Stephen King shares a new update on The Dark Tower adaptation. King’s fantasy western spans eight novels, and one short story that were published between 1982 and 2012. The epic series follows Roland Deschain and his Ka-tet as they journey across Mid-World to find the Dark Tower. After successfully translating multiple King works, writer/director Mike Flanagan is currently developing the upcoming Dark Tower series after the 2017 movie adaptation failed to connect with audiences and flopped at the box office.
In an interview with The Kingcast, King shares that he has read some of the screenplays and has been pitched ideas from Flanagan. King praises the work that has been done up to this point, saying that Flanagan begins the story where it should start and that “the beats are perfect.” King also jokes in the same interview that Flanagan is “the King Whisperer.”
“I’ve seen screenplays and pitches, and he starts where he should start, and the beats are perfect. Just perfect.”
What This Means For The Dark Tower
Flanagan Has Had Success Adapting King
King’s positive update bodes well for Flanagan’s adaptation. Flanagan has successfully adapted what would seem to be nearly impossible King novels with Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. This is a great sign for The Dark Tower, as it’s a series that defies genre and will have to be a Herculean undertaking to get right. King also clearly has faith in Flanagan in adapting his work as Flanagan directed the upcoming Life of Chuck and is working on a retelling of Carrie as a limited series.
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A major factor in the earlier Dark Tower movie failing was how far it strayed from the novels and didn’t hit the right beats. The movie does start with the correct choice of having King’s famous line “The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed” and has a compelling scene of Jake training with Roland, but the rest of the movie falls flat. The movie tried to take elements from across the entire book series and put them into one short 95-minute movie, and it didn’t connect with Dark Tower fans or viewers coming to it for the first time.
Our Take On King’s Dark Tower Update
Flanagan Is The Best Person To Adapt The Novels
Flanagan clearly has a reverence for King’s novels and is the best person to be working on The Dark Tower. He previously snuck a Dark Tower reference into Doctor Sleep where Dick Hallorann utters the line often repeated in the books “Ka is a wheel.” After the movie spent years in development hell, I was disappointed with the finished product and thought all hopes of seeing a proper adaptation may have disappeared. Now that another is in the works, I have complete faith in Flanagan to see The Dark Tower through, and King giving his stamp of approval makes it all the more exciting.
Source: The Kingcast
The Dark Tower
- Upcoming TV Shows
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The Dark Tower
- Character(s)
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Roland Deschain, The Man in Black, Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Oy, The Crimson King, Stephen Deschain, Sayre, Tirana
Summary
The Dark Tower is a multimedia franchise based on Stephen King’s epic series of eight novels. The story follows Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers, as he embarks on a quest to reach the Dark Tower, a mystical structure that stands at the center of all worlds and realities. The series blends elements of dark fantasy, horror, science fiction, and Western genres. Over the years, the franchise has expanded beyond the original books to include a film, comic books, and upcoming TV adaptations, making it one of King’s most ambitious and interconnected works.