The Dark Tower movie rears its head again

IGN and the New York Post reporting that Christian Bale is the current frontrunner for Roland.

Link

I can see that.

EDIT: Wait, what? They’re thinking about casting a white woman as Susannah? WTF? Her race is not just incidental in the books; one of her personalities early on is that of a civil rights activist, an AFRICAN-AMERICAN civil rights activist.

Man, if they go ahead with that bullshit, count me out.

EDIT: The commenters are speculating that Jennifer Carpenter might be up for the role of Susan Delgado, not Susannah.

Now they’re saying Javier Bardem has been offered the role.

I like that.

A lot.

2nd vote from here to Javier! Anton Chigurh already has a bit of Roland in him, I mean the habitus of Chigurh was so outworldly.

Ever since hearing about the movie, I’ve picture Viggo Mortensen as Roland but Javier was fantastic in No Country so there’s no problem casting him either imo. Christian bale could perhaps be perfect for the role of Eddie

The biggest fear I have comes from the director and writer. Personally I’d rather have someone like Martin Scorsese at the helm of the film than Howard.

I’d be good with Bardem or Mortensen. Frankly I’m shocked that any big name actor would consider signing on for something that will be such a huge time commitment across both movies and TV. I was sure they’d have to cast an unknown.

Unknowns don’t get cast in franchise lead roles anymore. Harry Potter is probably the last we’ll see of that, and that production was unusual to begin with (Rowling’s contractual stipulation that the lead roles be played by Brits).

Bardem gets my vote.

They should cast Clint Eastwood and motion-capture his face and make him younger a-la Jeff Bridges in Tron 2.

They should cast Justin Bieber as Jake and re-write the material to get a PG rating, allowing them to appeal to a wider audience.

Donkey from Shrek would make a great Oy. Just imagine the hilarious wisecracks at Roland’s expense.

Kinda weird since Susan Delgado is supposed to be like 13 or 14 isn’t she? Who is going to play the young Roland in this case? Perhaps Javier Bardem in heavy makeup.

Susan is 16 and Roland is 14 during the events related in Wizard and Glass.

I wonder if the movie/tv adaptation is even going to deal with W&G. It’s just a big flashback that fleshes out Roland’s backstory but does little to further his progress to the tower.

I didn’t think the studio would have any choice, really. Actors with options don’t usually seem to want to sign on to projects that will require all of their professional time for years, ya know? I mean, look at the case of Lord of the Rings, for example. Viggo Mortensen wasn’t a household name when he signed up to play Aragorn across three movies, all being shot at once.

Maybe Wizard & Glass will be the TV portion of the grand scheme. They won’t need any of the movie regulars in it given where it takes place in the timeline.

Which is why I have a hard time believing Bardem will actually do this. He IS a household name, and he has plenty of options. Or maybe he wants to break out of the Almodovar/art house/hunky guy in chick flick rut.

Apparently there is a game component to the Dark Tower trans-media blitz. Could be awesome. Could be so so awful.

You have to have the flashback in if you want to understand why Roland is who he is and why what happens on his final push to the Tower is important. The parallels and differences between his Gilead ka-tet and his New York ka-tet are key in the end.

MSUSteve is probably right in assuming the W&G flashback (and probably the Fall of Gilead and Battle of Jericho Hill) will be dealt with in the TV component of the project.

God, is the Javier Bardem rumour still around? I would be so sold on that.

Rumblings are that Universal is about to put the whole movie trilogy plus TV series into “turnaround” which basically means they are willing to let it be shopped to another studio or for a partner to take on some of the financial risk. While the stories at Variety and the Hollywood Reporter (both behind their subscription walls) say Universal is still interested, it appears they aren’t comfortable with the expected costs. Supposedly the project has Bardem attached and near to signing officially.

Turnaround sometimes kills a project altogether, though, so its worth watching.