Stephen King's The Dark Tower

muireann50 wrote: »

For any Dark Tower fans, its been announced that Javier Bardem has been offered the role of Roland, I assume if they have announced it that means its pretty certain that he is going to accept. While I hadn't pictured him as Roland, he is a good actor and with some blue contacts I think he could be good!

Stole this from literature. I'm happier about this than Bale taking on the role.

http://www.bscreview.com/2011/01/javier-bardem-offered-the-dark-towers-roland-deschain/

Boo Radley wrote: »

Stole this from literature. I'm happier about this than Bale taking on the role.

http://www.bscreview.com/2011/01/javier-bardem-offered-the-dark-towers-roland-deschain/

Interesting choice, and the more one thinks about it, the easier it is to picture Bardem in the role.

Actually his No Country For Old Men co star Josh Brolin might not have been bad in the role either.

For me Viggo was Roland. But I hope (if this is true) that Bardem does the character justice.

The book 8 thing sounds like its in fairly dodgy territory, Roland hunting a werewolf bleh. I'd like to get more info about the old ones, thats one of the best elements of the books.

It's been a long time since I read any of the novels, the first being my favorite, but I pictured clint in spaghetti western mode as roland.
IIRC the later books say that roland is actually quite old, especially considering the climax.
So I reckon an old clint wouldn't be too far off the mark.
Having said that, viggo would be the number one choice for me.
Javier is a fine actor, but roland he certainly isn't.

Source

A friend of mine read them all and really loved them.
He told me about the story and I got curious though I don't like Stephen King so I asked him to tell me a short version of them and it seemed quite alright - apart from the ending. Like it is the problem with basically ALL Stephen King books :-/

I'm gonna watch the trilogy if it comes out but I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna read the books ... at least not beforehand as I usually do.
My friend also told me that in order to really appreciate the books you should have read every other major Stephen King book since most of the characters appear in it and he doesn't explain everyone's story in The Dark Tower since he expects people to know them from the other books, anyway (which was somethinge else that bothered me ...)

The priest from salems lot turns up in book 5 i think - its been a long time since i read them - and the books are sitting on my bookshelf 10,000 miles away so i wont be reading them anytime soon

I wouldn't for a second say that the part of Roland isn't important to the Dark Tower, but it's even more important to remember that he's not the only part in the Dark Tower series. I would say that their casting choices for Eddie, Suzanna, Jake and Fr Callahan(I think Clint Eastwood!!!) are going to make or break this thing. So I'd be keeping an eye out for who they cast for Eddie and the gang over the next few months.

I do have to say that Bardem is a solid choice for Roland though. I'm yet to see him in anything good outside of No Country For Old Men and Biutiful, so this should be interesting.

Also, just to mention in, I think Benecio Del Toro would make a great Randal Flagg.

Some possible bad news from Variety

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118036473

Universal's "Dark Tower" movie trilogy and interlocking TV series, seen as a hugely ambitious project from the start, may wind up being too big for the studio's appetite.

Sources tell Variety that in the past few days, the project, based on Stephen King's sweeping seven-book-and-counting series, has run into budgetary complications that have caused Universal execs to rethink original plans. Insiders expect U brass to meet in coming days to decide whether to put the project into turnaround, whereby producer Imagine Entertainment could shop it to another studio, either to partner with Universal or take over entirely.
To be clear: Sources tell Variety that as of Thursday, Universal is moving ahead as if the project is going forward. The studio had no comment.
Ron Howard unveiled plans in September to adapt "The Dark Tower" for three films -- at least the first of which he plans to direct -- bridged by a pair of TV series. Universal soon came on as a distributor, given Imagine's production deal with the studio; NBC (or an affiliated cable net) was expected carry the TV component.
Javier Bardem's deal to play the lead role of Roland Deschain is nearly closed, while Howard is still eyeing thesps for other roles. Howard and Brian Grazer are producing through Imagine, while Akiva Goldsman is set to write the script.
With a project of this size and scope, it wouldn't be unusual for any studio to weigh its risk-sharing options -- or pulling out -- at this stage of development. And "Dark Tower" isn't the only major project that Universal has recently reconsidered. "At the Mountains of Madness," which had Guillermo del Toro set to direct and Tom Cruise circling to star, was scrapped on the brink of lensing after U calculated that it would struggle to make money with its $150 million budget and R rating.
That project went into hibernation in March, not long after the newly minted NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke was in Universal City for meetings with NBC and Universal Pictures brass.
King's "Dark Tower" epic has been long pursued for screen adaptation, but the series' length and scope -- rooted in a post-Apocalyptic realm resembling the Old West as well a parallel modern-day world -- has been a tough nut to crack for scripting and production planning. Before Imagine announced its adaptation plans, J.J. Abrams and "Lost" co-creator exec producer Damon Lindelof had optioned rights from King for $19 (a key number in the "Tower" universe). But they weren't able to find a take on the material that satisfied their ambitions. Nonetheless, the Imagine team and U felt confident they had a workable vision. In announcing their plans for "Dark Tower," companies set a May 17, 2013 target date for release of the first film.