He did the same with Black Thirteen, right? It was this universe-destroying thing that gets literally left behind somewhere and destroyed offscreen.
I think the Dark Tower universe is really cool, but I think King just wanted to be done with it after his accident, so he farted out the last three books using the first ideas that popped into his mind without any refinement whatsoever.
Eh, black 13 was KIND of explained.
It was one of the 13 orbs of the wizard’s rainbow, just like the one from Wizard and Glass (which was the pink one). Other stories explained them more than the Dark Tower did. Merlin created them to kind of screw with the world. They are kind of like the rings from LOTR, in that they have strong magical powers, but ultimately end up being evil and causing bad stuff to happen to folks who use them.
The 12 colors represent the different beams, and the black on represents the tower itself.
And yeah, King had some psychological issues with the Dark Tower. It was his magnum opus, but on some level I don’t think he liked writing it… so he kept putting it off. But at the same time, his avoidance of finishing it caused him to have trouble writing anything else.
So yeah, he just kind of rushed the end to get it done I think, and then planned on stopping his writing. But finishing the series renewed his writing inspiration, and he went on to start cranking out books again.
ditto. I never returned to it. Once he took so long to finish, I resolved never to read another series that wasn’t finished. And then I got tricked into GoT.
Clint Eastwood in his fourties would be perfect. Today, I would most like to see Roland played by Anson Mount. If only netflix/amazon/HBO ever picked up Dark Tower to make as a 5 season series, with Mount as Roland, with some actually talented showrunner behind it…
But I guess this film has poisoned that well.
Well, it seems they’re still moving forward with the TV show. We’ll see if they maintain all this enthusiasm once the weekend box office is tallied up.
Walking Dead grad.
This franchise really is doomed.
Yeah, Glen Mazzara was pretty bad as the Walking Dead showrunner. For those who don’t recall him, he bungled his way through the first year of the Governor storyline and the initial taking of the prison.
I went to see this with two friends. One is reading the books and another has never laid eyes on them. I’ve read them all and loved them.
The entire theater seemed to enjoy the stink out of this film, and there was raucous laughing throughout. As a bonus, the guy who hasn’t read all the books is pretty dang blessed, since this has basically nothing to do with them other than the name.
MM really nailed some hilarious lines, too. I enjoyed this like a pig at a trough! Keep your expectations at 16% and you’ll come out happy!
The kindest thing I can say about The Dark Tower was that it’s easily the second best film I’ve seen this week in which Jackie Earle Haley plays a bald and bearded antagonist.
I happened to catch this on a coast-to-coast flight.
I kind of wonder where the rest of the movie was. I would have liked the opportunity to view it. But this seemed so cut-down that I wondered if I was watching some really cut-down version. I was not. The director simply did not develop the universe. A flashback to the big battle where most of the gunslingers vanished could have made a great action piece and provided context. Better understanding The Man In Black would have been nice.
It is not a horrible movie. It is just a woefully incomplete one.
Been reading the books, not fully in love with them but I enjoyed Drawing of the Three and Wastelands quite a bit. Wastelands were very falloutish mad maxish there by the end. I would love to see this series done correctly in TV series format by someone actually capable.
Not sure if it’s still underway given the movie reception or if the people involved know what they’re doing but there was a Wizard and Glass series in the works. (or whatever book 4 is called)