ROTTEN TOMATOES: J.J. Abrams to Climb Stephen King's "Dark Tower"

J.J. Abrams to Climb Stephen King's "Dark Tower"

by Scott Weinberg | February 15, 2007

Well, here's a book (ok, series of books) that I've been waiting to see on the big screen for what seems like an eternity. Actually this project might hit the small screen. It's a little confusing, but producer J.J. Abrams will definitely be involved.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Abrams and Stephen King will bring the author's "Dark Tower" series to the cinemas (with Paramount) or to your TV screen (with Warner Bros.)

All we seem to know for sure is that A) Stephen King really loves Abrams' TV show "Lost," and B) the "Dark Tower" series is certainly ripe for some kind of visual adaptation. How large the scope will be remains to be seen.

What do you guys think? A TV series? A mini-series? A movie followed by two sequels and a prequel? How would you turn King's (awesome but pretty darn weird) "Tower" books into a movie/TV show?

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(1-20 of 35 posts) | Reply

lucidslumber writes:
on Feb 15 2007 04:33 AM

[b]theres something......[/b]
i really feel is good 'bout this....i think abrams n' king could be wonderboys on this stuff......ZOLTAN!!!!

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GreenBastard writes:
on Feb 15 2007 05:15 AM

I agree! I've read some Dark Tower and I think J.J. Abrams would definatly do it justice.
I'd love to see it with a huge budget but it's not like TV series's arnt awsome these days too. It has some huge potential!

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AstroZombie138 writes:
on Feb 15 2007 05:24 AM

A movie, 2 sequels and a prequel??? There are SEVEN books!

Anyway, however they do it, they better make it GOOD.

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mojodaddy writes:
on Feb 15 2007 05:32 AM

Lost has been losing me lately, and I've watched faithfully from the beginning. It's all about the heroes now.

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Shatter24 writes:
on Feb 15 2007 06:01 AM

TV series or several mini-series, feels like the way to go with this. There are only a few set big action pieces per long book. All the details and information about the characters would come in better through television, than action packed movie. But I don't know, we'll have to see, as long Abrams is attached. Still it will be interesting to see how they do everything in the books, regarding copyright laws. I cites many of his own books as well as other pop culture references (like Harry Potter), will that info make it on screen?

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DiscoDan writes:
on Feb 15 2007 06:32 AM

I'm sick of TV adaptations, make it a collection of films!

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brave.sir.rob writes:
on Feb 15 2007 06:34 AM

This material is way too complicated for a big screen adaptation - they'll have to to chop and rearrange too much to make it fit, even if they get a trilogy. Not that I think the books couldn't use trimming, and I'd bet "Wizard and Glass" gets the classic Lost flashback treatment rather than its own feature, but it would lose a lot if they tried to condense it for film.

I've been a huge Dark Tower fan for years but I've been more nervous about them doing this than I've been excited. It's just so cerebral - making the transition to screen will be difficult at best. Though, if anyone can do it, it's Abrams...

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Brad 3000 writes:
on Feb 15 2007 06:59 AM

[b]hmmm[/b]
King just said in the last EW that he wasn't going to let anyone do The Dark Tower, unless maybe Peter Jackson made up with New Line and they gave him a billion dollars to make the movies with. Now one week later and he's made a deal?

My guess as to the typr of project is a big screen movie series based directly on the books with a TV series spinoff that is some kind of side story.

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frogleg writes:
on Feb 15 2007 07:30 AM

Hmmm... I hate when people get on here and have knee-jerk negative reactions to announcements, but this is something I've thought about a lot. I've always thought an adaptation would be interesting, but most likely impossible. I just don't know that there's any way to even approach the quality of the series. I think unless it was a series on HBO or Showtime, it would have to be severely neutered for TV. But in order for justice to be done to it on the big screen, I think no less than the LotR treatment would suffice.
I hate to say it, but King's stuff doesn't have the best track record for adaptation. And this one seems much more difficult than most.
To be honest, I almost would think an animated series would work well if the budget wasn't there for a full-on epic live action movie. But I'd hope it would have stellar voice acting.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Feb 15 2007 08:21 AM

In reply to this comment (#855888)
I think Mr. King has kind of a love hate relationship with fans. On one hand I think he really enjoys bringing folks along for the ride and knowing his works touch a lot of peoples lives, but hates all the speculation and guesswork fans try to do and how they feel like he owes them certain things. The kind of misdirection you descibed sounds just about right and I for one am glad for it. As it's creator he can do with it what he wants and doesn't owe us an explanation one way or another. Plus I kinda like the surprise. We don't need to have everything announced 5 years in advance. I'd actually kinda like to see once people be smart enough to keep something a secret until a few months before it's released. That way it's not ruined by endless fan speculation and "insider info" being leaked.

P.S. I'm well aware of how hypocritical that sounds on a website dedicated to movie news, but keep in mind I just said sometimes.

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Bigbrother writes:
on Feb 15 2007 08:25 AM

In reply to this comment (#855883)
Yeah, but keep in mind the first book could easily be an opening 25 minutes of a movie. So much of the books is detail and description that can translate itself much faster to film. I'm more concerned about how they're going to address the changes that Roland goes thru from start to finish in such a compacted medium as film. Roland is definately not the same character at the end as he was at the beginning and you didn't really object over the 25 years it took from first book to last, but I'm not sure if they're going to be able to achieve that with 7 or 8 hours of film. Might just seem a bit off.

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phoenixphire24 writes:
on Feb 15 2007 08:41 AM

I love this book series. Although I'd love to see it on the big screen, I'd have to say that a mini-series would probably work better for this series. Many of the books are made up of a)lots of dialogue that can be trimmed and b)description. I can't really see them smushing all the material into a set of movies.

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Vitamin M writes:
on Feb 15 2007 09:07 AM

This seems more like a finite tv series then a movie trilogy of course I'm only on the 5th book in the series...anyway love them so far and I love JJ so this is fine with me!
but I really want to see the Talisman. Maybe what they should do is make a TV series that tells The Dark Tower story and every Steve King story that has any relation to the Dark Tower mixed in...

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synergyred writes:
on Feb 15 2007 10:16 AM

I think that a mini series, or a series of mini-series, would be the best way to go with these.

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aaronboedeker writes:
on Feb 15 2007 10:22 AM

Best way to do it is on HBO. If only to show how brutal Roland is in the first book, wiping out that whole town. If you don't capture that, you won't get the ending (which I won't mention for those who haven't finished the series).

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Silverence writes:
on Feb 15 2007 10:53 AM

oh god. i pray this doesn't happen. the gunslinger (pre-revisit) was fantastic, the drawing of the three was even pretty damn good but it became a slippery slope really quickly. I honestly don't think the plot of the books is cohesive enough, at all, to make some sort of adaptation from them. seriously think about it. how are you going to start with a mysterious post apocalyptic western (kinda), do the whole blaine thing, then fight dr. dooms in the calla THEN end it the way the series ended?! it was just way too all over the place for someone to get just by watching it.

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ARFoskey writes:
on Feb 15 2007 11:54 AM

In reply to this comment (#855881)
I think this is the worst idea ever. Not so much the tv or mini series, or even a film itself. But J.J. Abrams???? C'mon! I am not a fan of "lost" or "MI:3", and I certainly don't want to risk a series I love as much as the Dark Tower on him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! King and co. can do so much better....so much better. In fact, I would go and cast Joel Schumaker.....one of the worst directors of all time, and have him do the Dark Tower series over J.J. Abram

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AstroZombie138 writes:
on Feb 15 2007 01:54 PM

In reply to this comment (#855895)
YES, HBO is the way to go with this. I have to agree with Silverence, though. The books got a little out of hand after King's hiatus. I still liked the series as a whole, but the last three books just have a completely different feel, kinda like the Star Wars prequels.

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nmk01 writes:
on Feb 15 2007 02:06 PM

If you think the story can't get the treatment it deserves...check out the DT comic books that Marvel developed w/ Stephen King. They're doing a total of 7, and the first was released last week. A-Maze-ing. I have read these books and always thought that there was NO way that the story could be told in an abbreviated format, but the first comic is beautiful, and the story is told chronologically, so...I say give it a chance. King has always said that Roland's story is his opus, and I'm sure he won't let anyone butcher it the way Hollywood usually butchers his books.

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Drunkpostingftw writes:
on Feb 15 2007 05:37 PM

This will never happen.

(Reply to this)

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