The Dark Tower is Stephen King’s magnum opus. The epic series, which basically ties the King universe together, is a favorite among King fans. It’s a huge feat and story that was adapted into a terrible movie only a few years ago. The movie was bad, perhaps bad enough to help kill off the planned television series based on the book.
The Dark Tower Show
Amazon was adapting the series with showrunner Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) on board as showrunner. In January, however, Amazon decided not to move forward with the epic fantasy project. Instead they bet their bucks on a new Lord of the Rings series, not the story of Roland chasing after Randall Flagg (aka The Man in Black).
What Was The Story?
There’s so much story to tell in The Dark Tower universe. A movie or even a trilogy of movies sounded implausible. A television show, on the other hand, is perfect for the nonlinear franchise. Originally, Mazzara and his team were going to focus on Roland’s younger years as a gunslinger long before he chased after The Man in Black. The showrunner was going to adapt “The Wizard and the Glass” first, but instead, decided to go back to the beginning, “The Gunslinger.”
The Pilot
The Dark Tower series begins with a bang and one of the all-time great lines in both King’s body-of-work and literature. “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed,” King famously wrote. The first book is a simple chase story, which somehow the movie screwed up almost every way imaginable. During The Kingcast podcast, Mazzara revealed the plans for The Dark Tower pilot:
The story of the pilot is basically Roland in the desert. The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. In this version he’s chasing Marten because Marten was with Gabrielle (Roland’s mother) and he’s vowed his revenge. In the books, (Roland) gets his guns to kill Marten and then Marten sort of disappears from the narrative. So (Roland) chases Marten across the desert and ended up in Hambry. He meets Susan. In the pilot it’s the Feast of the Kissing Moon and she’s being presented to the mayor and she meets Roland on the road. Roland goes into Traveler’s Rest. He has the scene where the Big Coffin Hunters trip Sheemie and Roland gets into a classic western stand-off. The ka-tet catches up and we have Cuthbert use the slingshot and he takes out one of the Big Coffin Hunters. They go into the square and as they’re arguing, Roland explaining he’s there to find and kill Marten, Susan grabs him and they dance. They actually dance to a Flogging Molly tune, which I love. The Big Coffin Hunters come in and are chasing him through the square, but Roland sees Marten, so everything all collides in the end.
Will We See The Dark Tower Again?
Amazon and Mazzara aren’t moving forward with The Dark Tower. However, a title as famous as The Dark Tower won’t stay dead forever. Other artists will come along and try to get King’s epic story done right. Ideally, HBO would buy the rights and give the series The Game of Thrones treatment. It’s a show that needs a lot of money to do the story right. The movie… the less said about it, the better. It had none of the book’s imagination. Hopefully, one day fans of The Dark Tower will get the adaptation they deserve. Mazzara said he wanted to stay faithful to the series and its major events, unlike the horrific movie.
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