I first heard of Ron Howard being interested in adapting The Dark Tower series of novels a couple of months back, shortly after J. J. Abrams gave up on it. It sounded like a bad idea back then. It still does.
I hoped that plans would fell through, after all, Abrams gave up on the project because he felt it was a long and hard task, and something that he wouldn’t feel right not doing justice to something as important as this. Apparently, it’s going forward.
I’d suggest you read the above article/statements, cause I’m gonna be commenting on a few points.
Ron Howard’s filmography includes films like Cocoon (1985), Willow (1988), Far and Away (1992), Apollo 13 (1995) and more recently A Beautiful Mind (2001), Frost/Nixon (2008) and the Dan Brown novel adaptations The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009).
Let me say, Ron Howard is a very talented director. I still enjoy watching Cocoon and Willow as escapist entertainment, they’re a good example of 80s adventure films, in the fields of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. These are films though that were made more than twenty years ago, and their style would never fit: A) A modern high-budget production and B) The Dark Tower universe.
Since then, Ron Howard’s strong points are real life character dramas. I mean, who didn’t like Frost/Nixon? Who wasn’t touched by the story of John Forbes Nash, Jr. in A Beautiful Mind? Frost/Nixon in particular, was in my top 10 list of 2008. It’s very hard to make a film about an interview regarding politics, and still have people on the edge of their seats, people like me, who have no interest in politics!
However, when you look in his attempts to make big-budgeted, big scale films, incidentally adapted by novels, the examples you get are The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons. Although opinions differ on the films, the general consensus is, they suck. Big time.
And the Dan Brown novels are, honestly, nowhere near the complexity, scope and ambition of The Dark Tower series. Fun to read, yes, good, enjoyable books. They rely on riddles, information and plot twists, but not in a bad way, they are a good beach read, as I’d like to say. And when I read the Dan Brown novels, I thought they would be some of the easiest things to adapt! I kept thinking “How can they mess it up?”, they were very straight forward, very tightly written and fast paced.
I don’t know how he did it, but he messed them up. And if I can give him some credit for The Da Vinci Code (just a little bit), I can’t say anything for the atrocity that was Angels & Demons.
Returning to The Dark Tower again, it’s a series that is part-Western, part-Horror, part-Sci-Fi, incorporating themes of destiny, religion, knighthood, honor, aspects of different dimensions and the way the universe holds itself together… among other things!
Of course, as in the core of every great story, the heart of the Dark Tower is the relationship between the main characters. Flawed heroes, all battling their own demons and how (and if) they overcome them. A very internal story surrounded by an infinite magical universe.
It’s simply that, there’s nothing in Ron Howard’s past work that can convince me that he can do a great job on it. Quite the opposite actually…
Which brings me to the way they’re thinking to adapt it.
I have to say, the idea of combining TV and films seems an interesting one, but I’ve got two main issues with the way they’re describing it.
They’re saying that the second season, which will come after the first two movies, and the first TV season, is gonna be about the Young Roland. We know that this is the 4th book of the series. After that, “a third film will return to the older Roland and round up the series”. So wait a second, are they implying that the last three books, literally half of the whole story in volume, is going to be crammed into one movie. Even if the movie is a long, epic one, it will infinitely diminish all the aspects of these books. Books that are amongst the finest pieces of modern writing, especially 5 & 7!
And also, NBC? I always believed that The Dark Tower would be better fitted in TV, due to the sheer volume of it, but that would be only in two channels I could imagine: HBO or Showtime. Networks with balls, you can’t shy away from the violence in this story, or the horror, it’s an essential part of the narrative. I’m disappointed…
These are my main objections with the whole idea. If it finally happens (I still have my doubts), believe me when I say I really wish I will be proven wrong and it will be great. I don’t believe it though.
And if I had to choose a film maker, some people that I believed would have a bigger chance of doing justice to the material, well, here are a few suggestions:
Christopher Nolan: Mr. Nolan has repeatedly proven that he can handle scope and quality at the same time. One of the finest directors working today.
Frank Darabont: Countless people have adapted Stephen King’s works. Most of them have failed miserably. Frank Darabont did it three (!) times, and he made three masterpieces. The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile & The Mist. Enough said.
Zack Snyder: I already know that many people will have objections over this one, but for one thing, Zack Snyder has proven he has utter respect for the source material in his adaptations, and in return, I respect that.
That’s all folks, and thanks a lot if you read all this!
