The Dark Tower movie rears its head again

Mickey Rourke would make a good Can-Toi, or a slow mutant.

Well, that’s reductive. Although certainly true that a known actor playing a character will always be…a known actor playing a character.
Unlike Day-Lewis. Or Viggo. Or Bruce Willis.
I’m assuming you would only want to cast an unknown? Cause I could get behind that.

Also, screw Ron Howard. The man doesn’t have enough bloodlust to make these movies.

Did you see Cocoon? That movie was a bloodbath!

True. Also, I distinctly remember EdTV being a gorefest, although I could be confusing it with the Truman Show. Needless to say, I take it back.
Ron Howard made one good movie, one great movie. The good movie was Grand Theft Auto, when he was still trying to get a leg up. The great movie was The Missing, which nobody saw because Westerns weren’t cool again yet.

Also, the can-toi’s should be totally normal looking until you get up closer. Then the mask is revealed. That’s the whole point. Unlike my main man Rourke, who’s strange from any distance.

Will Smith as Roland! HA! I bet you weren’t expecting that!

An unknown would probably be the best choice, but that’s not going to happen in a big-budget Ron Howard fantasy epic. Bruce Willis is a terrible idea, worse than Rourke, but for the same reason. Too singular in appearance. Daniel Day-Lewis and Viggo Mortensen can sort of melt into a character, but you are always aware you’re watching Mickey Rourke or Bruce Willis. They need someone who can become Roland, and Rourke just doesn’t fit that bill as far as I’m concerned. He’s a good actor but I can’t see him doing the role justice.

Fair enough. I disagree, but you give a fair enough reason.
Granted, as you say, speculation is kind of a moot point. This is Ron Howard, after all, so we’re getting Tommy Lee Jones as Roland and Tom Hanks as Jake.
The man in black absolutely should be an unknown, as King did in Storm of the Century (probably the best movie King has been involved with after Creepshow).

They should cast Martin Sheen as Roland, and Sally Field as Susanah, with Matt Damon as both Jake and Oy.

Although you make a strong case, I think this movie might be even better if they hired Martin Lawrence and had him fill every role, and instead of a gunslinger he should be a boxer.

Every time I see the words ‘Mickey Rourke’ what I actually read, for some reason, is ‘Mickey Rooney’.

Might as well be Mickey Mouse for how enthused I’d be about it.

The guns were empty and they boiled at him, transmogrified into an Eye and a Hand, and he stood, screaming and reloading, his mind far away and absent, letting his hands do their reloading trick. Could he hold up a hand, tell them he had spent a thousand years learning this trick and others, tell them of the guns and the blood that had blessed them? Not with his mouth. But his hands could speak their own tale.


Crispin Glover, easily

The clear answer for all this talk is simple. Construct a time machine, set it to 1966 and get Clint Eastwood.

I’m a fan of his too. I also wish I could see his take on The Joker (is it The Joker or the Joker, or just Joker?).

I think he could be a fine man in black for the DT series – though, again, because I have different impressions about the different iterations of this character (Flagg/Man in Black) I’m not sure I could ever seen him as a Randal Flagg type character (which he seems more like later in the DT series // where earlier he was just a weird and mystikal and mysterious evil magician of sorts).

To me it doesn’t seem as if Glover has ever had a role where he’s demonstrated an ability to look like a good leader of men. Although Flagg’s/MIB’s repeated attempts of running any type of society/organization eventually end in disaster (and such organizations/societies are predominately governed through the fear and intimidation of his magical powers), I’m not sure he’d be able to convey the charisma needed to attract folks in the first place, instead of simply creeping them out and scaring them off.

I do think he would be great in the first three books though, but the character just seems to change so much in the later books. From book 4 (the middle section anyway, he’s the same guy in the book ends as he is in the first three) onward he just seems like a different beast, and a sexy one if Roland’s mother has any say in the matter.

I could definitely see Glover playing the Marten aspect. Switching actors might be tough for the audience to follow, but at the same time, nobody chooses to make a Dark Tower adaptation expecting it to be simple. Glover’s reputation of being crazy and difficult to work with could torpedo this idea, though.

Yea, the guy can barely handle himself on talk show segments – I am having a hard time imagining him being stable enough to make and keep such a huge commitment that would be required for the proposed movie/tv releases.

One thing that sorta works in favor of a Crispin Glover casting decision is that the man in black really wouldn’t have much face time early on in the series anyway, so the need for him should be lessened to a certain extent… Although later on the films/show would pretty much require his full cooperation (for some reason I assume the show wouldn’t be featuring the man in black much if at all any way). Full length movies he’s starred in over the last several years prove he’s not he’s completely incapable of giving a concerted performance (see: Willard, Bartelby), but neither of those films probably required much more than a couple months of effort on his part.

I’m still liking the Josh Brolin suggestion. W proved he can pull off a youthful and more mature look for the same character.