Stephen King's The Dark Tower

[epilogue]

Sad to say but my interest in this has plummeted.

Honestly...? Me too. And that sucks. Because I've been looking forward to this for more than a decade.

[Anders]

Saw the trailer for this today, didn't look too great. Have the first book somewhere. Should probably read it.

[epilogue]

This cast is so stellar. It's a real shame if they waste them on a bad movie.

[bune]

Just think: Ron Howard could have directed this instead of Han Solo.

[VinylGuy]

Just think: Ron Howard could have directed this instead of Han Solo.

MAYBE they can do reshoots and Ron can do it.

[epilogue]

Just think: Ron Howard could have directed this instead of Han Solo.

MAYBE they can do reshoots and Ron can do it.

[wease]

I thought you were gonna give the low-down, Joey.

[epilogue]

Oh right!

So obviously, spoilers for the ending of the book and for what they're doing in the movie:

Spoiler: show

So, the book series basically has two endings. The first ending is Roland walking up into the Dark Tower, fade to black. Then King prints a warning that if the reader is happy with that ending, then the reader should not read the rest of the book, the part he calls the Coda.

In the Coda we get to see what happens to Roland inside the tower. The short version is that he gets to the top of the tower and finds out his journey is circular (this is way cooler than it sounds, it's not a cheap co-out; there's a lot of great character stuff in this section that I won't get into and a lot of it has to do with Susan Delgado who was the love of Roland's life who died when they were both young). As soon as his journey ends, it begins all over again. Roland is dropped back into the desert at the beginning of the first book and all knowledge/memory of the previous journey and his success in finding the tower is totally forgotten. The opening line of the series -- "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed" -- is also the final line of the entire series. Which is awesome. King has often said that he thinks it's the best sentence he's ever written. I fully expect this line to open the movie. Probably in a similar fashion to Star Wars' "A Long Time Ago..."

But I digress...

We have no idea how many times Roland has gotten to the top of the Tower only to find out that he has to start his journey over again.
What we do know is that each time he starts over, he has something with him that he didn't have the last time. In this case, when Roland starts his journey over again at then end of Book Seven he has the Horn of Eld with him. The Horn of Eld (without getting too deep into all of this) was something he had with him, originally, but lost in the 4th book when some major shit went down. This also ties back to Susan Delgado.

So, at the very end of the series, the Tower resets Roland back toward the beginning of his journey but this time the Tower gives him the Horn of Eld to carry with him.

In the movie version of the Dark Tower we see Roland has the Horn with him. Therefore the movie is really a sequel to the book (this has been confirmed by King, Arcel and Goldsman). The movie isn't an adaptation of what King wrote as much as it's a new telling: the story of the next "turn on the wheel." The reason I think that's so fucking cool is that it allows them to break from the narrative of the books, to make changes to the story as freely as they want. Because each "turn on the wheel" will necessarily be significantly different. This is a new story for Roland and for us.

It's cool trying to guess which elements from which books will be included. But they've said they are pulling from all books in the series. I think I've been able to basically piece together a general guess of what I think the plot will be. I could be wrong but I think I have a general idea. It seems like they're using a lot from the third and fifth books.

TL;DR:

Spoiler: show

The books end in a circle. Roland starts over at the beginning again. But this time he has the Horn of Eld which he didn't have last time. In the movie, we see Roland with the Horn so we know the movie is a sequel to the books.

Anyway. So that's the general gist of it and why I think this COULD really work and be a great experience.

[wease]

Ooooh. I didn't know the movie was supposed to be that. VERY interesting.

[epilogue]

It makes the whole thing WAY cooler, I think.

[stip]

it does. it was also a very good end to the book. basically the only way it could end and not be a disappointment

[BurtReynolds]

The Gunslinger is one of the worst books I've ever read, but this looks like a mildly entertaining waste of two hours, if you sneak a bottle of wine into the theater.

[epilogue]

I really liked the Gunslinger. It's hardly the best book in the series, but I really loved the stipped down, lean and mean, quality of it.

[tragabigzanda]

I really liked the Gunslinger. It's hardly the best book in the series, but I really loved the stipped down, lean and mean, quality of it.

It shared a lot of tonal similarities with The Long Walk, now that I think about it.

[stip]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

[tragabigzanda]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

ive mentioned numerous times that I'm holding off on the DT series until I read all the major tangentially related books (almost there!), but I'm curious if you've read his standalone fantasy books like Eyes of the Dragon or From a Buick 8? Because I think those stories stand out because of their effective simplicity.

[E.H. Ruddock]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

You are aware that these were written before GoT, right?

[stip]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

ive mentioned numerous times that I'm holding off on the DT series until I read all the major tangentially related books (almost there!), but I'm curious if you've read his standalone fantasy books like Eyes of the Dragon or From a Buick 8? Because I think those stories stand out because of their effective simplicity.

I have not

[stip]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

You are aware that these were written before GoT, right?

Of course. My point is that the genre has become a lot more sophisticated and this suffers as a result, especially if a larger love of Stephen king isn't pushing you through

[E.H. Ruddock]

granted im not a stephen king fan, but in general i found the series a bit weak in this post George R Martin world. Fantasy has really upped its game

You are aware that these were written before GoT, right?

Of course. My point is that the genre has become a lot more sophisticated and this suffers as a result, especially if a larger love of Stephen king isn't pushing you through