both have their pros and cons (movies give you a bigger budget, but TV gives you more room to tell a story) but by straddling the fence like this, I don't know if you're going to please anyone.
The only similar example I can cite was Buffy, but that wasn't planned that way and while the show does make a few vague references, the film isn't really considered "canon" and both stand on their own.
Another thing to consider is time. As readers have pointed out, adapting a story this long takes a lot of it and you can't hide the age of your actors. That being said, there are alternatives *coughanimatedseriescough*.
According to the rumor, Universal is the studio who will back the project.
Nothing is official as of yet. Chud is a reliable movie news source, but I haven't come across anything else that confirms the story as of yet. Something could come of it, and maybe it won't. Given the history of this franchise and attempts to bring it to film, I'm leaning towards the latter, but we'll have to wait and see.
Edit: A writer at Aintitcool posted an article on the topic, so it seems the story is making some waves.
Universal Acquires Rights to Dark Tower, Announces Plans for Trilogy and TV Series
J.J. Abrams Announces That He's Off the Dark Tower Project
*Originally published on 11/13/09
An article was posted at aintitcool saying that J.J. Abrams is dropping off of the film adaptation of the Dark Tower books.
For a long time, I figured this was just stuck in development hell, but than I found out that he was simply putting it on hold until he finished with his televsion series, Lost. I have read rumors that this is the last season, so with that in mind I started to become curious as to whether or not this would take shape.
I'm not surprised, but I'm a bit disappointed at the same time. I was curious to see if he could pull it off, and if so, how would he go about it? With Abrams no longer attached, it will most likely be a while before something comes of this. It may die out, or it could be like the Dragonball and Watchmen movies where it takes a decade, but it does finally get done. If this is the case, let's pray it's closer to the latter than the former in terms of quality (in fairness, DBE wasn't nearly as terrible as I thought it would be going in).
Quint, the author of the article, states that an HBO series would be a better fit and I have to say that I agree.
Following up on yesterday's announcement that a new Dark Tower book may be on the horizon. The article elaborates saying that it would take place between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla.
As a special treat, I'm going to post a video of a Q & A King did for a recent book signing in Dundalk, MD a couple of days ago. You know, I used to live in Maryland. I actually wasn't too far from Dundalk...Fate is mocking me ladies and gentlemen.
The crowd is a bit hard to hear, but the poster was nice enough to add text boxes so that we would know what questions were being asked. King is surprisingly funny in front of the mic. He also makes some pretty big announcements like a possible HBO series for Under the Dome as well as other projects like the Cell film.
I mentioned before how it was a pretty big week and it seems to only be getting bigger as far as King news goes.
The Dark Tower Casting Call
*Originally published on 10/27/09
If you look on youtube, you will find several fan made "trailers" for a possible Dark Tower movie series. Some are more well done than others. Most just take footage from other movies and cut it in such a way that it looks like it could actually be from the book. With the possibility of the book series coming to the big screen, I thought it would be fun to try and cast this puppy. It's not going to be easy, but we'll see how things turn out.
Roland: A lot of the trailers have Clint Eastwood as Roland. This makes sense as King himself said that he had Eastwood in mind when writing the role, more specifically Eastwood in the old westerns. Sadly, I think he's too old. If there were just one movie, he might be able to pull off a decent job, he was actually really good in Gran Torino, a film that I didn't expect to be able to take him seriously in at all, but there are 7 books so it will be a huge undertaking. As such, we'll have to find someone younger.
Though he plays a great cowboy, alas Sam Elliot is also too old, maybe they can work those two into some sort of supporting role. That would be pretty cool.
I'd suggest Val Kilmer, but that's only because he was so great as Doc Holliday in Tombstone. As awesome as Holliday is, personality wise, he's not a whole lot like Roland; they're two completely different characters. Wyatt Earp on the other hand... you know, Kurt Russell could be pretty good now that I think about it. He's not too old and he's no stranger to the cowboy genre.
I like Christian Bale, but he may get tired of playing in franchises. Also, I worry that he'll go back to his Batman voice for Roland. If he just talks normally, he could turn in a strong performance.
Jake: The trailers I saw had Haley Joel Osment. I can't think of any other child actors to be honest, and he does have acting chops so I'll go with it. He's kind of faded from the limelight so it would give him a chance to get back into film. What was the last film he was in? AI?
Susannah: Halle Berry was the fan pick. She is an oscar winning actress, on the other hand she botched Storm in the X-Men movies and starred in Catwoman. Maybe Abrams and crew can get a better peformance out of her. I don't know if she can pull off Detta's personality though. If only Samuel L. Jackson had a distaff counterpart, that would be perfect.
Eddie: There are a slew of great actors who could take this role.
Edward Norton would be great in the role. He tends to play likable characters with a bit of a sense of humor and his characters do tend to have issues, so playing a coke addict wouldn't be beyond his abilities.
Hugh Jackman would also be good.
I've heard a few people suggest James Franco. That would work too, he can act in both serious and comedic movies. He's also played a drug addict before, though it was pot not coke and it was played for laughs, still, I could see him pulling it off.
Oy would most likely be CGI, that's really the only way I can see him being pulled off.
Now who would play Walter/Flagg/the man in black? I'd say Jamey Sheridan for consistency, but he doesn't look anything like he did back when he played the role back in The Stand. I got it, Brad Dourif. He's getting up there age wise, but I'm certain that he could pull it off.
Blaine would have to be voiced by Corey Burton. He's done the AI thing a few times now, voicing Brainiac in the Superman cartoons as well as voicing Red Tornado in The Brave and the Bold, but he's still really good at it and he can bring out all the creepiness that Blaine has to offer.
What say you readers? Who would you put in the roles of these beloved characters? I'm curious to see who others have in mind and it should make for some fascinating discussion.
What Would a Soundtrack to the Dark Tower Sound Like?
*Originally published on 12/11/09
While it's true that J.J Abrams has dropped out of the Dark Tower project, putting the movie back in development hell for who knows how long and sadly, there is still no word on any sort of animated series, it's still fun to sort of brainstorm and think about what a possible adaptation would be like. I did it before with the cast, but lately I've been thinking about the soundtrack. I think it goes without saying that Hey Jude would be in there, but as for the overall score, I wonder which artist would be best suited for the project.
There are a lot of great composers out there to choose from. John Williams has created some great stuff, but I don't know if his style suits the mood of the overall series. Danny Elfman is a versatile musician who's work covers all sorts of genres. He'd do a great job I think.
James Horner has done some great work over the years. The soundtrack to Glory was freakin' amazing and having worked on that film, as well as Wrath of Khan and the upcoming Avatar, he's not intimidated by the epics.
I wouldn't mind reuniting Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. The soundtrack to The Dark Knight still blows me away every time I listen to it.
While fine composers all, none have really worked on a project this big. While several franchises have gone on for several movies, I think that the only film series to have a scope this big to date would be the Lord of the Rings trilogy that was released a few years ago. Composer Howard Shore did a great job with the score to that series and I think he could do a great job with this as well.
Whatever composer gets hired will probably need a little bit of help. They need to get musicians who dole out epic tracks on a regular basis and for that I have two suggestions.
The first is Nightwish, I've mentioned them a couple of times before but I think they'd fit here. Their music has always had an epic fantasy feel to it and even one of their songs, 7 Days to the Wolves, was inspired by the series. I don't know if I'd include that track, it's a good song but it's a little too on the nose. Still, I think they'd be happy to come up with an original track or two.
The group I think best suited for this though is E.S Posthumus. Who is E.S. Posthumus? That is a good question. Truth be told, I only discovered this group a mere few days ago. Their music is described as epic classical with orchestral and electronic sounds. All you really need to know though is that they rule. Listen to tracks like Pompeii or Ebla, that style of music would be perfect. You could make the argument that it suits the trailers for the films more than the actual soundtrack, and you would have a point, but I think that it would work really well in film as well.
What say you constant readers? Who would you like to see score Mid-world should the series ever get adapted in some way, shape or form?
Dark Tower Casting Rumors Abound, Christian Bale's Name Thrown into the Mix
Moar Dark Tower Updates
Entertainment Weekly Speculates on Possible Dark Tower Casting Picks
NBC Puts the Kaibosh on the Upcoming Dark Tower Adaptation
Dark Tower Adaptation Travels to HBO
No comments:
Post a Comment