King says the movie will open with the first line from the first book. “It should start that way,” he says. “I’ve been pretty insistent about that.” He even tweeted it out today.
It’s easy to imagine that phrase being The Dark Tower’s version of “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away …,” serving to introduce almost any part of the saga. But this first film will not adapt the plot of the first book, The Gunslinger, published in 1982.
“[The movie] starts in media res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they’ll get behind it, because it is the story,” King says.
Arcel declined to specify which books his movie focus on, but he did offer this clue: “A lot of it takes place in our day, in the modern world.”
No idea what this post will look like since the text box is all screwed up on my tablet, but if those links work they’ll show you on-set pics of Roland and the Man in Black. This is in NYC.
I admit I have not been keeping up with production on this movie - can I assume from filming in NYC that they are skipping or truncating the first book?
[quote]
“The movie will start where the books start,” King confirmed. “The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed. I’ve been pretty insistent about that, and I think everybody’s on board with it.” But while the book series begins with The Gunslinger (1982), the movie will not adapt its storyline. “It starts sort of in the middle of the story, rather than the beginning,” King specified, “which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they’ll get behind it because it is the story.”[/quote]
I always pictured Roland as a white dude. I don’t suppose his race was ever mentioned in the books, I don’t really recall. I’m sure Elba will do a good job though.
Actually it was specified that he was white and it was an important fact when he was gathering his ka-tet. It totally changes the dynamics, especially where it involves Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker. While this change in dynamics has trouble a large number of Kings fans, I think in the end it wont be a major issue and Elba will make a fine Roland.
Yeah I’m looking forward to how they handle the movie, especially if it’s truly treated as a successor to the books rather than a retelling of the books.
I think they’ll handle the Odetta/Detta thing fine though. Even if Roland is black, Detta can introduce a whole lot of self-hating guilt into the mix instead of simply being a black-vs-white thing.
The timeframe for this production seems crazy though. Supposed to be released in January and they’re still filming now?
This looks great but very different from my memory of the books I read a while ago. Does anybody know if it is a one off film or will it be a series of films?
I think I read last year that they’re skipping book one for the most part.
Blatant book series ending spoilers:
[Spoiler]A better way of looking at this isn’t as a retelling of the story from the books, but one that takes place before/after the timeline of the books. Another Dark Tower cycle, much like the one that started anew after Roland reached the top of the tower at the end of the series before being sent back to the start of book 1 because he didn’t have the Horn of Eld. So everything will be same but different.
Roland of the books has supposedly done this journey countless times, but has never quite completed his quest properly, so the timeline has always reset.[/spoiler]
