‘The Dark Tower’ Series Not Going Forward At Amazon

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Gerald

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Strangely you would say: if something works as a comic, it would work as a movie too, because both are so visual. But not sure if that's entirely true, because even comics and movies are quite different mediums. Also the scripts for the comics were written especially for the comics. SK never writes a book with a movie in his mind - his books are way too broad and sprawling and feature way too many characters to be ever filmed literally.

But funnily George Martin designed Game of Thrones in a way so he thought it could never be filmed. He was tired of his stories always be filmed the wrong way, so he wanted to write something no one would ever be able to adapt. And it became one of the most successful shows of all time!
It all comes down to finding the right interpreter of the material.

I personally think you can film any written material. Not literally often, but you can always find a way to adapt it in a filmic sense without losing the 'soul' of the original material. In King's case it comes down to the characters: all the successful adaptations had good actors attached. I you can get the essence of his characters on screen you already go a long way.
 

Gerald

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Perhaps not so much The Dark Tower, but a lot of his work is also very anecdotal. A lot of that (if not pretty much all of it) is lost in the adaptations, because you basically can't film that. You can do that in a book, and many writers do it. But in a film that's impossible, because you would get all these short loose scenes - in a film it would seem utterly chaotic.

I'm also surprised not more adaptations have chosen to include the 'voices in characters' heads' that feature so extensively in the books. In the Twilight Zone episode of Gramma it worked very well. But I suppose these kind of voice overs are not considered filmic by most directors. Even in Gerald's Game Mike Flanagan stays away from voice overs, but rather has different actors talk the thoughts directly to each other - and it probably is more filmic in the end. But I personally don't mind voice overs if they're done in a good way.
For example in Silver Bullet I like very much how Jane Coslaw (Megan Follows) tells the story in voice over. It right from the start gives more that sense of many of the books which are told from the point of view of someone 'who has been there when it happened'.
 

Gerald

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BTW: has Mr King said anything about the Pilot yet?

It's not known whether he has seen it. Unless miss Mod knows.
But he was even positive about the film version, so most likely he's positive about this too. I don't think he often gives his full feelings about adaptations (apart from the ones he really likes, like Cujo). I get more the feeling that since he sold the rights of a book or story to a company he wants to make sure they get a chance to be successful, so as a rule he's always positive. The only exception was The Lawnmower Man of course, which he fought against. And Kubrick's The Shining, which he wasn't fond of, but that was well after it was released and the movie pretty much hadn't done well anyway in the cinema.

I signed the petition, but I doubt they'll ever release it. It would be great for fans of the books of course, but it would be pointless to the public in general. Why would they watch a series that only has a pilot and then doesn't go on?
 
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Gerald

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Wow, the photos look great. I'm not sure about adding two women to the Ka-Tet, seems a bit strange. Why would they do that?

I can understand they made them older than in the book, because about 15 does seem young for such a mission. But then there is a tragic love story, and I wonder if King was thinking about Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet was almost 14 and Romeo is generally played as being 16. If such a thing would be believable would depend on the actors of course. I think you can have such a love affair at that age, but it does seem young.

I'm also not sure why they put the start of the Gunslinger first and then move into Hambry from Wizard and Glass. They already introduce Brown (and his bird), so what are they gonna do when they get to the actual events of the Gunslinger? Leave Brown out?

But on the whole it does look and sound good. It really is the kind of material that lends itself to the form of a television series naturally, all the ingredients, intrigue and characters are there for a big extensive story.
 

Edward John

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Wow, the photos look great. I'm not sure about adding two women to the Ka-Tet, seems a bit strange. Why would they do that?

I can understand they made them older than in the book, because about 15 does seem young for such a mission. But then there is a tragic love story, and I wonder if King was thinking about Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet was almost 14 and Romeo is generally played as being 16. If such a thing would be believable would depend on the actors of course. I think you can have such a love affair at that age, but it does seem young.

I'm also not sure why they put the start of the Gunslinger first and then move into Hambry from Wizard and Glass. Tgey already introduce Brown (and his bird), so what are they gonna do when they get to the actual events of the Gunslinger? Leave Brown out?

But on the whole it does look and sound good. It really is the kind of material that lends itself to the form of a television series naturally, all the ingredients, intrigue and characters are there for a big extensive story.
Seems pretty obvious about why women are added to the Ka-Tet, this is 2020 after all, political correctness rules.
 
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Gerald

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Seems pretty obvious about why women are added to the Ka-Tet, this is 2020 after all, political correctness rules.

You're probably right. It's a shame that those kinds of consideration are more important now than the integrity of a story. It's a bit of entertainment, it's not meant to be a political statement.

I wonder if it would impact the way Roland, Cuthbert and Alain bond with each other much. Aileen Ritter (Cort's niece) was also in the comics of course, but she stood out because all the other young student gunslingers were male. But it seems Roland, Cuthbert and Alain had already bonded and were good friends before they went to Hambry, the question is whether they would keep that special friendship (one of King's favourite themes) intact in this adaptation, even with the addition of two females.
 

Edward John

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You're probably right. It's a shame that those kinds of consideration are more important now than the integrity of a story. It's a bit of entertainment, it's not meant to be a political statement.

I wonder if it would impact the way Roland, Cuthbert and Alain bond with each other much. Aileen Ritter (Cort's niece) was also in the comics of course, but she stood out because all the other young student gunslingers were male. But it seems Roland, Cuthbert and Alain had already bonded and were good friends before they went to Hambry, the question is whether they would keep that special friendship (one of King's favourite themes) intact in this adaptation, even with the addition of two females.
Knowing current TV series, Roland would be the idiot who would be saved by his female Ka-Tet members. Probably would make them friends. I really liked Aileen in the Marvel series, she was a woman that acted naturally and didn't always try to act like her male counterparts, something which most writers seem to forget. Acting like a man does not make a woman storng, a woman acting like a strong female character does, and that sums up Aileen.
 
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Edward John

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I don't really care if Ileen and Jaime are black females. 1. The color of skin is not important for the Characters. 2. no matter if dark skin or white, a gunslinger has to be able to use his/her guns and be true to the Ka-tet.
This has nothing to do with that.
 

Roland of Germany

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Thank you for posting this. That review sounds like the pilot is quite good. I'm still hopeful another studio will pick this up.
You're welcome. Also check out the Kingcast podcast episode 3 from Birthmoviesdeath website. Glen Mazzara goes into detail a lot regarding how he had it planned out. I really hope we get to see the pilot one day. It hurts me to go such a beautiful and true to waste into abyss. I mean, would it hurt amazon to release it? no, as the money has already been spent. Those who are interested in it would love to see it. I mean just look at the number of people who have signed the petition already -link in previous post of mine-. There is still a demand for it.
 

Gerald

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Knowing current TV series, Roland would be the idiot who would be saved by his female Ka-Tet members. Probably would make them friends. I really liked Aileen in the Marvel series, she was a woman that acted naturally and didn't always try to act like her male counterparts, something which most writers seem to forget. Acting like a man does not make a woman storng, a woman acting like a strong female character does, and that sums up Aileen.


I liked Aileen a lot in the comics too. But I wonder if she will be true to that in the pilot of the series, I mean they already spell the name differently.