Stephen King overload? NBC Bringing 'The Dark Tower' To Both TV And Movie Screens

Los Angeles Times:

The unique deal will have Ron Howard directing the first film in the trilogy and the first season of the TV series, Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment announced Wednesday afternoon.

Read the whole story: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[MNTom]

09:29 AM on 09/13/2010

I can't wait for this one. But it should be on cable not Network TV.

[Alice Radley]

11:45 AM on 09/12/2010

This is going to be a disaster. Clint Eastwood IS Roland. Unfortunately, Clint Eastwood is faaaar too old. I can't imagine another man who could fill Roland's boots. How will they properly portray Susannah's lack of legs? How about Jake? As I recall, he's 11 or 12 through the whole story. How will they use the same kid actor and have him not age?

More than anything, I've already seen this movie - in my head. I think anyone who has read this story has done that. Anything that Hollywood might do could not live up to the pictures in my mind's eye.

[kareemachan]

02:47 PM on 09/11/2010

I'd rather have something like this than for them to try to chop up the books into a movie or two. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....

[kinogod]

02:19 PM on 09/10/2010

Frank Darabount was the go-to guy for this. What happened? His deft re-imagining of The Mist was bold and showed his inner howard hawks. This IS the guy to shepard the multidimensional Dark Tower opus with its themes of inner conflict set against a futuristic (?) old west, past and present day future That King boldly folded into itself. Frank has got to come aboard in my multiverse, not ron howard, bless his heart. Ron did show a mean western in him once, but Franks the man! Not Da Vinci code. Please dont f%#k up this epic.

[Craig 212]

01:38 PM on 09/10/2010

The Dark Tower series is amazing, even if I wasn't quite happy with the way it ended.

And I love the idea of a joint movie series and TV series deal. I just wish the TV series were airing on a cable network. I can't even remember the last decent drama to come out of NBC.

[FlaviaDeLuce]

12:06 PM on 09/10/2010

yes!!!!!!!!!

[ChelleAgain]

04:51 AM on 09/10/2010

This is pretty cool. Did not get into the books, just didn't, but I'd definitely be interested in this.

[Gronkie]

01:26 AM on 09/10/2010

I recently read The Dome, and it was pretty great. That would make a great mini-series, too.

[Gronkie]

01:23 AM on 09/10/2010

Turning this series into a movie will be all but impossible, especially on a network like NBC (how are they going to do product placement?). They should take a hint from Lonesome Dove and give everyone involved a copy of the books and say "There you go, that's your script," and then shoot it. They won't though. It's NBC, they'll screw it up. It should have been HBO or a network like that.

By the way, did anybody see Pillars of the Earth, on Starz? Once again, the book could have been the script. Incredible.

[Gronkie]

01:16 AM on 09/10/2010

King can be very frustrating as an author, sometimes great and often mediocre. But when he's great, he's absolutely masterful, and the Dark Tower is proof. I'm looking forward to this.

[Artamentous]

12:55 AM on 09/10/2010

The ending of this series was disappointing.

[Gronkie]

01:19 AM on 09/10/2010

A lot of people thought that, but I was okay with it, even if it wasn't a great ending. The ride there was incredible, though.

[Craig 212]

01:42 PM on 09/10/2010

Disappointing endings are somewhat common among the Stephen King books that I've read. The worst offender being Insomnia, which starts out about an old guy suffering from insomnia, which in turn causes extreme paranoia and possible hallucinations. Very suspenseful. Then almost exactly halfway through, King gives the old guy and his new girlfriend super powers and sends them on a hero's quest to stop a terrorist. I couldn't facepalm hard enough.

[ZenSufi]

11:51 PM on 09/09/2010

Re-do "The Stand".

[Craig 212]

01:56 PM on 09/10/2010

I very much support this idea.

[kinogod]

10:43 PM on 09/09/2010

Great groundbreaking way to produce this must-see --if the network were showtime, amc, hbo....but if nbc is fillin in the factor tween flicks it could certainly cheese out unless embraced and produced like lost. Im soooo prayin this works cuz i wanna feel the juice! U out there know who u r as well -- and u know u wanna feel the juice as well!!!

[Tom Sutpen]

09:51 PM on 09/09/2010

No. Ron Howard shouldn't direct anything.

[Chris Garry]

11:26 PM on 09/09/2010

I think your right the fact that NBC is going to be involved in this is pretty bad but mix that with Ron Howard and it's going to be desperation.

[Craig 212]

01:46 PM on 09/10/2010

Really? Not to say he's a great director, but I have liked a lot of his movies: A Beautiful Mind, Frost/Nixon, Apollo 13, Cinderella Man, Far and Away, Ransom.

[52tucker]

06:44 PM on 09/09/2010

This is a monster series, so I don't think it is at all an overload for it to be on the big screen and the small screen. Tons of content, tons of fans, and it's about time!