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Dark Tower fans

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by bigpern23, Jan 13, 2011.

  1. Jersey_Guy

    Jersey_Guy Active Member

    It's going to be hard to do it well.
     
  2. JakeandElwood

    JakeandElwood Well-Known Member

    Just downloaded the first book to my Kindle. I'm interested in checking this stuff out after looking at this thread.
     
  3. John

    John Well-Known Member

    Indeed. That's why I likely won't ever see any of the films. Those books are so special to me (well, most of them) that I don't want to mess with the image of Roland & Co. I have in my head.
     
  4. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    VERY hard ... it's such a sprawling story. I imagine the flashbacks to Roland's youth will make up the content of the television series between the trilogy films.

    I'm also not sure how well meeting the writer (which I thought was the weakest part of the series) will translate to the screen. That whole part seemed either self-serving or as if King just didn't have any ideas following his accident, I could never quite decide which. If they can mostly drop that from the story, I wouldn't miss it.

    Bardem would be a solid choice for Roland, I think. I'd like to see Christoph Waltz as The Man in Black (I always kind of pictured Max von Sydow, but he's probably too old by now ... not sure if he's even acting anymore) and perhaps Nona Gaye for the part of Susannah.

    Eddie is a tough one. I wouldn't mind seeing Tom Hardy from 'Inception.' His star is rising, but he'd make a strong choice for the supporting role.
     
  5. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    One of the biggest challenges, I think, will be finding a tone that's consistent across the three movies and two television series. The series crosses such vastly different worlds and times that maintaining a style that fits them all, instead of having three movies that look completely different and two TV series that don't match up, will be extremely difficult.
     
  6. kokane_muthashed

    kokane_muthashed Active Member

    When I read the series back in the '90s, I always pictured Whoopi as Susannah. Haha. :p
     
  7. YGBFKM

    YGBFKM Guest

    What's Dark Tower?
     
  8. farmerjerome

    farmerjerome Active Member

    I can't believe I missed this. I picked up "The Wastelands" as an eighth-grader because Steven King was becoming cool. I couldn't put it down. That book completely facinated me, and it killed me that the next book didn't come out for like seven years.

    If this happens, I'll be like those Lord of the Rings geeks.
     
  9. HC

    HC Well-Known Member

    For me, the casting of Susannah is crucial.
     
  10. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Series of Stephen King fantasy books. I believe he began writing them during his drug-induced phase in the late '70s. May be wrong on that, but I know the initial press run for the books was very, very small. He published them via some small house in New England (Donald Grant?). I only know this b/c my Dad was on a major King kick when I was 9 or 10 and somehow found out these books existed (still not sure how he did that in 1983) and ordered them. He got a personalized letter from King in return. He threw it out. Even back then I thought that was a terrible move by my famously non-sentimental Dad.

    Anyway, King's fame eventually earned the books a wider audience.
     
  11. As much as I loved (most of) this series, I'm half convinced it was partially a marketing move on King's part. I had probably read three other King books before reading the Dark Tower stuff, and then because of all the character and plot tie-ins, I had to go read about 25 more over the next two years.

    The worst part is, I find most of his books painful to read. The plot is there, but it's so muddled in minutia. He's a master at knowing just how many pages of crap you're willing to read before unfolding a peek at something awesome, then he does it all over again. Right before you're about to give up, he drops some gorey scene in there that keeps you reading for another 75 pages waiting for something else good to happen, like he gets paid by the word. And I've never understood why he has to write 10-30 pages more than what's needed after the climax and what feels like a natural resolution to the story.

    Anyway, why let a good thread die? What was all y'all's favorite in the Tower series? Here are my rankings...

    1) Wolves of the Calla

    (Nos. 2-6 ranked very closely, could almost be interchangeable)

    2) The Dark Tower
    3) Songs of Susannah
    4) The Wastelands
    5) The Gunslinger
    6) The Drawing of the Three

    (About 10 miles between Nos. 6 and 7)

    7) Wizard and Glass
     
  12. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Very tough to rank them ... Plus, it's been so long since I started reading the series, I think the later stories would get an unfair advantage in my rankings.
     
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