Stephen King Says The Dark Tower Is Coming… Eventually
"Set your watch and warrant on it."
Thanks to an interview with
MTV for Stephen King's upcoming novella adaptation
A Good Marriage, the topic of the oft-delayed mega project adaptation of King's own Marvel Cinematic Universe -
The Dark Tower - was brought up. It's coming - he promises - just not soon.
If anything,
Dark Tower fans are patient. It took King over three decades to actually ink down the final words in his seven book saga. And rumblings of a film adaptation began when J.J. Abrams joined the project in 2007 before leaving for
Star Trek; the game-changing plan to have a trilogy of films and two seasons of a TV show to bridge the gap between them was announced four years ago in 2010. Back in January, the last piece of news was the rumor that Aaron Paul was meeting with filmmakers for the role of Eddie Dean.
The basic story of the series is Roland Deschain's search for a mythical and elusive Tower which serves as the beating heart of all universes, and upon which evil forces are converging in an attempt to end reality. A film adaptation, to say the least, will be difficult.
“I love it because it’s so innovative — the idea of using the front story as theatrical tent pole movies, and using the back story of when the characters are a little bit younger as a TV thing. To be able to shoot both at the same time, and use these big sets for TV — it’s a very innovative idea," King said. "It took me 35, 36 years to write
The Dark Tower. I can wait. We’ve been close a couple of times. I’m content to see what happens. Sooner or later, it’ll show up.”
King's lackadaisical optimism is certainly a good sign; if the thing were in trouble or out-and-out canned he'd no doubt be up front about it. The comparison to Marvel's Cinematic Universe and the onslaught of
Star Wars fever next year are more than apt, however. With movies like
The Stand and
It in the pipeline, it's excitingly clear how genius it would be to link all the films together as they were in their novel counterparts. Have a slow year with smaller scale adaptations like
The Eyes of the Dragon or
Insomnia, then go all out with a proper entry in
The Dark Tower saga, allowing the characters (mostly villains, unfortunately) to weave their ways amongst the projects. Alas, maybe just getting the first film off the ground will be a good start.
“We were this close to green light," King said of nearly starting the project with Javier Bardem as Roland. "You know how it is in Hollywood. Things puff up like mushrooms after a rainfall — then, all at once, they’re gone.”
Here's to hoping we don't have to wait 35 years for the movie, too.
“I love it because it’s so innovative — the idea of using the front story as theatrical tent pole movies, and using the back story of when the characters are a little bit younger as a TV thing. To be able to shoot both at the same time, and use these big sets for TV — it’s a very innovative idea," King said. "It took me 35, 36 years to write The Dark Tower. I can wait. We’ve been close a couple of times. I’m content to see what happens. Sooner or later, it’ll show up.”
King's lackadaisical optimism is certainly a good sign; if the thing were in trouble or out-and-out canned he'd no doubt be up front about it. The comparison to Marvel's Cinematic Universe and the onslaught of Star Wars fever next year are more than apt, however. With movies like The Stand and It in the pipeline, it's excitingly clear how genius it would be to link all the films together as they were in their novel counterparts. Have a slow year with smaller scale adaptations like The Eyes of the Dragon or Insomnia, then go all out with a proper entry in The Dark Tower saga, allowing the characters (mostly villains, unfortunately) to weave their ways amongst the projects. Alas, maybe just getting the first film off the ground will be a good start.
“We were this close to green light," King said of nearly starting the project with Javier Bardem as Roland. "You know how it is in Hollywood. Things puff up like mushrooms after a rainfall — then, all at once, they’re gone.”
Here's to hoping we don't have to wait 35 years for the movie, too. 
