The Next 'Lord of the Rings': J.J. Abrams and 'The Dark Tower'
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Fandom, Peter Jackson
Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels are probably his most underrated, and that can mostly be attributed to the fact that it took him 22 years to finish the series. It's a sprawling epic story, starring The Gunslinger, Roland, and his companions as they are inexorably drawn towards the titular Dark Tower. Like The Lord of the Rings, it's a travel story, with all of the action happening during the journey itself.
If you haven't read the series, I can't recommend it highly enough. It's got gunslinging, swords and sorcery, time travel, interdimensional doorways, artificially intelligent monorails, and so much more. It also ties most of King's major novels together in bizarre ways, without getting boring. Either pick up the first book in the series and check it out, or listen to the audiobook during your commute. You won't be sorry.
Just do it before J.J. Abrams and his Lost crew begin making the movies. Wait, what's that? Abrams? Lost? The Dark Tower? Read on to see how all of these pieces will soon fit together to produce what some claim is destined to become the next Lord of the Rings.
Right now you're probably thinking: "If this is so great, where's the movie version already?" No worries, you're not alone ... and you might be in luck. J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof (co-creator of Lost) have reportedly purchased the rights to the entire Dark Tower series from King himself for $19.00 -- unique because the numner 19 recurs throughout the novels. King must be an enormous Abrams fan, because he already turned down Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist), who was interested in adapting the series himself.
King has quite a history with Abrams, Lindelof, and Carlton Cuse (Lost), and the Lostpedia fansite for ABC's Lost has an entire Stephen King section. In fact, there's a theory linking The Dark Tower to events on the television show, and reading the books it's quite easy to see how they inspired the Lost creators in more ways than one. It's enough to completely thrill the conspiracy theorist in anyone. King entered into talks with Abrams and crew over two years ago, and it looks like the group could roll right into production on The Dark Tower once Lost wraps up (the final season airs in 2010).
Lindelof recently told Lostpedia, "We're just so focused on finishing Lost that it's really hard to think about anything else. The last thing we want to think about is how to adapt a seven book series of, you know, basically the writer who we admire the most and look up to most and has inspired our work the most, and do anything with that." Hopefully that's just exhaustion talking. With Lost they've been crafting the story themselves, but The Dark Tower is already laid out. (Check out some artwork from The Dark Tower below, courtesy of the series' official website)
He goes on to say that he sees the scope of the films as on par with Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings series, although I personally think they probably wouldn't adapt all seven novels into films. Still, the fact that they're not rushing a version to the screen gives me hope that this will be treated with respect, and it has the potential to change the face of fantasy films, which almost completely vanished from theaters once LotR wrapped up. There's been a few fits and starts, with Disney's Narnia series and other films, but nothing approaching the scale of Rings.
The Dark Tower books bounce from downtown New York in multiple time periods and a complete fantasy world, amongst other locations, in a sort of modern day Wizard of Oz fashion. With Abrams now behind the extremely successful Star Trek reboot, I'd like to see what he could do with a fantasy film. Especially if they don't make any severe alterations to the story. Marvel Comics released a prequel comic book adaptation starting back in 2007, and it fumbled the excellent source material.
Hopefully, that will change once everyone can get Lost out of their heads. In the meantime, check out the books. They make a great summer read.
What do you Dark Tower fans think? Are J.J. Abrams and his Lost cronies the right men to take on the monster that is Stephen King's Dark Tower series?
Indie Roundup: 'Sweetgrass,' 'Clarkworld,' 'Broken Embraces'
Shelf Life: Fight Club_thumbnail.jpg)
Watch: Famous 'Matrix' Scene Re-Created with LEGOs
Peter Jackson Says Spielberg's 'Tintin' is Done Filming, but...
Interracial Harmony: 'Ninja Assassin' vs. 'Blind Side'
_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-11-2009 @ 6:00PM
JJAbrams said...
I'll admit I haven't read the books(though on your word I will look into them) but I think JJ Abrams has a pretty decent body of work behind him even if it does exist mostly in TV and not the big screen.
Fringe, Lost and Star Trek are pretty big testaments to his talent regardless and I'd love to see him bring some epic fantasy back to our screens.
I just hope they don't try and condense the material into fewer movies.
If there are 7 books make 7 movies like the Harry Potter series. Otherwise they will be having to pack in even more content into each movie than they already do when they make book to movie conversions.
Not to mention the beauty of Lord of the Rings was it lit up our screens for a number of years giving us something to look forward to each year.
If JJ Abrams hits it off with these movies thatll be a few years of fantasy bliss on the trot.
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 6:10PM
Art said...
I think the films have been a long time coming. I just hope they don't go for the Big Money Actors instead of the best actors. And even though I know it never works... please, please let Viola Davis get the Susannah/Odetta/Detta role. The character is too great to throw away by giving it to the likes of Halle Berry or Angela Bassett...
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 6:04PM
Midnight13 said...
Huge fan of the series and believe ultimately the series is unadaptable. I respect the fact that those involved are big fans of King and "The Dark Tower" series, but of course they are going to have to edit chunks out, each book is at least a third larger then the last. The first book is a little over 200 pages, by book seven we are talking 800 pages. Even with all this talent involved will they do the series justice? Conisdering how few of his books end up doing well on film, and the massive undertaking of the project, I'm highly skeptical. At least the novels are amazing.
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 6:07PM
Justin said...
Could be good, though I would have liked to see the books turned in to a limited run series on say HBO, Showtime, or Starz. I think with the limits of basic cable removed it could have been a better way to get 7 books worth of story out to everyone.
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 6:09PM
Blair Mitchelmore said...
I have a minor correction. Carlton Cuse is not one of the co-creator's of Lost, he's one of the show-runners. He was brought on early in the first season to work with Damon Lindelof and they' run the show together ever since, but he's not a co-creator.
On a related note, I really hope Carlton Cuse is involved with the Dark Tower stuff Abrams and Lindelof are doing, because it seems to me like the balance of Lindelof and Cuse is what's made Lost so brilliant (that and JJ Abrams staying our of their hair).
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 6:56PM
Tony le Stephanois said...
Dear JJ, please just leave it alone. Too sprawling, too crazy and it will just get ruined. thanks.
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 8:20AM
Jon said...
Agreed. Even if it were to go through, it doesnt seem like the right fit to me either.
8-11-2009 @ 6:59PM
Tony le Stephanois said...
Besides, Clint was Roland, and I don't think that's going to happen.
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 10:02AM
flick said...
@Tony le Stepahnois:
I can not tell you how much I agree with that statement. When I began reading the series back in the 80's, it was clear no one besides Clint could fill this role. Sadly, the time to do this film "correctly" in my mind has passed.
8-11-2009 @ 7:11PM
Josh said...
I'm a huge King fan - read everything he's ever written, and I'm currently rereading the Dark Tower series.
I would LOVE to see this happen - it would be badass on an epic scale. It will need the epic budget, too - hopefully someone will foot the bill.
If they start with The Gunslinger - do they do Wizard and Glass as a flashback movie? do they fold it into The Waste Lands? Will people get a flashback movie?
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 11:42AM
Justin said...
In order to do it successfully, I feel that they should go in chronological order based on events rather than the order of the novels. The graphic novels do it this way, and while they are certainly not as awesome as the source, it's the best way to hook in those new to the series. Also, the first book is to short to be it's own movie.
So the best way to handle this is to bundle Wizard & Glass and The Gunslinger as one movie, than so the rest. It may even be possible to put Wolves and Song of Susannah in the same film as well.
Either way, I have all the confidence in the world that if Damon Lindelof is penning the script he will do all he can to make it as magnificent and epic as possible.
8-11-2009 @ 7:07PM
cablebfg said...
Im curious to see how this turns out. As much faith as I have in Abrams and co, this is a huge undertaking with a rabid/loyal following. The books are long as hell and deal with alot of complex issues that should be interesting to see what does and doesnt ultimately make the cut.
This book series got me into reading and I have found nothing more enthralling since. I hope this works out extremely well and that it does justice to the magnificent books.
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 7:29PM
Wexler said...
I think if it's going to have any success it needs to be a tv series, not movies. As other have already stated, the books are all of varying lengths and might I add, varying in pacing. Also, the books go off the beaten track at times, something more easily done in a tv show.
Ultimately the Dark Tower series is a lot like Lost. Neither of them are brilliant, but they are both very decent stories with a million loose ends and excellent character development. It's pretty crazy to think about this series being adapted well, let alone at all, but Abrams and his crew might just be the people to tackle it.
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 9:51PM
M said...
Never heard of the book series. However, I am a huge fan of Lost, my favourite show on tv.
So it would be interesting to see what this is about and how they will do it.
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 7:03AM
Jamo said...
Viggo Moretenson is Roland
Tarali P Henson is Susannaha
Joseph Gorden Levitt is Eddie Dean
Reply
8-11-2009 @ 10:19PM
Cray said...
I hope if The Dark Tower franchise does get made, they film all the sequels (7 books) in one shoot like Lord of the Rings did.
This is one the failing of Harry Potter franchise, there seems to be a disparity in quality from one sequel to another. Not to mention the lead cast looks drastically older each film.
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 2:46AM
Bubbameister33 said...
They were supposed to get older but I understand what you mean though.
8-11-2009 @ 11:11PM
Vultur said...
I'm not a big fan of King, but my wife is. I hope it is excellent and of the quality of LOTR.
I would hate to see her disappointed by this.
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 11:55PM
Hazman said...
Jim Caveziel is Roand
Nathan Fillion is Eddie
Tarali P Henson is Susannah
Reply
8-12-2009 @ 3:17AM
shenfish said...
I believe that this is truly a series that can't be adapted. I am a huge fan of the books, and although I don't want to write off the production, I can say now that I'm absolutely sure that I won't be going to see any of the movies.
Reply