I am both terrified and super-excited about
The Dark Tower in equal measures. On the one hand, I'm on cloud nine over Universal and NBC (not HBO as I originally wrote!) collaborating on an unprecedented adaptation of
Stephen King's magnum opus fantasy series that will result in three full length feature films, and two television seasons covering King's seven book tome and expanded comics universe. The ambitions of the production match the ambitions of King's novels and it just feels like the right way to handle the dense material. On the other hand, I am nervous as hell about the creative team behind this one. Whereas I do genuinely like
Ron Howard as a filmmaker and he has a better hit ratio over misfires, I can't help but think he works much better with non-fiction, character driven and grounded universes (
Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, Cinderella Man) than elaborate fiction (
The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons) and there's nothing much on his CV to say he can bring the imaginative, part Western/part Sci-Fi/part Magic & Myth world to life in the way that a
Guillermo del Toro or
Peter Jackson could have. Or indeed Lost creators
J.J. Abrams and
Damon Lindelof who were previously attached to the property. I'm also not crazy about screenwriter
Akiva Goldsman and his track record of lacking that extra spark in his writing that brings his otherwise well disciplined screenplays to life. Though he has certainly come along way recently from those
Batman & Robin and
Lost in Space late 90's days... and he did do an admirable job of adapting another one of my favourite books of all time, Richard Matheson's
I Am Legend, the Will Smith movie which I will argue until I'm blue in the face is a very good attempt at adapting that novel for screen. But the fact remains, we could have gotten A LOT WORSE. All of us collectively want to see these King novels adapted the right way, so we should stick by Goldsman & Howard over the years to come. At the end of the day, we are only ever going to get one shot at this, nobody will reboot the franchise if it doesn't work...
A big film version of
The Gunslinger will kick things off in 2013 and it's the series' highpoint as King lays down the groundwork for Roland's journey to the elusive dark tower as he evades the mysterious The Man in Black. If you haven't yet read
The Gunslinger then now really is the time to jump on board. I can guarantee it will blow your mind and ignite a frenzied creative spin on your brain as King asks you to consider so many questions and ideas in the book... you truly have no idea where the rest of the journey will take you. I became hooked by the first line, which immediately starts King's process of asking you to think "why is he doing that? what's happening? where did they come from?" - which never seems to end as the universe expands...
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed'.
Hopefully when that film proves to be a success, we will soon see the t.v. season follow and then another big movie, another t.v. series, before a final film finishes the whole thing off. This epic multi-platform narrative is not something we've ever seen any studio attempt before and it's quite breathtaking in scope. Quite simply, history in the making.
A few days ago Howard spoke to
The L.A. Times and it's clear he is becoming as obsessive a fan about The Dark Tower series as we are. Perhaps the most telling quote of all being when he reveals that screenwriter Akiva Goldsman first pitched the thought of adapting this series whilst they were both making
A Beautiful Mind ten years ago and that it took them a WHOLE YEAR to prep their pitch for an adaptation before he sent a telegram to Stephen King!
I really cant stop thinking about it... Weve been meeting and talking and Ive been reading and researching and just kind of living with it. Ive been constantly going through stuff and Ive just been re-listening to it on my iPod and weve been sending e-mails back and forth, What about this approach? What do you think of this idea? Were finding the shape of it. Were moving quickly now, as quickly as we can, and I feel challenged in the most exciting ways.
You know who he reminds me of here?
Peter Jackson, Christopher Nolan, Jon Favreau and
Sam Raimi. All these creative types spoke in the same way, with that hunger and determination behind their voices before they tackled those intimidatingly loved franchises (LOTR, Batman, Iron Man & Spider-Man respectively) before bringing them to the big screen and it's very encouraging. After all, you have to be obsessively dedicated and a serious fan of these novels to spend the best part of a decade thinking about how you could bring them to the screen. Although we won't see The Dark Tower until 2013 and we are probably a good year away from any casting ramping up, Howard seems to already be thinking about who might fill the boots of his Gunslinger, written in the novels as
'Clint Eastwood circa 1966'. Howard acknowledges that the online fan forum favourite seems to be
Viggo Mortensen, which we all agree would be spectacular casting, but then the problem Howard has of course with Mortensen and any actor (whether famous or not) is how you get them to commit to such a long schedule that will take up YEARS AND YEARS of their life. Can you imagine the amount of hours of filming that it must take to bring two t.v. seasons and three films to life! Way more than Daniel Radcliffe's time on Harry Potter and indeed more than Viggo's own time spent playing Aragon for LOTR. Still, Mortensen has a face that tells a thousand stories and when you see his look in post-apocalyptic film
The Road, he has the haggard, world-weary, "I've seen the end of days and survived, just" look that Roland is described as having throughout the journey to The Dark Tower...
The L.A. Times also mention
Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman and
Jon Hamm as the most talked about by fans. The latter two names I would go gaga over but the fact remains it's probably going to be an unknown or lesser known actor who is able to make this kind of commitment. It's going to be a long journey to the beginnings of The Dark Tower. This is very much just the start of it... isn't it all exciting?