Avid readers usually have a mix of emotions when a book they’ve read or are a fan of gets a screen adaptation. Some are excited to see their favorite characters and moments in a visual medium, while others are more trepidatious about the adaptation ruining the book that they are so fond of. Fans of Stephen King experience this swirl of emotions often, as King’s stories are constantly being adapted into films and TV shows, partially because of the stories themselves but also just because of how much there is to choose from, as King is known for being quite prolific.
Sometimes, King’s works are popular enough to getmultiple adaptations over the yearsin different formats. There was, in 2017, a film adaptation made based on King’sTheDark Towerseries, starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, and recently there were plans to adapt the books again in a TV series. Amazon was the studio behind it, and it was supposed to be totally separate from the movie and supposedly going to be a more accurate adaptation of the source material than the movie was. However, this specific adaptation won’t be seeing the light of day, at least, not with Amazon. But why did Amazon give up the opportunity to adapt a work from such a popular author?
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Why Did Amazon Pass On The Dark Tower?
It seems like any Stephen King adaptation would be lucrative, right? So why did Amazon pass on the opportunity?As reported by Deadline back in 2020, Amazon ordered a pilot for the proposed Dark Tower project, a shift from its typical straight-to-series approach. It seems that after shooting the pilot, Amazon executives felt that the show was not up to par with other big-budget fantasy series. For anyone who has read the Dark Tower series of books, it may not be a surprise to know that adapting King’s sprawling, weird, and complicated story from the page to the screen proved to be too difficult. This is even more apparent when rewatching Sony’s ultimately doomed movie adaptation.
The show was supposed to be totally separate from the movie, witha different storyline and cast. The plot of this proposed series would have drawn heavily from the bookWizard and Glass.This part of the story is told in flashback, taking place many years before the events of the first book and depicting the beginning of Roland Deschain’s story - including how he became a gunslinger and his first confrontations with The Man In Black. Unfortunately, it seems that this specific pilot and series plan won’t be coming to fruition.
Is Mike Flanagan Going To Adapt The Dark Tower?
There is currently aDark Toweradaptation in the works from famed filmmaker Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House,Doctor Sleep). The project doesn’t currently have a major studio behind it, though Flanagan noted that it might stream on Amazon Prime in the future, despite the fact that they might be a little reluctant to acquire it after their own failed pilot, but Flanagan and his creative partner Trevor Macy have an overall deal with them.Flanagan’s vision for the seriesis that it would be five seasons, followed by two standalone feature-length films. He also plans for his adaptation to take a different direction from both the 2017 feature film as well as the canceled Amazon series.
What is the Dark Tower About?
The Dark Toweris a mix offantasy, sci-fi, horror, and Western, and follows gunslinger Roland Deschain and his quest towards the titular tower, in both a physical and metaphorical sense. It’s heavily inspired by Arthurian legend, as Deschain is part of the knightly order of “gunslingers”, and is the last in the lineage of “Arthur Eld” (this universe’s version of King Arthur). The world he inhabits is comparable to a magical version of the classic American Old West, and Deschain’s quest involves finding the Dark Tower, which is said to be the nexus of all universes.
The eight books in the series expand upon Stephen King’s multiverse, even bringing in concepts andcharacters from his other novels, includingIt,The Stand,Salem’s Lot,The Shining, and many others. The idea behind the series initially came from the poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” by Robert Browning. King has also identified J.R.R. Tolkien’sLord of the Rings, as well as the filmThe Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, as influences on his work in theDark Toweruniverse. Like Tolkien, King even created a language for his characters to speak in the series called High Speech, which was also influenced by Tolkien’s work.
NEXT:Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower: An Explanation of Stephen King’s Sprawling Fantasy Series
