The Dark Tower

[Funkmasterr]

I didn't mean to give anyone a heart attack, but I have wanted to have a discussion about how feasible it would be to make these books into movies.


I will start by saying that I have read comments from Stephen King saying that he is open to the idea of movies and has spoke to a few people about them, so the possibility is there.

A part of me doesn't really care, and just wants them to be made into movies really bad because they are the best stories ever, but it's not that simple.

The problem with them, is to do them RIGHT would cost such an obscene amount of money that they would have to do great in the theatre/on DVD to make any money at all. I am sure this is the biggest thing that has stopped anyone from really considering doing them.

I know another issue could possibly be the large amounts of inner monologue and how well that may or may not translate to film.

Just think though, if they had someone like Peter Jackson film them all back to back, and on top of that a good cast, and I think they could be amazing.

I wonder how much it would cost to make them though,

[Truant]

I've envisioned it in my head in two ways.

Live Action.

and Animated.

Live Action is doable, but it would be crazy expensive. And there's a shitton of material to cover. It's completely impractical, but possible.

Animated has much more potential. It will be easier to get the dark and rough imagery across that would be difficult to do consistently and constantly with cameras. It would keep production much more reasonable allowing it to be possible to cover all 7 books.

This reminds me, I need to go shopping for the graphic novels again. I enjoyed them muchly.

[Funkmasterr]

I've envisioned it in my head in two ways.

Live Action.

and Animated.

Live Action is doable, but it would be crazy expensive. And there's a shitton of material to cover. It's completely impractical, but possible.

Animated has much more potential. It will be easier to get the dark and rough imagery across that would be difficult to do consistently and constantly with cameras. It would keep production much more reasonable allowing it to be possible to cover all 7 books.

This reminds me, I need to go shopping for the graphic novels again. I enjoyed them muchly.

The animated thing never occurred to me. I wouldn't prefer it but I definitely think I could settle for that if they did a good job!

[Spankes]

Steven King sold the option over a year ago to JJ Abrams for $19.

Edit:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/02/26/ste ... wer-movie/

“I know J.J. Abrams’ work and Damon Lindelof, who is his collaborator on Lost. Damon is just a total comic-book freak, and he loves the Dark Tower books. I trust those guys, and they have a lot on the ball. When they said they wanted to talk about doing this, I said, ‘You know what? Why don’t you buy the option on this and see what you can come up with.’ They asked, ‘How much do you want for an option?’ I said, ‘$19.’ (A key amount that comes up frequently in the books) And that’s what they paid me, and that’s where it is.”

[Funkmasterr]

Steven King sold the option over a year ago to JJ Abrams for $19.

Edit:

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/02/26/ste ... wer-movie/

“I know J.J. Abrams’ work and Damon Lindelof, who is his collaborator on Lost. Damon is just a total comic-book freak, and he loves the Dark Tower books. I trust those guys, and they have a lot on the ball. When they said they wanted to talk about doing this, I said, ‘You know what? Why don’t you buy the option on this and see what you can come up with.’ They asked, ‘How much do you want for an option?’ I said, ‘$19.’ (A key amount that comes up frequently in the books) And that’s what they paid me, and that’s where it is.”

I remember reading that, but I also thought I remembered reading that he gave this option to a handful of other people too. Not sure how that works.

[Canelek]

It's been talked about for years. Last I heard was the $19 option to Abrahms. Jackson's LOTR success opened a ton of doors! I imagine that if Martin's Song of Ice & Fire works out on HBO (if it ever gets a green light), we will eventually see The Dark Tower.

It would take an incredible amount of publicity to make it work in theaters, so HBO may be the only avenue. Network TV is old hat, and never really works right....granted The Stand was somewhat well done (at least in casting).

[Funkmasterr]

It's been talked about for years. Last I heard was the $19 option to Abrahms. Jackson's LOTR success opened a ton of doors! I imagine that if Martin's Song of Ice & Fire works out on HBO (if it ever gets a green light), we will eventually see The Dark Tower.

It would take an incredible amount of publicity to make it work in theaters, so HBO may be the only avenue. Network TV is old hat, and never really works right....granted The Stand was somewhat well done (at least in casting).

Most of Kings movies that have been adapted into made for tv movies have sucked royally. HBO would be cool with me though, I would actually buy HBO for the first time in my life

I think we will see it too, I just hope it isn't ruined

I will have to look for the article, but I think I remember hearing that the talisman is definitely going to be made into a movie. That would be cool too, one of my other favorite king books and one that is very closely linked to the Dark Tower.

[Canelek]

The Talisman, I think, was in post-production during the writer strike. It was supposed to be on TNT as a 6 hour miniseries this month, but has been bumped again until this summer or fall.

[Funkmasterr]

The Talisman, I think, was in post-production during the writer strike. It was supposed to be on TNT as a 6 hour miniseries this month, but has been bumped again until this summer or fall.

Fucking made for tv.

Oh well, hopefully they don't do too bad..

[Sylvus]

The Stand was made for tv and is arguably as good an adaptation as any of King's works (granted, I've never read what Shawshank was based on). I'll remain hopeful.

[Funkmasterr]

The Stand was made for tv and is arguably as good an adaptation as any of King's works (granted, I've never read what Shawshank was based on). I'll remain hopeful.

I'll give you that. It's never that they are really bad, or stray too terribly far from the story - it's that so much of the grit and horror that makes them a king novel has to be stripped out.

Edit: On second thought, I guess I am not as skeptical about this as I was at first. What is "acceptable" on network and even cable tv has changed drastically since most of kings movies were adapted, so less should have to be cut out.

Edit edit: I just hope Rev. Wright doesn't play Sunlight Gardner

[Ashur]

See my post about "I Am Legend" for my fears about Hollywood getting near this work.

[Gzette]

I like the idea of a live action HBO miniseries on par with Band of Brothers for the number of episodes. That way we get all the gore and cussing as well as an adequate amount of screen time to really tell the story.