Yeh - gotcha flake - it was the shortest i could find on net
Well, this is unexpected, but I can dig it!
- Thread starter raggedyman79
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Frank Muller was the BEST audiobook reader. Unfortunately, he's also dead, so I don't think he'd be a good choice for Roland.
Definitely aware of this, thanks though...
And yet Thor is now a woman and there has been a black Spiderman!
Someone here doesn't like stew!
And with that, my part in this palaver is done and it's time to get back on the Beam Trail.
Long days and pleasant days everyone!
Long days and pleasant nights
King also wanted Jake Gyllenhaal as Stu Redman. Willowy, marshmallow Jake Gyllenhaal.
MyLife4YouSK
Faithful to her King.....
I'm coming out of lurkdom to post on this thread..............................
I am absolutely stunned by Steve's Tweet saying he doesn't care who plays Roland. This is his baby. He should care the most! How they can cast anyone who doesn't resemble Clint Eastwood even in the slightest is beyond me. And like Scott, I'm most certainly not racist and am offended that people are accusing us of being so for voicing our opinions on this casting change. It's ludicrous. Why can't we respect the source material? This is a beloved & epic story we Constant Readers have followed for years!! I wasn't a fan of Javier Bardem either and I would be just as offended if they got Drew Barrymore to play Susannah. Or if they changed Jake to a girl. These are major changes. KWIM?
Btw, Shawshank is not the same and don't get me started on UTD. lol. Hile Wordslinger to me! I would love to hear more from ya on this topic.,say thank ya.
Respectfully yours, fan of plus 30 yrs., CJ
I am absolutely stunned by Steve's Tweet saying he doesn't care who plays Roland. This is his baby. He should care the most! How they can cast anyone who doesn't resemble Clint Eastwood even in the slightest is beyond me. And like Scott, I'm most certainly not racist and am offended that people are accusing us of being so for voicing our opinions on this casting change. It's ludicrous. Why can't we respect the source material? This is a beloved & epic story we Constant Readers have followed for years!! I wasn't a fan of Javier Bardem either and I would be just as offended if they got Drew Barrymore to play Susannah. Or if they changed Jake to a girl. These are major changes. KWIM?
Btw, Shawshank is not the same and don't get me started on UTD. lol. Hile Wordslinger to me! I would love to hear more from ya on this topic.,say thank ya.
Respectfully yours, fan of plus 30 yrs., CJ
He does cares but the qualities he considers vital have to do with attributes that are not superficial external ones.
Shawshank is exactly the same and I suspect that if it were being made today and Morgan Freeman was being announced as playing Red, internet reactions would sadly be the same.
Also respectfully another fan for 30plus years - though I don't believe seniorty makes our opinions more valid than those with less years.
Haha - you've been duped!
It was all just a ploy to pull you from under your stone... Gotcha..
It is actually Clint eastwoods so who has been given the part of Roland , so we can all rest easy
Unfortunately, due to a typo Elba is actually playing the part of odetta and has been in talks with the big momma 3 director
Welcome back
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
Haha - you've been duped!
It was all just a ploy to pull you from under your stone... Gotcha..
It is actually Clint eastwoods so who has been given the part of Roland , so we can all rest easy
Unfortunately, due to a typo Elba is actually playing the part of odetta and has been in talks with the big momma 3 director
Welcome back
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
He needs a better cowboy hat - maybe a black one?
Yeah and while they're at it they should change the tower colour to white!
Yeh, in all seriousness- For me personally - what was meant to be a fantastic announcement for fans of the story, has turned into the biggest downer I can ever remember having.Petty arguments of personal choices have been great over the years, and my own gunslinger has changed several times ( but never viggo)
I even had Kirk Douglas down for a rough outsider. (I know)
But now I have a sour taste in my mouth, bitter with resentment of the casting choice- just because somebody has decided to ignore every depiction and drawing skilfully crafted in each edition of the books and graphic illustration I have bought.
Now I'm being told to ignore them all!
Now I'm being told they meant nothing?
"To me, the color of the gunslinger doesn't matter. What I care about is how fast he can draw...and that he takes care of the ka-tet."
Really?
Do you really want me to believe this?
All the iconic images I have of Roland holding aloft his sigul on Jericho Hill, or slinging his sandalwood guns at the harriers, or holding his dying comrades in his arms, have built up a character in my head so vivid and real as I read Sai kings work, that i actually got to believing he was real.(I know)
SK said long tall haunted him every day to finish the story after his life threatening accident, so surely he can't say his character of the gunslinger doesn't matter.
It always does -
Look at dr who
How many folk this season have said - that's not my doctor who- And just switched off the tv no matter how many shiny baubles and explosions?
Quite a lot if you look at the figures - which is a pity - because Capaldi is awesome.
So when I look at Elba - I think - he isn't my Gunslinger!
I'm afraid my tv will be switched off no matter the special effects.
I like my doctor the way he is in my head.
Hey old darth -
Did you not enjoy the whole drawing if the three dynamics with the racist detta out for the white boys - it's quite important for the story, and would be a pity to lose it.
The qualities lost there would be pretty intense for the whole relationship.
So if that element is likely to go-what else will be forgotten - will rolands succubus assault scenes be deemed unimportant and be removed ? Mordrid? Lose him. The whole rhea and Delgado meet for the first time? Lose it. The naked gunslinger holding his dead brothers head . Lose it ! I realise the need for cut down and change - but when casting ignores basics I start worrying about storylines big time.
I'd love to know if Elba read the story and who he pictured as Roland .
Hell maybe I got it wrong- maybe fat folk pictured john candy, maybe German guys had the Hoff in mind. Or jackie chan fans - Maybe Nicholas cage read himself into the role- he does for most movies. Will smith too.
Truth is I never pictured us arguing about the colour of the character- I really thought it was a given because that was what we were shown.
Man I gotta quit sounding off - I'm really boring myself.
I'm off to read the casting of cell...
Everyone, Idris Elba has not been cast as Roland. A press release states he is in the running. Press releases are often complete bullshit that turn into nothing. Even though King commented on it, I have yet to see an article stating he is officially cast.
I'm sorry, there's a difference of opinion and then there's just being wrong. I hate to get argumentative on a message board, but I can't agree with this at all.
First, while color is nine times out of ten a superficial external issue, in this case it is not, and it is because the racial and cultural dynamic of the Ka-tet is very important to the characters. Yes, even after Odetta/Detta becomes Susannah, her status as a black Civil Rights activist from the 60's now bound to three white males informs a good deal of her actions and thought processes.
Second, no, Shawshank is not at all the same situation, and I resent the implication that I would have had the same problem with Freeman as Red that I do with Elba as Roland. I love Morgan Freeman, and this is one of my favorite performances of his. It's been explained over and over why the situation isn't the same on this thread but you're not getting it. Red, as much as we love Freeman's take on the role, was just a character. Roland has become an icon. When a character reaches icon status, you don't go screwing around with them just 'cuz. You don't change their name. You don't change their gender. You don't change their sexual preferences. You don't change their race. Hell, you don't change their eye color. There's a reason why Peter Jackson didn't add Arwen to the Fellowship or change one of the Fellowship from male to female despite the lack of female representation within that group. It's because with a book like LOTR, which has become iconic in itself, you change as little as possible.
I was just as against the casting of white actors like Christian Bale and Russell Crowe because they were just plain wrong for the part, white skin and all. My chief objection to Javier Bardem was that he was too classically handsome and sexy to play weather-beaten Roland.
Would you have no objection to Paul Edgecomb or one of the other guards in The Green Mile being a black man? If you don't, you apparently don't care about being true to the time period and area the book is set in.
For what it's worth, I have a blog where I'm casting a number of films based on Sai King's writing. I have changed a number of white characters' races thus far, and I'm sure more are coming. So clearly I don't have a problem with the changing of race in general.
Iconic characters have been recast, Starbuck, Spiderman etc so I don't see how that gives Roland exclusion. Also iconic characters are ones that have permeated the public consciousness so that even Joe Public knows who they are. Everyone knows who Superman, Batman, Spiderman is etc but it would be very surprising if very many people outside of King fandom knows who Roland is.
Right now, thanks to Morgan Freeman's marvellous performance and that way more people watch movies than read books, Red is more of an iconic character than Roland. More people know who Red is than who Roland is.
I agree with you on Paul Edgecomb because that is a story set in a real world setting where a black prison guard in that time era is highly unlikely. (At least none that I'm aware of anyhow.) And the example of Edgecomb in the Green Mile is an excellent example of why such apple to oranges comparisons do not work with stories. Each one must be analyzed by its setting, content, and if there are any distinctive racial qualities of characters that require them to be of a specific type.
The Green Mile, even though it contains fantastical elments, takes place in a real world setting.
The Dark Tower story does not. It takes place in a fantastical setting where infinite possibilities and combinations of realities are possible. Specifically Roland comes from another world and as such the restrictions on what the character has to be are far more flexible.
Sorry, apples and oranges.
Starbuck was hardly an "iconic" character. He was a Han Solo knockoff from a lame 70's sci-fi series that was a guilty pleasure at best. The Spider-Man comparison is even sillier; Marvel did not turn Peter Parker black but created a legacy character named Miles Morales who was black. Hardly the same as taking the same character and just deciding he should be black now so they can cast Idris Elba.
As for Red being an iconic character, nope, sorry. It was an iconic performance in Freeman's career, and should be remembered, but even today if you ask CR's, or even the general public, to name their top ten favorite Stephen King characters, I doubt Red would make anyone's list. Now, if the list was "top ten Morgan Freeman performances", that's a different story. When it comes to no one outside CR's knowing who Roland is, again, I disagree. Thanks to Marvel's Gunslinger comics and hype about the upcoming movie, many people know who Roland is, and for that matter, speaking as a fan of general fantasy, I can tell you right now that there are many fantasy fans who don't read horror but have read this series. I have seen umpteen different "favorite fantasy series" lists on fantasy message boards and The Dark Tower makes many of them.
Your final conclusion leaves out the fact that while Roland doesn't come from our world, and the main story takes place in his, Eddie, Susannah and Jake do come from our world, or at least one so similar to ours as to be comparable on almost every level. Odetta Holmes is a Civil Rights activist and Detta Walker is a militant anti-white. Even once her two selves reconcile and she becomes Susannah, her background in activism and black/white relations informs many aspects of her character. She's a strong, smart black woman who has had to deal with a triumvirate of issues; being black, being a woman and being a cripple, and all in the 1960's, a pretty horrible time to be any of those things. And then she's yanked out of that world into one she doesn't recognize and it's a scary white man who's done this to her.
So, yes, race matters in this story and setting. Sorry, you're still wrong.
There is no right or wrong in these situations only our subjective viewpoints.
So sorry right back at you as we both have our viewpoint which we both believe is right.
One note - message boards of any type constitute only a very minor portion of the overall public.
Bool!
The end.
So sorry right back at you as we both have our viewpoint which we both believe is right.
One note - message boards of any type constitute only a very minor portion of the overall public.
Bool!
The end.