Support NeoGAF

[Tony Redgrave]

I think the book's reputation for being complex is exaggerated. The story itself is pretty doable. The sets and locations were bigger challenges and Lynch did a pretty good job artistically.

I have some faith.

Dune, the original book, is completely doable. The tricks IMO are being super faithful to the source material, forgetting the monologues, knowing where to trim and being able to convey the essential lore elements in an organic way.

Dune's perfect adaptation would be a super expensive HBO series though, but I trust Villeneuve.

 

[Bits N Pieces]

Kings books to film adaptations are either masterpieces or total bombs, such a weird one.

 

[Father_Brain]

I am extremely shocked to hear that a film that had minimal marketing until a few months release despite big-name stars and runs only 95 minutes despite the scope of the source material had a very troubled production.

 

[Hilbert]

Nah. Stephen gives no fucks about these movies. He casheh that check, and probably gets a nice bump in book sales.

Does he still get walk on roles?

Actually, I guess, when was the last time he actually got that? The Shining Miniseries?

 

[Salmonax]

To ever successfully make the transition to the big screen, the Dark Tower series needs its Peter Jackson: a hardcore lifelong fan who's also a proven filmmaker with the dedication to let the project nearly ruin his life and the charisma to rally countless others behind the project.

That individual may or may not ever materialize, but that's what it needs.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

Sony is flying critics across the world right now in a private jet in promotion of this film, and feeding them lobster rolls.

They scared.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Well that is exciting news. This last trailer looked especially good. Hopefully it will wash away some of the bad taste when I begrudgingly see The Dark Tower. Any idea how much of the story was left over from Cary?

This is a thing I can speak to myself: I've read two different drafts of the screenplay, one from before Fukunaga left, and one after.

I not only preferred the one after he left, but I thought it worked better both as an adaptation of the material, and as a blueprint to the film. It wasn't a vast improvement - Fukunaga's film would have been amazing to watch, and the script he wrote was very good. But I thought the changes made after his departure were, amazingly (I did not think this would be the case before I started reading) to the betterment of the project.

The big question is whether that script got excuted well. It seems likely that it did based on that early screening word of mouth, but it's also up in the air as to whether it'll play that way for you or me when we're finally sitting down in front of it.

 

[Kill3r7]

To ever successfully make the transition to the big screen, the Dark Tower series needs its Peter Jackson: a hardcore lifelong fan who's also a proven filmmaker with the dedication to let the project nearly ruin his life and the charisma to rally countless others behind the project.

That individual may or may not ever materialize, but that's what it needs.

Ditto, although there is the underlying issue that the work itself might arguably be a notch or two below LOTR.

 

[BoogieWoogie]

This is a thing I can speak to myself: I've read two different drafts of the screenplay, one from before Fukunaga left, and one after.

I not only preferred the one after he left, but I thought it worked better both as an adaptation of the material, and as a blueprint to the film. It wasn't a vast improvement - Fukunaga's film would have been amazing to watch, and the script he wrote was very good. But I thought the changes made after his departure were, amazingly (I did not think this would be the case before I started reading) to the betterment of the project.

The big question is whether that script got excuted well. It seems likely that it did based on that early screening word of mouth, but it's also up in the air as to whether it'll play that way for you or me when we're finally sitting down in front of it.

Would have loved to see Fukunaga's Pennywise in live action that's for sure:

 

[Sullichin]

Does he still get walk on roles?

Actually, I guess, when was the last time he actually got that? The Shining Miniseries?

He had cameos in Langoliers and Under the Dome, and probably others I'm forgetting

 

[TetraGenesis]

This is a thing I can speak to myself: I've read two different drafts of the screenplay, one from before Fukunaga left, and one after.

I not only preferred the one after he left, but I thought it worked better both as an adaptation of the material, and as a blueprint to the film. It wasn't a vast improvement - Fukunaga's film would have been amazing to watch, and the script he wrote was very good. But I thought the changes made after his departure were, amazingly (I did not think this would be the case before I started reading) to the betterment of the project.

The big question is whether that script got excuted well. It seems likely that it did based on that early screening word of mouth, but it's also up in the air as to whether it'll play that way for you or me when we're finally sitting down in front of it.

Could you point to a few things that you thought worked better in the post-Fukunaga script?

I don't have a ton of faith in the current director (ready to be surprised) but that does assuage some of my fears about the screenplay.

 

[TwoDurans]

Wait, this isn't going to be good? The trailers are great.

 

[Billy_Pilgrim]

How do you fuck up a fantasy jedi cowboy story ffs

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Could you point to a few things that you thought worked better in the post-Fukunaga script?

Not off the top of my head, no. it's been awhile and I didn't take any notes or anything (not meant to be snarky, just explaining why my memory of it is fuzzy beyond "holy shit I actually like this one better.")

it just felt a little closer to the book, both tonally and plotwise. IIRC, Fukunaga's script didn't even have Stan Uris as a character. Also I believe Fukunaga's ending was sorta weird/inscrutable (even for an IT adaptation).

 

[jon bones]

ohh this is done by Sony? good, good...

 

[CrichtonKicks]

Nah. Stephen gives no fucks about these movies. He casheh that check, and probably gets a nice bump in book sales.

IIRC he sold the film rights for The Dark Tower for $1.

 

[Nydius]

Still, people remember endings, and the general ending is a pretty big misfire in my opinion. The lead up to it wasn't so hot either, and it does sort of sour the entire legacy if you didn't like it.

Agreed. Three more recent stories by King left me soured on King as a whole solely due to their endings. The Dark Tower in 2004, Under the Dome in 2009, and 11/22/63 in 2011. My reaction to the endings of all three of those was to ask, "I spent all that time becoming invested in the story and characters for that shit?" This was especially true for The Dark Tower series given how lengthy the series was, how many years it spanned, and how many characters there were.

That's why anytime I hear about a new project with, or novel from, Stephen King, my initial reaction is a collective shrug. I had hopes for The Dark Tower movie but after seeing the trailers, I lost all hope.

 

[sense]

Wait, this isn't going to be good? The trailers are great.

I guess reading the books has something to do with people not liking what they have seen from the trailers. As someone who hasn't read the books, the trailers seemed fine to me and I am interested to see it.

 

[Dan]

Sources paint a more acrimonious picture of the production, one that was enabled by the unique nature of the deal that Sony struck with MRC — a pact that allowed competing power centers to emerge. The two companies split costs, and in return MRC was granted “kill rights” on everything from the marketing campaign to the final cut of the picture. If one company didn’t like a trailer or a cut of the film, it had to be scrapped, making it difficult to achieve consensus. It’s a rare type of partnership, with the kind of sign-off that few production companies enjoy. That led to a case of “too many cooks in the kitchen,” according to one insider. King also had a great deal of input. In return for the rights to his work, he retained veto approval of almost every aspect of the film.

This arrangement sounds ripe for turning any project into a disaster.

 

[captjohnboyd]

Not off the top of my head, no. it's been awhile and I didn't take any notes or anything (not meant to be snarky, just explaining why my memory of it is fuzzy beyond "holy shit I actually like this one better.")

it just felt a little closer to the book, both tonally and plotwise. IIRC, Fukunaga's script didn't even have Stan Uris as a character. Also I believe Fukunaga's ending was sorta weird/inscrutable (even for an IT adaptation).

I've been curious for a while if this version (or any version) concentrates effectively on the friendship/stand by me aspect vs horror or is this more a straight horror story? Obviously to be true to the book it would have to showcase the kids in the right way but not necessarily if they're going for straight scares

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Hey, I haven't seen it. I'm just relaying what I have heard.

But yes.

Well shit. Idris needs to get a new agent or something. He can pull off being a leading man.

 

[Dalek]

IIRC he sold the film rights for The Dark Tower for $1.

He typically only does the 1 dollar deal for aspiring filmmakers making short films. For a big budget one I think he does the standard negotiations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Baby

 

[Drifter_InA_Cage]

Can't remember an actor falling off as fast as Matthew McConaughey in recent memory.

From Killer Joe, Mud, Dallas Buyer's Club, True Detective, Interstellar. from 2012-2014...to absolute duds like The Sea of Trees, Free State of Jones, Gold and The Dark Tower in the last 3 years.

Mcconaissance has been dead since 2014 and we're currently in a worse McConaughey-era than the rom-com years.

 

[DeathoftheEndless]

The stoic hero character is still viable. The first movie being a minimal post apocalyptic western could have been made on a shoe string budget too.

I think an adaptation of the first book could have been done, but it would have been misleading. Dark Tower is not a western.

 

[otake]

A Stephen King endorsement is pretty worthless given his take on The Shining.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

Would have loved to see Fukunaga's Pennywise in live action that's for sure:

That was gonna be his version of Pennywise?

Ehhhhhh. That's what I feared they would turn him into.

 

[Galactic Specter]

Would have loved to see Fukunaga's Pennywise in live action that's for sure:

I still think the final design they went with was the best, those concepts were going a little overboard. That one especially was hard to tell if Pennywise was supposed to be a clown or a juggalo.

 

[Herr Schwarz]

I think the best lessons to be learnt from adapting Steven Kings books are, that he as an author can't write endings to save his life.

Which I think means that if translating his work to the big screen, you do need to be able to give a lot of leeway to the writers to adapt the books properly.

I mean Kubricks the Shining was great, but it cut a lot of stuff from the book, pretty aggressively. Including the ending.

And it was perfectly fine.

I personally don't want to see an underage gang bang in a drainpipe in IT. And we can all appreciate that change with or without being a book loyalist.

 

[andythinkpad]

i mean, the books are shit too

at least the last three

But they are doing the best book and fucking it up.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

I've been curious for a while if this version (or any version) concentrates effectively on the friendship/stand by me aspect vs horror or is this more a straight horror story? Obviously to be true to the book it would have to showcase the kids in the right way but not necessarily if they're going for straight scares

The friendship of the kids is definitely a focus.

But they are doing the best book and fucking it up.

From what I understand, they're not really doing any one book.

 

[ElBoxyBrown]

The friendship of the kids is definitely a focus.

The friendship has to be good. If we don't care about the kids then the movie and possibly it's sequel automatically fails.

 

[Quartermaster]

Trailers reminded me of Day Watch. A not so very good movie, about people with supernatural abilities fighting an "invisible" war.

 

[Markitron]

I guess reading the books has something to do with people not liking what they have seen from the trailers. As someone who hasn't read the books, the trailers seemed fine to me and I am interested to see it.

Same here, I thought it looked interesting enough and I love both of the leads.

 

[Bobby Roberts]

Same here, I thought it looked interesting enough and I love both of the leads.

They're not the leads

 

[JeTmAn81]

Sony is flying critics across the world right now in a private jet in promotion of this film, and feeding them lobstrosity rolls.

They scared.

FTFY

 

[Markitron]

They're not the leads

So it seems now, but that's not the impression I got from the trailer anyway.

 

[captjohnboyd]

They're not the leads

OFFS. Of course they'd make the kid the lead :/ I'd read like everyone else they used him to be the audience surrogate which in and of itself isn't a terrible idea, although I don't think it was necessary, but to make him the focal point while ignoring such a rich character like Roland is filmmaking at its worst

 

[DeathoftheEndless]

The trailers trying to show McConaughey's character as a big bad is hilarious given his role in the books.

 

[sense]

They're not the leads

I am fine if they are not "leads" in the strictest interpretation of the term as long as they have screen presence for atleast three quarters of the film. If they are not around for half of the movie or more then the trailers are a bit misleading.

 

[CrichtonKicks]

He typically only does the 1 dollar deal for aspiring filmmakers making short films. For a big budget one I think he does the standard negotiations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Baby

It was actually $19.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1574452/ste...-abrams-conquered-the-dark-tower-for-just-19/

 

[Nerd_Incognito]

This is one of those situations where I (we) all saw it coming, the "I told you so" moment, yet it is not satisfying to say in the least.

I liked the books well enough. Read the first 4. While I'm not a die hard Dark Tower fan I was looking forward to this film for various reasons including, but not limited to, the casting of the two leads. But from each oddly paced, over packed trailer to the 90 minute run time announcement all signs kept pointing to this being a bad film.

And now, here we are with official finger pointing pre-release and any hope I had of this movie even being decent film seems to be pointless.

Ohhh well. There are other worlds than these.

 

[True Savior]

I never expected The Gunslinger to be adapted as a major commercial vehicle. It's too drab and moody. But The Drawing of the Three is basically a hollywood film put into pages. I can't really understand how you mess that up.

The casting is also a bit weird. Elba has that rugged face (I'm unsure about his abilities to play such a stoic character) but he looks ridiculous in costume. To be fair all of them look like cosplaying so it's more of a failure of the art/costumes department.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Idris deserved better by the sounds of it.

Hopefully it doesn't damage his career too much.

 

[cr0w]

I'll judge the movie when I see it this weekend. I've already accepted that it's a condensed, "Elseworlds" version of the first book. As long as they're selling it as a sequel I'm fine either way. I'll always have the (first four) novels.

 

[WordAssassin]

IIRC he sold the film rights for The Dark Tower for $1.

He typically only does the 1 dollar deal for aspiring filmmakers making short films. For a big budget one I think he does the standard negotiations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Baby

That was back when JJ Abrams was gonna do it, and it was $19 because they were doing a cute bit from the book.

It was actually $19.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1574452/ste...-abrams-conquered-the-dark-tower-for-just-19/

Yeah this, thanks!

Which sucks because I agree with King and think if anyone could do Dark Tower even halfway decently, it would be Abrams.

 

[Prince of Space]

This is shitty news, but not unexpected, since, y'know, Sony Pictures.

Making Jake the lead/audience surrogate character was an obvious and boring choice; this is Roland's story, you chucklefucks.

But they are doing the best book and fucking it up.

They're aren't doing Wizard and Glass tho... This movie seems to mostly draw elements from The Gunslinger and the initial chunk of The Waste Lands (namely, everything to do with Jake and Roland).

The trailers trying to show McConaughey's character as a big bad is hilarious given his role in the books.

He's a pretty bad dude in the books, too, and THE big bad in the stories they're adapting. Just because his role in subsequent books doesn't play out the way most people imagined doesn't make him less of a great character or villain.

It was actually $19.

http://www.mtv.com/news/1574452/step...r-for-just-19/

Poetry.


Edit: Also, that Fukunaga Pennywise mockup looks ripped straight from MySpace, no thank you.

 

[golem]

Sounds like

Spoiler

the reactions to

the movie will be good fun!

When does the review embargo end??

 

[darkstar0155]

I never expected The Gunslinger to be adapted as a major commercial vehicle. It's too drab and moody. But The Drawing of the Three is basically a hollywood film put into pages. I can't really understand how you mess that up.

The casting is also a bit weird. Elba has that rugged face (I'm unsure about his abilities to play such a stoic character) but he looks ridiculous in costume. To be fair all of them look like cosplaying so it's more of a failure of the art/costumes department.

DotT, Wastelands, WnG, WotC, all of those could have been great stand-alone movies. Seriously. The first and 6th are the only two that wouldn't be good stand a lone movies.

Movie 1:
Books 1 and 2

TV miniseries on book 4

Movie 2:
Book 3 and part of book 4 that isn't childhood

Movie 3:
Book 5 6 and 7 (cutting out a lot of the fluff about the vampires and whatnot, real long 3 hr movie)

Something like that would have worked. Could even have made book 5 a second miniseries

 

[Rest]

That's too bad. The announcement of this move was what finally motivated me to go and restart the series and finish it this time. I only got as far as book three on my first run. Currently on book 2 now and still enjoying it.

Book three is the perfect place to stop. Interesting stuff happens after that, but King lost the plot and started writing a different story. The fourth is still passably related, but the fifth is a prequel, and reading it it felt like he wrote it because he had no idea how to move forward, so went backward instead.

The last three you'll probably find fun to read, but he started mixing in other stories and they don't pay off what the first two books set up.

 

[LordOfLore]

The trailers trying to show McConaughey's character as a big bad is hilarious given his role in the books.

Remind me,

Spoiler

doesn't he just get eaten by Roland's demon son

?