Khef, ka and ka-tet - Any Dark Tower fans excited over Book 5? (1 Viewer)

[Jed M]

Dome, thats a good call. I always had Tim Roth jumping in my head for Eddie, so we kind of saw a similar person. Same thing with you, not my choice, just how I always saw him.

 

[Carlo_M]

Well Eddie's supposed to be in his twenties, right? (I think)

But both Roth and Sinise would nail Eddie's character, if only they were a little younger.

For someone closer to Eddie's age and who could potentially pull off his character (only seen him in a couple of films, Scream 2 and more impressively "Go"): Timothy Oliphant.

 

[Dave Anderson]

There are too many favorite moments to list them all. There is no single one that I could choose.

I love each character; they are all fantastic. But Roland is one bad ass mofo.

The books are fantastic. I've "listened" to them several times each. I own all on unabridged audio book. King read the first three, and then Frank Muller came along and did 1-4. Frank Muller is a FANTASTIC reader! If you haven't had a chance, give his stuff a try. Sadly, he had a major accident years back and has been unable to do any more audio books. The guy who did Wolves of the Calla is okay, but he aint no Frank Muller.

I'm 1/3 through Calla and loving every minute of it. I don't mind finishing it now, cuz I'll listen to it a few more times while waiting for book 6.

My favorite book is also book four - I love Roland's past. I also love the first book (didn't like it upon first reading, but a followup reading got me hooked on it).

 

[Carlo_M]

You know, I've started "writing a screenplay in my mind" for these books. I do so with all of my favorite works (sometimes I commit them to paper, other times I just visualize how it would look onscreen). I did it for Lord of the Rings quite a few years ago, which is why I was a little disappointed with the changes PJ made to TTT because I thought they weren't necessary - the way they were in the book could have translated onscreen...

Anyway, back to The Dark Tower series. I realized that this would be a near-impossible undertaking. The style of writing isn't conducive to onscreen delivery. Much of what King writes is internal - i.e. happens in the minds of the characters, inner demons to fight, etc. That stuff makes for great characterization in novels, but is very hard to pull off onscreen.

I fear that if someone were to try and make a movie series or TV series out of this, a lot would have to be changed, omitted, etc. Actually I hope King doesn't allow a teleplay or screenplay unless it really does capture the heart of his novels. There are other screenwriters out there more talented than I who might be able to do this justice, but my initial attempts have led me to believe it would be a gargantuan task.

I'm nearly on page 450, and I too have decided to forget about making DT5 last until #6 comes out next year. I'll just read this, and then re-read the whole series again probably in time for the next book.

 

[Clay Kilpatrick]

As not to let a Dark Tower thread die, I just finished Wolves, and it was a fantastic book. I really don't want them to end. It's weird, as I usually hate series. Anyhow, I was looking at the inside, and it lists several other books that are Dark Tower books, I can see how IT fits, but for the life of me, I don't see how Rose Madder and Bag of Bones are going to fit. Should be interesting. I need to get Black House read now.

Clay

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I think it can be done. And there's no other beginning better than

"The man in black fled across the desert. And the gunslinger followed."

Can you just imagine the previews for that?

 

[Carlo_M]

I just finished Once Upon A Time in the West. I know King has gone on record as saying The Dark Tower was inspired by his desire to:

1) write something as long and epic as Lord of the Rings, without ripping it off, and
2) seeing The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

While no doubt I can see Eastwood's "Man with no Name" as Roland, I have to think that King was also influenced by OUATITW. Being a Leone fan he surely saw it in 1969 and he didn't start writing The Gunslinger until 1970. I say this because of a couple of things:

1) Frank (the adversary) towards the end of the movie is dressed all in black
2) The abundance of clothes in this one that are "the no-color of dust" which King uses to describe the Gunslinger's clothes but I never, until I watched OUATITW, understood or visualized what that color was (it's the one Bronson is wearing).

Just more food for thought. If you're a DT fan, and haven't seen OUATITW, run, don't walk, and pick up that DVD!

 

[Dome Vongvises]

Wow, good comparison. I saw OUATITW about half a month or more ago, and I loved the movie.

 

[Neil J]

I think in the Wizard and the Glass he also describes some outfit that is basically a poncho, first thing I thought of when I seen some scenes in Once Upon a Time...
Also Wolves is a very good book, pretty emotional in some places. I think that Wizard and the Glass is my favorite so far.

 

[Carlo_M]

Ah yes, how could I forget to comment on Wolves of the Calla, having just finished it.

I too liked this book, a very fitting chapter in the saga. Glad to see Pere Callahan again, and to have his backstory after Salem's Lot. I always did wonder what happened to him. Also glad to see Roland & Co. progress towards the tower again (even though Book IV is still my fave, I can understand how many were a bit peeved that in 700 pages King got the Tet hardly any closer to the goal). I am anticipating Books 6 & 7 all the more now. Ah well, at least I know that in one year, it will be all finished. I'm actually getting a bit sad about that, come to think of it. Sure it was a bit maddening knowing that it would be four, five, six years between books, but at least there was always something to look forward to. Now the series is finally going to be finished.

All good things must end.

 

[Carlo_M]

Just got the email that said the pub dates for Song of Susannah and The Dark Tower were pushed up to June and November of this year.

SOS is 432 pages according to Amazon (King had said it would be a "short" one - in comparison to W&G, WotC I suppose it is short).

No word yet on how long The Dark Tower is supposed to be, but knowing King I would be surprised if it clocked in at under 600 pages.

How sad, after this year, LoTR (movies) are done, and the Star Wars Trilogy will be out on DVD, and now the Dark Tower books are finished. I'm officially out of things to look forward to. :frowning:

 

[Jim_C]

Thanks for the update. Too bad SoS is so short. I can't get enough of this series.

>>How sad, after this year, LoTR (movies) are done, and the Star Wars Trilogy will be out on DVD, and now the Dark Tower books are finished. I'm officially out of things to look forward to.

 

[Hugh Jackes]

Don Wahlberg = Eddie Dean.

I wouldn't have said this if I hadn't seen his amazing performance in The Sixth Sense.

 

[Carlo_M]

Nice call, Hugh.

So far we've got:

Viggo Mortensen as Roland (this may have been in another DT thread)
Don Wahlberg as Eddie Dean

I would add:
Alfre Woodard as Susannah

And yes, before someone says it, I feel safe in saying that judging by Hidalgo and other performances, it wouldn't be a case of "Hey there's Aragorn The Gunslinger!" He actually looks very different shaven in Hidalgo, and he's a good enough actor and has never "mailed in" a performance.

Oh and one big surprise...

Tom Hanks as The Man in Black / Marten

Before you all go laughing your heads off and calling me an ass, hear me out. For Once Upon a Time in the West, which heavily influenced The Dark Tower, Leone used someone who was beloved and always seen as the "good guy" in the role as Frank: Henry Fonda. I think the same sort of thing could be done here, with Hanks allowed to break out of his goodie-good role and really step up as a menacing, yet with a bit of whimsy and sarcastic acidity to him, Man In Black.

Plus I'd ask that Frank Darabont direct (and probably screenwrite too) the movie, and he and Hanks have worked together.

And we'd make the film "Leone" style. Lots of vistas, close ups, lots of drawn out tension, snappy dialogue when called for, and 5 seconds of gunplay to settle some scenes (and some longer, more elaborate major skirmish sequences).

The real fun, though, would be casting Wizard and Glass and finding great new talent to play Young Roland, Alain, Cuthbert and Susan (ooh! the possibilities!).

Oh, and Bill Paxton would make a good Steven Deschain I think (based on his turn in Tombstone).

 

[Dome Vongvises]

And Lindsay Lohan as Susan Delgado.....

You know, I'm not even quite sure if I was being serious about that or not.....maybe Kaley Cucco.....

 

[Jeff Pryor]

You know, guys, if you look closely at the Gunslinger's face on the new cover of the revised first book, I'd swear it resembles Viggo.

I've been reading this series since 1985 and finished 'Wolves of the Calla' a month after it's release. Good book, but the ending was too short and sweet. According to Stephenking.com the release date for 'Song of Susannah' is June and 'The Dark Tower' has been pushed up to September!! Yippee!

 

[Carlo_M]

T-minus fifteen days and counting until Song of Susannah hits your local bookstore!

I just went to www.stephenking.com and read the prologue.

I also recently finished re-reading Insomnia, which I hadn't read in almost a decade since it was released, and never realized how much it had to do with the Tower!

Not only that, but I think I was too young to understand Insomnia when I first read it (I was around 20 back then) but now in my thirties I certainly am in a better position to understand growing old and not being as sprightly as you were when you were in your teens.

 

[Carlo_M]

PS - I know that according to King, Roland's world is in nearly all of his works. But the major ones that I think correlate directly (might be considered ancillary Dark Tower books) are:

The Talisman
Black House
Insomnia
'Salem's Lot (only to learn where Father Callahan comes from)
The Stand

Any others?

And one more update on pagination:
Song of Susannah is 432 pages
The Dark Tower is 768 pages

Damn, 1200 more pages and then I'm finally finished with this. It took almost my entire lifetime for King to finish!

 

[Michael Martin]

I'd like to ask a question about the series to the fans - one that was sparked looking at King's website and the cover of the seventh book.

In the opening of the second book,

Roland gets a good many fingers chomped off by some nasty crab-like critters. This put me off reading more: how can he be a gunslinger with no fingers?!


Here's my question. OK, questionS. First, from those who have read the series, did this event strike you as arbitrary or did it serve the story in some way? Also, does Roland get "healed" or made whole in any way?

I've been wavering on trying the series again - I've read the first book a number of times - but the opening for book two threw me quite a bit.

 

[John Miles]

My credit card was charged last week for the Artist Edition of Song of Susannah, so hopefully it will be showing up soon. With Wolves, Grant took their sweet time shipping the Artist Editions out, and it was hard to resist picking up a mass-market hardcover edition while waiting for it. I hope they don't drag their feet this time around.

Edit: No sooner did I hit 'Post' than this bit of welcome spam appeared in my mailbox:

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