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EW: The Dark Tower TV series to adapt "Wizard and Glass". Premieres in 2018.

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Simo

Simo

Member
Elba to star. 10-13 episodes with filming to begin next year and premiere sometime in 2018 when the first movie starts hitting streaming channels etc.
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/09/2...s?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter
In honor of Stephen King’s birthday, the makers of The Dark Tower film are unwrapping their plans for the saga’s companion TV series.

The movie — starring Idris Elba as the gunslinger Roland Deschain, and Matthew McConaughey as the menacing Man in Black — opens on Feb. 17 and explores the hero and villain’s opposing quests to reach an otherworldly tower that connects their apocalyptic realm with ours.

Ever since the film project was first proposed, it came packaged with an unusual idea: a spin-off TV show that would fill in the fantasy epic’s prodigious backstory.

Now, sources at production company MRC and the film’s executive producer and co-screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, have revealed to EW exclusive details about what they have planned for that series.
Click to expand...

First off, it’s definitely happening.

MRC has committed not just to making a pilot, but producing a full run of between 10 and 13 episodes, depending on how the scripts and story arcs develop. The Dark Tower show will begin shooting in 2017 with plans to premiere it in 2018, ideally around the time the film becomes available on cable or streaming services.

What the producers don’t yet have is a distributor. The darkness of the story rivals that of Game of Thrones, so they will require either a cable or streaming platform (MRC also makes House of Cards for Netflix, so they have a history already.) But MRC is not going to wait for a partner to come aboard before moving forward.

Elba has signed on to appear as older Roland alongside Tom Taylor, 15, who plays Jake Chambers in the film, a boy from present-day New York who harbors a secret, psychic power and is grappling with visions of the tower and the men (and other creatures) who are trying to reach it.

That duo will serve as the framing device for the show’s central story, which takes place many years before the events depicted in the film. Since the series will be Roland’s origin story, a younger actor will be cast to play the aspiring gunslinger as a teenager, back before the realm of Mid-World “moved on” into chaos and bloodshed.
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dark-tower-tv-image.jpg


There's more in the link obviously and they wonder about McConaughey’s involvement that it's a possibility given his character is in the story too.
 
K

Katori

Member
I've only read the first book in the series, but I thought this was the fourth book? I'm not sure how this fits in. Time-jumping shenanigans?
 
L

Lothar

Banned
This is the best Stephen King book. But it's all a flashback to when they were kids. There shouldn't be much of a role for Elba to play.

Katori said:
I've only read the first book in the series, but I thought this was the fourth book? I'm not sure how this fits in. Time-jumping shenanigans?
Click to expand...

Fourth book is almost entirely in the past.
 
C

Catchpenny

Member
Katori said:
I've only read the first book in the series, but I thought this was the fourth book? I'm not sure how this fits in. Time-jumping shenanigans?
Click to expand...

Book four is like 95% Roland telling this story about his past, so they could plug it in anywhere.
 
D

Depths of Orion

Member
Loved the dark tower series and Wizard and Glass was one of my favourites. Really excited to see the cast they choose.

Katori said:
I've only read the first book in the series, but I thought this was the fourth book? I'm not sure how this fits in. Time-jumping shenanigans?
Click to expand...

Wizard and Glass is a prequel to the whole story
 
Simo

Simo

Member
SpaceWolf said:
Not The Drawing of the Three?
Click to expand...
I think that's the plan for the film sequel.

Katori said:
I've only read the first book in the series, but I thought this was the fourth book? I'm not sure how this fits in. Time-jumping shenanigans?
Click to expand...

Likely just how the fourth book works, by Roland recalling his past. The idea for why they're adapting that story..
We won’t spoil the whole story-within-a-story of Wizard and Glass, but in brief, Roland reveals how he fell for the beautiful Susan Delgado, and later tested the faith of his original ka-tet — friends Alain Johns and Cuthbert Allgood. (None of these roles, including the young gunslinger, have been cast yet.)

“In the movie, Roland is suffering tremendous loss. The most concrete, personal, existential heartbreak a character can have,” Goldsman says. “If the movie chronicles his final reach toward hope again, the TV show is the loss of that hope.”

While the big-screen film mixes and matches elements of King’s saga (it serves as a a sequel, for those who understand the meaning of that instrument on Elba’s hip, known as the Horn of Eld), Goldsman says The Dark Tower TV series will be a more straightforward adaptation. “This one has much more fidelity to the story as King wrote it,” Goldsman says.
Click to expand...
 
S

Screaming Meat

Unconfirmed Member
Awesome. My favourite of the series outside The Gunslinger. Loved Roland and Susan's awkward teenage relationship. Cuthbert too.
 
B

Busty

Banned
Interesting.

I bet this ends up on fucking Crackle...., unless the film becomes a huge hit, I suppose.

I know a lot of other producers are looking at this as the 'canary in the coal mine' and if it works we could see a lot properties that are adapted using this duel film/TV production model.
 
Simo

Simo

Member
Busty said:
Interesting.

I bet this ends up on fucking Crackle...., unless the film becomes a huge hit, I suppose.

I know a lot of other producers are looking at this as the 'canary in the coal mine' and if it works we could see a lot properties that are adapted using this duel film/TV production model.
Click to expand...

They're looking at either HBO or Netflix, since the production company already produces House of Cards it's a good possibility for the latter. Either way though, they not only committed to the pilot but the full 10-13 episode season...even without a distribution partner.

I wonder if this bodes well for the film if they're pushing forward with the TV series already? We're supposed to get the first footage next month.
 
J

Jest Chillin

Member
kswiston said:
I take it that they will either age up the central characters or cut down on the sex.
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They don't really have to. Even the book primarily just mentions that it happens rather than giving a play by play. Actors just have to look 16~ish. Especially since they're aiming for Premium Cable/Streaming Service quality.
 
D

dan2026

Member
They already conformed that the movie is a sequel to the books though didn't they?
Due to the time looping bullshit.
 
G

Glix

Member
Hystzen said:
At least they confirmed the Horn is THE HORN Roland has.
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Wait! (massive spoilers)

He wakes up with the horn???? Would be cool if the movie/tv series were him looping again, with small differences, like him having the horn this time.
 
B

Busty

Banned
Simo said:
They're looking at either HBO or Netflix, since the production company already produces House of Cards it's a good possibility for the latter. Either way though, they not only committed to the pilot but the full 10-13 episode season...even without a distribution partner.
Click to expand...

No chance. Unless they have Idris Elba and McConaughey in it every week this just isn't going to happen.
 
D

DarkChronic

Member
Glix said:
Wait! (massive spoilers)

He wakes up with the horn???? Would be cool if the movie/tv series were him looping again, with small differences, like him having the horn this time.
Click to expand...

Yeah dude!

Roland has the horn, so the movie is a sequel. Great way to explain difference from the book IMO
 
M

Mac the KNife

Member
I have to imagine having Idris Elba attached will help get the show picked up.

I like the idea of perhaps having the more "small town" stories of the Dark Tower like Wizard & Glass be covered by the TV show. Wolves of Calla could also be handled this way.

Glix said:
Wait! (massive spoilers)

He wakes up with the horn???? Would be cool if the movie/tv series were him looping again, with small differences, like him having the horn this time.
Click to expand...

I love seeing people reach this conclusion.
 
T

Textured Monk

Member
Glix said:
Wait! (massive spoilers)

He wakes up with the horn???? Would be cool if the movie/tv series were him looping again, with small differences, like him having the horn this time.
Click to expand...

This is what's happening, although of course we dont know what the changes will be. It shouldn't affect the "past" in Wizard & Glass, though, at least very little. there's an earlier quote in the thread about this being more faithful to the book than the movie will be.
 
C

ClosingADoor

Member
Glix said:
Wait! (massive spoilers)

He wakes up with the horn???? Would be cool if the movie/tv series were him looping again, with small differences, like him having the horn this time.
Click to expand...
As far as I understand, that is the case. Gives them freedom to adapt it without having to go by the book a 100%
 
G

Glix

Member
Shit!!! This is all so awesome!

Time for another readthrough its been a few years!

Last time I went 7 backwards to 1 and it was awesome.

Have they come out with an edition where all 7 books match and have the art pages, along with a matching hardcover collection of any of the comics Jae Lee worked on?

I had the first four in those black re-releases they did shortly before 5-7 came out.

I have the hardcover with art for 5-7 but the formatting doesn't match 1-4. I have a super cool edition of 7 signed by the artist that did the paintings.

Because that would be boss
 
J

Jarmel

Banned
Wait doesn't Wizard and Glass take place when Roland was a lot younger?

Edit: Ok OP's wording had me confused.
 
P

Palette Swap

Member
That's actually a great call as that book (retroactively) sets up a lot of lore and back story.

Glix said:
Wait! (massive spoilers)

He wakes up with the horn???? Would be cool if the movie/tv series were him looping again, with small differences, like him having the horn this time.
Click to expand...
This is awesome.
 
S

Sullichin

Member
Glix said:
Shit!!! This is all so awesome!

Time for another readthrough its been a few years!

Last time I went 7 backwards to 1 and it was awesome.

Have they come out with an edition where all 7 books match and have the art pages, along with a matching hardcover collection of any of the comics Jae Lee worked on?

I had the first four in those black re-releases they did shortly before 5-7 came out.

I have the hardcover with art for 5-7 but the formatting doesn't match 1-4. I have a super cool edition of 7 signed by the artist that did the paintings.

Because that would be boss
Click to expand...

No :( This is the only complete set I know of:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1604322667/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Hoping that theres's going to be a sweet box set now that the series is getting attention again.
 
G

Glix

Member
IronRinn said:
I'm in the camp that (correctly) disagrees. Worst book in the series. What a slog.
Click to expand...

You don't have a heart.

Just getting to spend time with Cuth, Alain, and young Roland is worth the price of admission alone.

If anything Wolves is a slog because it is the very next book and they try and parallel W&G a bunch of ways.

Book 3 is underrated, btw.

edit - @ above - SOFTCOVERS!! Gross!! (I know the originals had oversized softcover editions for the art... but still, gross)
 
N

NeoGiff

Member
This is incredible news! I'm still struggling to get through the last book (I've heard how it ends), but a TV series is absolutely the right way to handle Wizard and Glass.
 
A

ahoyhoy

Unconfirmed Member
Textured Monk said:
This is what's happening, although of course we dont know what the changes will be. It shouldn't affect the "past" in Wizard & Glass, though, at least very little. there's an earlier quote in the thread about this being more faithful to the book than the movie will be.
Click to expand...

Roland being black will already impact the story, at least in relation to Odetta/Detta
 
Cyrus_Saren

Cyrus_Saren

Member
Awesome to hear. I'm in the minority but Wizard & Glass is my favorite in the series (although I haven't read Wind through the Keyhole yet). I hope they do it justice.
 
I

IronRinn

Member
Glix said:
You don't have a heart.

Just getting to spend time with Cuth, Alain, and young Roland is worth the price of admission alone.

If anything Wolves is a slog because it is the very next book and they try and parallel W&G a bunch of ways.

Book 3 is underrated, btw.

edit - @ above - SOFTCOVERS!! Gross!! (I know the originals had oversized softcover editions for the art... but still, gross)
Click to expand...
I've said it before, everyone who reads the entire series has one book that almost makes them give up. For me it was Wizard and Glass.
 
P

ProtomanNeo

Member
They must be mistaken. Not unless the bulk of it will draw from "Wizard and Glass" with the first few 3-4 episodes covering the "Drawing of the Three". Then again this is a new reality in the DT mythos so maybe he doesn't not encounter the Ka-Tet in the same way, if at all this time around.
 
Tathanen

Tathanen

Get Inside Her!
Hey guys should I read these books or what. I don't really "read" much, but the things I do read seem to basically always be fantasy series. His Dark Materials, LOTR, Time Quartet, and The Dark is Rising are some favorites.

Just seems like a huge time investment.
 
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