When Stephen King’s fantasy novel series ‘The Dark Tower’ finally made its way to the big screen earlier this year, it had been a long time coming. Fans had been waiting to see the Gunslinger – played by Idris Elba – and the other characters of the mystical world brought to life, and so it was disappointing when weak reviews and a poor box office came in for the flick.
Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba led the ‘Dark Tower’ movie
A number of filmmakers had been attached to the project, but it was Akiva Goldsman in the end that put together a cohesive storyline and hoped to pick up critical acclaim. Unfortunately for him, it wasn’t to be, and now it’s looking more unlikely than ever that we’ll see ‘Dark Tower’ back in movie theatres in the foreseeable future.
For fans however, there may be an answer. A television series is in development, and it’s one that King thinks will be a “complete reboot” if it does eventually broadcast.
Speaking with Vulture, the author opened up about why he thinks the film didn’t work, and teased a “reboot” if and when the planned ‘Dark Tower’ TV series makes it to air: “The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages. The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way. That was something that had to be overcome, although I’ve gotta say, I thought [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman did a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie. The TV series they’re developing now… We’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see.”
Though ‘The Dark Tower’ flopped by all accounts, King is still enjoying seeing his work adapted and doing well, with this year’s ‘IT’ becoming the biggest R-rated horror box office flick of all time, and thriller ‘Gerald’s Game’ doing extremely well in its home of Netflix as one of the streamer’s latest originals.
It’s going to be very interesting to see which of King’s work does well in the future and which fails to light a fire in the hearts of those watching in the near future. We imagine projects like ‘IT: Chapter 2’, are dead certs to bring in the big bucks.
More: Stephen King Explains Why He Thinks ‘The Dark Tower’ Movie Flopped
We’ll bring you more news on ‘The Dark Tower’ TV series as and when we get it.
