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All Things Serve The Beam...


All Hail The Crimson King!

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alain johns was the best character in that series... calahan, jake and susannah are great, but i prefer the past stories... too bad there's only 1 more to go...

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If you love the past stories, have you heard about the Comic Book, say thankya?

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I have never seen this short but is it a take off of the stephen king book?

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No, it has no relation to it except in name only.

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Long days and pleasant nights.

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My you have twice the number
Homer: "Your right!First thing tomorow im gonna punch Lenny in the back of the head."

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This is such a funny post. I heard about the comic series coming out in March released by Marvel; posted on Stephenking.com for more info. I can't wait, and wouldn't it be killer for directors like Tarantino and Rodriguez to team up again to bring us the DT films with the same genius vision as Sin City? :) Tarantino was thinking about making a Western, no?

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I honestly don't think there's any way they could do those books justice by bringing them to TV. They'd have to lose too many elements to make it "popular" with the networks.

I myself am currently reading through Book 7; The Dark Tower. Its been excellent so far, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it finishes (although one of the chapters is titled The Ka-Tet Breaks, so I'm expecting deaths). I'm currently up to the story about Brautigan before he joined Algul Siento.

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if you like Brautigan's story, you should definitely read Hearts in Atlantis... more about the low men...

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It could be an HBO mini-series. They wouldn’t have to pull any punches, length and courting the popular demographics would not be a concern and HBO has a gift for getting great talent. Not to mention it would be a wonderful DVD package. I know they already have a western series with Deadwood…but The Dark Tower isn’t exactly a western. And they already have a perfect Roland on the payroll (please don’t berate me too much for this) : Timothy Olyphant.

"The speed compressing time like a divine piston on its awesome downstroke."

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I hope the DT series goes animated and put it on SHOwtime.

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This story will, as with all SK page to screen, lose a lot of its wonder and power. something is lost in translation. if something like this was produced it would be dissapointing, for me anyway. There is no way JJ Abrahams can put what i see in my mind and heart on the screen. He's good, but not that good

"(Gasp!) That man is my exact double!,..That dog has a puffy tail!" H. Simpson

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"The man in black walks across the desert. The gunslinger follows"

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If they want it to be a movie it would be like...10 different movies. Though it is a great book series and can't wait for the comic book series by marvel.

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ka

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I could visualize a movie of 'the Gunslinger,' and worked a little bit on a adaptation back in a college class. I think it would be too difficult to make the whole series into movies and keep them on the same consistency as the books. Anyway-
I always thought Ray Liotta would make a good Roland. I like Johnny Depp for Walter/Flagg. I will have to think more about my ideal casting for DT1, postem later.

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looking at the illustrations in "The Dark Tower" (book 7), I kinda thought the Artist might have been modeled at least in part on Johnny Depp (it's the mouth). I would definitely hope Depp would be in it somewhere. King mentioned B. B. Thornton as Roland, though he may have been kidding.
As for the amount of movie required, it seems a lot of the backstory (like 'Salem's Lot) could be briefly summarized, as it's already a book (& movie?) of its own. Just a sort of, "I'm Don Callahan," quick flashes of scenes from the Lot. & so forth with all the other tie-ins. I dunno, King said he's not anxious to put it to film. I'm going to get the comics, though.
It would be great to see King play himself playing himself. Ka is a wheel.

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I think an HBO miniseries would be the best, with between 1.5 to 2 hours for books 1 2 3 and 6, and then longer for 4 5 and 7, the best and most intricate ones, imho.

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I'm on the fifth book now, and I must say that I enjoyed the second book the most, and I'm finding the fifth book to deviate a bit from the style I grew to enjoy from the first four. Perhaps its because I read them back to back and its much easier to notice the dissimilarities in the writing style and the direction of the books.

In the meantime, I was also under the impression that a minisereies would do the series justice, although I'd go ahead and make it a full blown series with the first season having about 10-12 50 minute episodes for books 1 and 2, the second season having about 12 50 minute episodes for the 3rd and 4th books. And so fourth... Really, the fourth book was alot longer than it needed to be. How many times did I have to read about charyou tree and the gunslingers counting stuff? Bah.

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a sidenote of some intrest-- i was watching Tron on the tv today. I hadn't seen this movie since i rented it in like 1983 or 84. It was very entertaining. kinda brought me back to childhhood for a little bit. anyway, the characters ultimate goal was to journey to the dark tower, the nexus of this computer reality where the master control unit or whatever was controlling, beat the tower gaurdian, and then set the universe right again, the computer universe that is, and they had to ride the beams to get there. I thought that perhaps king may have been influenced by this disney epic? thoughts? opinions? anyone?

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King has been working on The Dark Tower since 1970, on and off. Tron came out in 1982.

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ive been thingking about this for months, and (I hope they dont destroy this story by making a film) What if it was CGI?....No wouldnt work. I can see the wide sweeping landscape shots(desert, ocean, Mountains, you know what landscape is) anyway, ..

"(Gasp!) That man is my exact double!,..That dog has a puffy tail!" H. Simpson

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why not use the guy that plays Flagg/Walter in "the stand", he did a good job and that way people might see the link between the 2, just an idea

"one ring to bind them all"

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William Dafoe would be perfect as Flagg, so would Liam Neeson.

My Movies/TV/Sports Site

http://speardog.webs.com/tvshows.htm

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I like the Willem Dafoe idea-having him in the series would up its epicness 1oo fold!



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King was also saying on his website that he didn't want people to associate an actor with his charactors. I was thinking maybe it could be done with animation a style similar to that of Kill Bill vol. 1

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Say Gawd-bomb!

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I think that when Stephen King said that he did not want an actor associated with his characters he was no talking about people so much as having a concrete image placed on his characters. That's why the covers of his books are not "last supper"-esk depictions of the characters. Most of the characters on the covers are not even facing you. So an animated feature would be just as bad. I'm sure he was loathed to have the Marvel comic done as well. However, Marvel has the money to tempt the halo off an angel.

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Ka is a wheel.

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i 100% LOVED all the books apart from the way the last 1 ended that time loop thing was just a let down after readding thou all them books but then as king says its the journy that counts (sorry about my bad spelling)

i also loved the way King was in the book himself, i didnt see that comeing!, and jake comeing back that was a shocker too, wounder if they will ever make the books into films

i never cryed at books before but then the dark tower books came along!!!!!

"one ring to bind them all"

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The dark tower series was bloody awesome. I was disappointed at the crimson king being so futile and weak at the end. However i dont think he was that weak all along and this is shown in other books relating to the dark tower but not in the series itself. Heres my idea on how he became so weak. if uv read the talisman then youl know that every1 has a twinner, a person in an alternate world who shares a connection with them. And when one twinner dies then so does the other. The crimson King, being such a powerful entity has more than one twinner, weaker than him but all separately providing huge power for him eg. IT, TAK, BARLOW etc. And as each of these "twinners" is killed, the crimson king becomes weaker. I also believe he is connected to all of his lower minions aswel. And as all of his "twinners" are killed he becomes very very weak, however still immortal. In Black House his power is obviously reduced significantly when the big industrial death machine is destroyed.

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Oh SevenJT, don't mean to berate you or anything, but you forgot the Kingfish. :) This was supposedly THE Crimson King from "Insomnia." That is supposedly why the Crimson King appears so old at the end of the dark tower. Ralph mucked him up good. :D

I was actually bored enough to write up a small screenplay for the first book, since it was, like, really short compared to the other tomes of the Dark Tower...also it's not as stuffed with as much scenery. A huge desert, a town on the brink of becoming nothing but a deserted devil-grass garden, an underground mining area with a type of railway system, and at the end a huge beach with a few questioning, four-foot long creatures...

Yeah, I could definitely write the others if I were just inspired enough...

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I say go for it. Maybe someone will be interested.

"I bought myself a parrot. The parrot talked. But it did not say, 'I'm hungry.' So it died."

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i've had an idea for a while that it could be done on HBO or summat, and in the style of the animatrix, where each of the seven books is done by a different animator/director. i think that it would be absolutely perfect.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" - Jebediah Springfield

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I totally agree, I think that animation is the way to go with this one. There are just so many things to this movie that you would have to use CGI to get a lot of it done, and I think that CGI is crap (just my opinion).

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i disagree about cgi being crap, but i do think that traditional animation techniques could better compliment the books' tones and imagery. ...or maybe cel animation in a cgi environment...?

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" - Jebediah Springfield

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See the TURTLE, ain't he keen?
All things serve the *beep* beam

Oh, Susannah-Mio
Divided girl of mine
Done parked her rig
In the Dixie Pig
In the year of '99

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Ka is a wheel.
That must be one big feckin wheel.

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Stand and Be True...do ye ken?

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hey peeps,

heres mycast for a Dark Tower movie, I know that some of you will disagree, but you can stick it where the gun don't shoot

--Roland-Daniel Day Lewis
--Eddie-Johnny Depp or the guy who played Larry Underwood in THE STAND
--Sussanah-Halle Berry
--Cort-Tommy Lee Jones
--Walter/Flagg-Jamey Sheridan or Edward Norton
--The Crimson King-Charlton Heston or Clint Eastwood
--Jake-I don't know of many child actors, so I guess whoever looks and plays him the best
--Callahan-I'm not sure about this one either...
--Oy-The Taco Bell Dog!!!(lol, jus kidding)probably some CGI thing...


The director should either be Clint Eastwood(Million Dollar Baby), Mick Garris (The Stand), or Ridley Scott (Gladiator)


"We are Ka-tet, we are one from many...I think I'm Ka-mai(Ka's fool)"

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They have to keep the ending. That one was such a shocker for me. After reading all the books, the whole tale gets flipped on you. Roland just can't get a break.

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You guys need to understand that these films will take years to make. you cant put old actors in roles that willl not be filmed for six or seven years. the actors will need to be fresh, new faces. look at the past SK movies, Every film is about the story, never the actors.

Homer: "Your right!First thing tomorow im gonna punch Lenny in the back of the head."

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Roland: Thomas Jane or Tim Olyphant

Jake: Cameron Bright (leech from X-Men the last stand)

Eddie: Edward Norton

Susanna: Kerry Washington

Oy: CGI (Andy Serkis' voice)

Crimson King: CGI (don't show his face)

The Man in Black: (forgot his name...the guy who plays Joe Chill on Batman Begins)

Father Callahan: James Cromwell

All others should be cast with lesser known or upstart actors

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theres no way there will show the demon rapeing her lol unless maybe if its done useing a manga style cartoon

"one ring to bind them all"

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[deleted]

i always liked viggo mortensen as roland. not LOTR viggo but more along the lines of a history of violence. i watched that with my brother a while back and we were both like "Holy S#!T, its Roland!!!"

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Maybe they could do it in movies, but it couldn't be the same actors and actresses throughout. The books took 30 yrs to develop. Maybe the films could work the same way. I understand that it kind of sucks when actors are different in sequels, but these wouldn't be your typical sequels. Also, there could be a different actor for young Roland. The whole Wizard and Glass story could be all different actors.

I believe it would be more about the story then the actual actors. I see how this makes it even less likely with studios and what not, but I'll watch them. I'd just like it on the big screen vs 60 min shows on HBO.

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Oy was in Kingdom Hospital series, adapted from the danish "Riget". It wasn't any good, but it made my mind explode seeing Oy, even though he wasn't named in the bits I saw, I knew, JUST KNEW it was Oy, the snout, and yeah, that was pretty amazing.

I found a really crappy screenshot, but here you go: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/kingdomhospital/images/1024/anteater.html

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I could see the whole series being done in one movie maybe 2.5 hrs long would need to get rid of these parts of the books:

Book 1 - Get rid of this book altogether, wouldn't need it.
Book 2 - Keep it
Book 3 - Good, except nothing about Jake New York scenes
Book 4 - Get rid of Mejis flashback and all that has to do with it
Book 5 - No Mia's baby storyline, focuses mostly on the fight for Calla, no Pere Callahan flashback
Book 6 - No Stephen King storylines, no Mia storylines, was there anything else in this book? lol
Book 7 - Good focused mostly on fight to save the beam and Roland and Suzannah's Journey. No Stephen King storyline, Jake would have to die in the fight along with Eddie.

So basically it would be an adventure story without all the flashbacks and time warps and all that stuff. Starts with the drawing of the three, journey to Calla, fight with the wolves, journey to the breaker city (dont remember the name), fight to save the beam, journey to the tower - the end. Easy.

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That's horrible. You're just taking away everything that made the series great and enthralling. "Get rid of Mejis flashback"?? That was one of the best parts of the entire series! Making this into one movie is so idiotic, I can't believe you would even think of it.

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Well that is why it's a book and not a movie. Dont get your panties in a bunch, I was showing a way that it would be a reasonably length movie.

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Interesting idea, but I can hear the howls of Dark Tower Fans already ... (including myself when you excise some of the best action bits of the series with dumping all the Susan Delgado/Big Coffin Hunters from the movie!)

Much rather see it as a tv series or series of mini-movies for television. Special effects have moved on (as well as the world) and now they could cope with those bits of the Tower saga with ease. A set of decent actors and it could work as a tv series.

I love the idea of dumping the whole of the first book. lol ... cutting out "The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed..." from the saga is quite possibly the most weird idea I have heard in ages. For a start off, its a classic image thats haunted Dark Tower fans for over 30 years! Its an opening line thats as immortal as "Saw a werewolf with a chinese menu in his hand..." ... the film/tv series/cartoon NEEDS to start with that image. Even if they get NOTHING else right ...

That movie has warped my fragile little mind.

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I think a great actor for Eddie would be Shawn Reaves. He played Harrison, Tru's brother in Tru Calling. He has this kind of smirk and jokey attitude that I think would be perfect for the role. He's not a very well known actor but you should look him up.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0714188/

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Funny. you are right that'd work. And it might win a Razzie for one of the worst movies of the year. But it would make a 2.5 hour movie that no one would like. You sound like a Hollywood executive.

It isn't A book, it is 7 books. Can you come up with a way to make The Lord of the Rings in 1 short movie? I'd love to hear that plot. Some short guys find a ring. They find some archery guys who shoot some troll looking guys. Then he trips on a stone and drops the ring into lava......30 min sitcom.

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