5 Cinematic Universes That Failed Miserably

Stephen King's veritable stranglehold on the horror industry has been a source of inspiration for many. With the release of It last year smashing box office records and The Shining holding a place in influential movie history, King really is the king when it comes to killer stories making their mark on the industry.

So, you'd have thought it'd made sense to turn his longest running series into a sprawling movie world then, transforming eight books, 20 years of writing, and countless other interconnected stories into a cinematic universe for those with darker tastes - starting with The Dark Tower - and introducing a whole new audience to the novel's established world one film at a time. Yes, that would have made perfect sense. But of course, it isn't what happened.

Instead, they made some weird quasi-sequel that begged, borrowed, and stole from its source material then bastardised it into something unappealing to both fans and newcomers alike. Good going Sony. With King lovers let down and moviegoers confused and underwhelmed, it's really no surprise this universe fell flat on its face.

There is, however, talks of more TV content coming as an attempt to rectify the initial mistakes, which with the source material as strong as it is and King on hand with some solid alterations; they can surely only learn from this monumental f*ck up.