Not sure how this hasn't been on my radar
http://www.avclub.com/article/least-some-people-have-seen-footage-dark-tower-252805
http://io9.gizmodo.com/we-have-seen-the-first-footage-from-the-dark-tower-1793703645
Very cool. O0
I've been keeping my eye on this, having read the whole series a while ago. Both I and Mrs B really enjoyed the books.
Idris Elba as Roland is a fantastic bit of casting.
The man is an absolute powerhouse.
This looks really interesting. Thanks for the heads up, mirth.
The movie reportedly doesn't follow the books.
Still been looking forward to it. Been so long since reading the series, I don't even remember most specifics.
Quote from: Nefaro on March 28, 2017, 03:31:03 PM
Been so long since reading the series, I don't even remember most specifics.
There's always "Beans, beans, the magic fruit..."
When I hear Dark Tower all I can think of is this game I played the hell out of in the 80's:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarcentral.com%2Fpics%2Fdtg.jpg&hash=9e211648c5de0935f18e06f57068eccaca230444)
Quote from: bbmike on March 28, 2017, 06:47:57 PM
When I hear Dark Tower all I can think of is this game I played the hell out of in the 80's:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarcentral.com%2Fpics%2Fdtg.jpg&hash=9e211648c5de0935f18e06f57068eccaca230444)
NERD!!!!
Exactly. :))
That's what I thought of, too :bd:
I can still hear the creeeeak when a door is opened.
Quote from: Staggerwing on March 28, 2017, 06:37:17 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on March 28, 2017, 03:31:03 PM
Been so long since reading the series, I don't even remember most specifics.
There's always "Beans, beans, the musical fruit..."
ftfy
..the more you eat, the more you toot.
Quote from: bbmike on March 28, 2017, 06:47:57 PM
When I hear Dark Tower all I can think of is this game I played the hell out of in the 80's:
Someone released a highly scripted and faithful
Tabletop Simulator module for that recently.
Quote from: JasonPratt on March 29, 2017, 11:32:32 AM
Quote from: bbmike on March 28, 2017, 06:47:57 PM
When I hear Dark Tower all I can think of is this game I played the hell out of in the 80's:
Someone released a highly scripted and faithful Tabletop Simulator module for that recently.
Ha! Hopefully it includes all of the cheesy sounds. :P
Quote from: bob48 on March 29, 2017, 07:42:54 AM
Quote from: Staggerwing on March 28, 2017, 06:37:17 PM
Quote from: Nefaro on March 28, 2017, 03:31:03 PM
Been so long since reading the series, I don't even remember most specifics.
There's always "Beans, beans, the musical fruit..."
ftfy
..the more you eat, the more you toot.
Sorry, must have been some cross-pollination from my grade-school memories of the song.
:)
Quote from: bbmike on March 29, 2017, 12:51:31 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on March 29, 2017, 11:32:32 AM
Quote from: bbmike on March 28, 2017, 06:47:57 PM
When I hear Dark Tower all I can think of is this game I played the hell out of in the 80's:
Someone released a highly scripted and faithful Tabletop Simulator module for that recently.
Ha! Hopefully it includes all of the cheesy sounds. :P
It does indeed! -- up to and including the grinding of the motor as the internal 'faces' of the tower rotate to light up the appropriate screens.
I may very well read the whole series again; including book 4.1/2, although it adds nothing to the main story line.
I'm going to have to give it another try.
So it's Blade meets Lord of the Rings meets Wild, Wild West?
Starring Stacker Pentecost as "Heimdall the Gunslinger"
Which is pretty effing awesome
Wait. I thought Frodo destroyed the Dark Tower when he threw the One Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom? Maybe that was a 'decoy' tower to fool them. ??? The damned thing never looked too stable to me anyway. And with those big, black Dragon-Things landing and taking off all the time, no wonder it was falling apart. Trump could've fixed it up though. :nerd:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/movies/what-you-need-to-know-dark-tower-series-stephen-king.html
Ok. Kind of Planescape Torment meets The High-Plains Drifter? Could work. And maybe very well too. Thanks for the link Mirth. O0
^ Oh, that's a good mix! O0 The series is also kind of a nexus for a unified Kingiverse.
But no Killer-Clowns! :knuppel2:
Quote from: JasonPratt on May 04, 2017, 11:26:40 AM
The series is also kind of a nexus for a unified Kingiverse.
A case could be made that Walter o'Dim/Randall Flagg is the source of all evil in the Kingverse.
Quote from: Sir Slash on May 04, 2017, 01:57:23 PM
But no Killer-Clowns! :knuppel2:
Considering the origin of that clown, yeah that might be conflicting with the ultimate evil in TDT. But I haven't checked in on the canon crossovers yet, so I wouldn't put it past him to be involved somewhere. (Unofficially the books cross-over at least by mutual connections, if I recall correctly.)
Quote from: JasonPratt on May 04, 2017, 07:02:43 PM
Quote from: Sir Slash on May 04, 2017, 01:57:23 PM
But no Killer-Clowns! :knuppel2:
Considering the origin of that clown, yeah that might be conflicting with the ultimate evil in TDT. But I haven't checked in on the canon crossovers yet, so I wouldn't put it past him to be involved somewhere. (Unofficially the books cross-over at least by mutual connections, if I recall correctly.)
Quite a few, yes. I don't think he has a connection to It. And King did a little retconning to make o'Dim and Flagg the same character.
http://io9.gizmodo.com/all-the-secrets-unlocked-by-the-dark-tower-trailer-1794895364
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aarcentral.com%2Fpics%2Fnerds.jpg&hash=2a74bcce82c0d41b1b3fed3d47191897b8f9302b)
^that's a good one O0
Reviews for this haven't been good
http://www.avclub.com/review/stephen-kings-fantasy-saga-reincarnated-dud-dark-t-258965
Ouch! Too bad. Does the Dark Tower need to be put in a Dark Corner and left there?
Huh. I was going to guess that the AVClub reviewer would say they're mixing in waaaayyyy too many things from too many books (out to book 7 from what I've heard, which for a pretty insane series already sounds moar insaner); but his gripe was more that everything seems too perfunctory. ???
"What did I just watch? That was
nothing like the books. But, eh, Elba was good. [...] I found it to be... {pause to think about it} fine."
Plenty of compliments. Still C+
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 04, 2017, 08:42:30 AM
"What did I just watch? That was nothing like the books. But, eh, Elba was good."
That's pretty much the synopsis of every review I've seen so far.
Idris Elba is an excellent actor so it's probably worth seeing just for him.
From a reviewer who likes King's work but just hasn't ever thought he'd like the DT books: "...the books have
got to be better than this."
Quote from: mirth on August 04, 2017, 08:44:47 AM
Idris Elba is an excellent actor so it's probably worth seeing just for him.
Hell, Elba almost made
Prometheus worth seeing, and that's saying something.
Quote from: Steelgrave on August 04, 2017, 08:54:48 AM
Quote from: mirth on August 04, 2017, 08:44:47 AM
Idris Elba is an excellent actor so it's probably worth seeing just for him.
Hell, Elba almost made Prometheus worth seeing, and that's saying something.
I know. He almost single-handedly saved that mess.
The Star Tribune movie guy gave it only 1 1/2 stars (out of 4).
I'm seeing way too many reviews that are either bad or just "meh".
I hope it does well enough to warrant another installment. Idris Elba deserves a big movie franchise and the Dark Tower series has such potential.
Hollywood really struggles when adapting Stephen King works.
I certainly want a good series from it, but the current reported results do not give me confidence. :-\
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 04, 2017, 02:24:38 PM
I certainly want a good series from it, but the current reported results do not give me confidence. :-\
Agreed. I don't want them to keep producing dreck, but hopefully it's not beyond salvaging the series.
The TV Series appears to still be going forward. So... win?
Given how suuuuuper-meta the books get toward the end, the film may end up being canonical discarded canon. ::)
(Totally an Epileptic Trees level guess of mine, but entirely possible if the producers wanted to pull a do-over.)
You're probably right about that.
Why are you being so agreeable today? :timeout:
Quote from: mirth on August 04, 2017, 02:23:32 PM
I hope it does well enough to warrant another installment. Idris Elba deserves a big movie franchise and the Dark Tower series has such potential.
Hollywood really struggles when adapting Stephen King works.
Early indications on the box office are pretty bad. Dark Tower made only $100,000 more on its Thursday premier take than Valerian did. Valerian's 1st weekend take ended up being an abysmal $17 million.
"{massive sigh} ...so, it's, uh... ...it's already August." -- MovieBob
Quote from: Sir Slash on August 04, 2017, 03:00:05 PM
Why are you being so agreeable today? :timeout:
I dunno. It's making me nervous.
Quote from: SirAndrewD on August 04, 2017, 03:02:34 PM
Quote from: mirth on August 04, 2017, 02:23:32 PM
I hope it does well enough to warrant another installment. Idris Elba deserves a big movie franchise and the Dark Tower series has such potential.
Hollywood really struggles when adapting Stephen King works.
Early indications on the box office are pretty bad. Dark Tower made only $100,000 more on its Thursday premier take than Valerian did. Valerian's 1st weekend take ended up being an abysmal $17 million.
Game over man. Game over!
In other news, The Mummy still sucks.
This is pretty much the most favorable analysis I've seen of the movie
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dark-tower-movie-wins-by-keeping-stephen-king-close-heart-1026786
And I couldn't agree more with this
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dark-tower-idris-elba-is-good-movie-1026991
The film has hit fans so wrongly, that either a fan theory or maybe an official explanation (I'm not sure which yet) has risen on the internet, to the effect that this film is a sequel to the books.
That's technically possible! -- but would necessarily require the presence of an item that I haven't yet heard Roland possessing in the movie. It might turn out that a prequel to the books is the better Ascended Fandom theory.
ITEM CONFIRMED!! -- this means the film is a sequel to the books, and therefore just about any plot compression, shifting, alteration, etc., is justified. (Aside from generating film-only plotholes.)
So this is the start of just one more journey to the Tower. I'll give King credit for creating a very convenient plot device.
JP is right though - they should have shown him with the bugle.
The bugle is... apparently confirmed? Somehow? I'm still piecing this news together. My interest in the variant plot however has legitimately increased.
Quote from: mirth on August 08, 2017, 01:26:59 PM
So this is the start of just one more journey to the Tower. I'll give King credit for creating a very convenient plot device.
It wouldn't be just one more journey,
because this time he didn't forget to bring the dang thing. If he loses it on the way, however, he's probably screwed (along with everything else).
(I should add that I am not a big fan of stable time loop plots however.)
Doesn't he start with the Horn of Eld at the end of the last book? So at the very least, this is the new journey that starts at the end of Dark Tower VII, right? And theoretically it could be another journey entirely, but if he does possess the Horn of Eld in the movie we know he's not on the journey covered on in the books?
http://movieweb.com/dark-tower-movie-horn-of-eld-gunslinger-spoiler-revealed/
Quote from: mirth on August 08, 2017, 03:51:43 PM
Doesn't he start with the Horn of Eld at the end of the last book? So at the very least, this is the new journey that starts at the end of Dark Tower VII, right? And theoretically it could be another journey entirely, but if he does possess the Horn of Eld in the movie we know he's not on the journey covered on in the books?
Sounds correct to me.
I've only read parts of some of the books. So mostly I'm piecing it together from wikis.
Its worth reading in its entirety, honest.
..and preferably chronologically.......
I am indifferent Stephen King fan. At his best, he is incomparable. However his tendency to verbosity makes JP seem like an amateur :P
After watching those bad TV movies (It, The Stand, The Langoliers) I've avoided Stephen King like the plague.
He's better than the crappy adaptations of his work, but the man needs a good editor to keep him focused.
Quote from: mirth on August 08, 2017, 05:36:38 PM
I am indifferent Stephen King fan. At his best, he is incomparable. However his tendency to verbosity makes JP seem like an amateur :P
I cannot logically disagree with this. Or spiritually. Ecumenically. Grammatically....
Quote from: JasonPratt on August 09, 2017, 08:37:59 AM
Quote from: mirth on August 08, 2017, 05:36:38 PM
I am indifferent Stephen King fan. At his best, he is incomparable. However his tendency to verbosity makes JP seem like an amateur :P
I cannot logically disagree with this. Or spiritually. Ecumenically. Grammatically....
Well played O0
What about 'Dongle-ically'?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/08/movies/the-dark-tower-best-worst.html
Quote from: mirth on August 08, 2017, 06:27:41 PM
He's better than the crappy adaptations of his work, but the man needs a good editor to keep him focused.
His horror stuff, perhaps, but I would disagree with his other works -- I don't think there's any help for him there.
I distinctly prefer the film adaptations of Shawshank, Green Mile, and Stand By Me (
The Body) over the novellas/novels. They all possess a noticeable edge of...bitter grimness that really turned me off, and which the movies thankfully remove. Indeed, it was reading the original novels/novellas (after having watched the film adaptations) that made me realize I'm never going to enjoy King's writing.
So have any of you read the Dark Tower/Gunslinger series? I have not. I had the movie on earlier this morning and it wasn't bad at all. Then again I've never read any of the books pertaining to this so I imagine if I did now, I'd see the complaints.
Matthew McConaughey looks like a dude erring on the dark side of 40 trying out Just For Men for the first time and overdoing it on the black hair. He's intense enough for the role but he just looks like a sad guy trying not to look old.
Quote from: BanzaiCat on October 10, 2017, 10:03:46 AM
So have any of you read the Dark Tower/Gunslinger series? I have not. I had the movie on earlier this morning and it wasn't bad at all. Then again I've never read any of the books pertaining to this so I imagine if I did now, I'd see the complaints.
Matthew McConaughey looks like a dude erring on the dark side of 40 trying out Just For Men for the first time and overdoing it on the black hair. He's intense enough for the role but he just looks like a sad guy trying not to look old.
I read the first few books many years ago. Back in my teens.
Recall really enjoying the dark weirdness of the first one, at the least. Don't really remember details anymore, it's been so long, but I recall the tone and the setting to some extent.
When I read that the movie wouldn't be based on the first book, or any of them at all, I just expected I wouldn't like the movie. Even if I don't remember much of the story, I just imagined it would receive a full injection of Hollywood junk writing that misses what made the original good. Never went to see it because the reviews didn't convince me otherwise, unfortunately.
Idris Elba is a badass, though, and anyone else I don't think would have been fun to watch. At all.
I'd be totally behind Idris being the next James Bond, which I thought was a thing that was rumored for a while.
Quote from: BanzaiCat on October 10, 2017, 12:04:28 PM
Idris Elba is a badass, though, and anyone else I don't think would have been fun to watch. At all.
I'd be totally behind Idris being the next James Bond, which I thought was a thing that was rumored for a while.
It was rumored, but Daniel Craig is coming back for another one.
That's a shame. The last Bond movie was crap and he looked totally over it, not just in front of the camera but off camera, too. They must have thrown a load of cash at him.
Quote from: BanzaiCat on October 10, 2017, 12:08:12 PM
That's a shame. The last Bond movie was crap and he looked totally over it, not just in front of the camera but off camera, too. They must have thrown a load of cash at him.
$65 mil for Spectre and possibly offered $150 mil for two more
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/aug/16/daniel-craig-confirms-he-will-play-james-bond-again
Can't say I blame him for swallowing his pride.
I don't think he enjoys making them, but it's kinda hard to argue with that kind of moola.
Thing is, if he's not into it, it doesn't matter how much cash they throw at him; it's going to show on the screen.
I haven't much cared for any of the Craig Bond movies since Casino Royale. I like him fine, but the movies have been convoluted and boring.
I liked them, but they're not Bond films I'd go back and watch again. Except Casino Royale.
I fell asleep while watching Quantum of Solace and never bothered finishing it. Skyfall was okay, but it really didn't grab me. I watched maybe 15 minutes of Spectre and gave up.
In the last one he reminded me of Roger Moore after he got too old to play Bond anymore. Tom Hardy could do a good Bond I bet.
Tom Hardy is one of the names routinely mentioned as a next Bond.