GRcade

Poser wrote:Thing is, the Drawing of Three is the sort of narrative that would be dealt with by the first act of any standard Hollywood film. It simply isn't reasonable to expect a major studio-produced film to dwell on detail in the same way that King does, and certainly in such a non-linear way.

I can imagine there being a really decent origin story, that covers perhaps young gunslinger and his training, through to the events of Wizard and Glass.

(Must flag, I've only read the first four so far and am currently on The Black House. Next DT book (5) is next on the list.)

sawyerpip wrote:

Poser wrote:Thing is, the Drawing of Three is the sort of narrative that would be dealt with by the first act of any standard Hollywood film. It simply isn't reasonable to expect a major studio-produced film to dwell on detail in the same way that King does, and certainly in such a non-linear way.

I can imagine there being a really decent origin story, that covers perhaps young gunslinger and his training, through to the events of Wizard and Glass.

(Must flag, I've only read the first four so far and am currently on The Black House. Next DT book (5) is next on the list.)

Just a heads up, if you've only read the first four I would avoid reading any articles about the film, some of them seem to be a bit casual about spoiling the end of the series.

Poser wrote:

sawyerpip wrote:

Poser wrote:Thing is, the Drawing of Three is the sort of narrative that would be dealt with by the first act of any standard Hollywood film. It simply isn't reasonable to expect a major studio-produced film to dwell on detail in the same way that King does, and certainly in such a non-linear way.

I can imagine there being a really decent origin story, that covers perhaps young gunslinger and his training, through to the events of Wizard and Glass.

(Must flag, I've only read the first four so far and am currently on The Black House. Next DT book (5) is next on the list.)

Just a heads up, if you've only read the first four I would avoid reading any articles about the film, some of them seem to be a bit casual about spoiling the end of the series.

Awesome, thanks for the warning. I'm hoping to get everything read before I see the film but not sure how realistic that is at my current pace.

sawyerpip wrote:It's doable, although I guess it is more difficult if your reading list includes a lot of the other King books that feature in the series.

I really need to re-read it myself as the last time was probably when the final book came out. I havent read all of the other works that feature either, Hearts in Atlantis is a big one I missed. And the Wind through the Keyhole book that got released a few years ago.

The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (2004 revised edition)
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Stand (uncut edition)- While more tangential than some of the stuff I've left here, it's a good book and features a fairly major Dark Tower character.
The Talisman This is less connected to the Dark Tower books than its sequel Black House but you can't really read Black House without it and Black House is pretty heavy on Dark Tower relevance. I'm half convinced the writers of True Detective ripped off Black House massively.
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
Salem's Lot Don't skip this.
The Mist (Collected in Skeleton Crew)- This is skippable to be honest, though I like the story and I've been meaning to watch it on Netflix too. The reason I'm mentioning it is because Skeleton Crew has one of the most horrifying stories by King I've ever read (Survivor Type). No DT mythos in it but everyone should read that story.
It Almost entirely tangential to Dark Tower but if you're going to read King you need to read It, it's amazing.
Insomnia When you're reading this you'll probably be thinking it has massive DT significance but in the end not really. I'd still read it, but do so after It. It's a good book.
Everything's Eventual A cool short story but Little Sisters of Eluria in the same anthology is more DT relevant.
The Little Sisters of Eluria (Collected in Everything's Eventual) Dark Tower prologue story.
Hearts In Atlantis A really great anthology where the stories are all interconnected. Several DT characters feature.
Black House See my notes for The Talisman
The Wind Through the Keyhole This was the eighth DT book released but it's set right before V. Read it.
The Dark Tower Book V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

Riksilver wrote:One missing from that list is Ur from the Bazaar of Bad Dreams anthology
But yeah, I'm in the same boat, reason I stopped midway through the opening act of Wolves of the Calla was I realised I'd probably better read 'Salem's Lot first. And then took several months to actually get round to buying a copy, woops. I also really couldn't get into Insomnia, was going to go back to it a while ago but can't remember where I put it for the life of me.

Squinty wrote:Yeah, Salem's Lot is pretty important to this series later on. It's a good book as well, well worth a read.

I wish I could recommend The Stand as well, but the end of it is strawberry floating horrendous. Such a shame, as the first part of the story is strawberry floating amazing.

Poser wrote:

Riksilver wrote:One missing from that list is Ur from the Bazaar of Bad Dreams anthology
But yeah, I'm in the same boat, reason I stopped midway through the opening act of Wolves of the Calla was I realised I'd probably better read 'Salem's Lot first. And then took several months to actually get round to buying a copy, woops. I also really couldn't get into Insomnia, was going to go back to it a while ago but can't remember where I put it for the life of me.

Off the top of your head, would you happen to know where Ur fits into that list? I have that anthology (actually as a hardcover) so will definitely read that as well.

Poser wrote:
(Must flag, I've only read the first four so far and am currently on The Black House. Next DT book (5) is next on the list.)

Memento Mori wrote:

Poser wrote:

Riksilver wrote:One missing from that list is Ur from the Bazaar of Bad Dreams anthology
But yeah, I'm in the same boat, reason I stopped midway through the opening act of Wolves of the Calla was I realised I'd probably better read 'Salem's Lot first. And then took several months to actually get round to buying a copy, woops. I also really couldn't get into Insomnia, was going to go back to it a while ago but can't remember where I put it for the life of me.

Off the top of your head, would you happen to know where Ur fits into that list? I have that anthology (actually as a hardcover) so will definitely read that as well.

I think you can read Ur any time after Hearts of Atlantis.

Poser wrote:
(Must flag, I've only read the first four so far and am currently on The Black House. Next DT book (5) is next on the list.)

Read Wind Through the Keyhole (actually Dark Tower 8) before Wolves of The Calla.

The Guardian wrote:While sitting through this uniquely flavorless slog, a viewer jolts out of a waking sleep every five minutes or so to realize that they have not internalized a thing. Nikolaj Arcel’s efforts to translate and condense Stephen King’s long-running series of densely mythologized novels amount to being a western without the majesty of the west, a fantasy without anything even coming close to being fantastic.

jiggles wrote:Should've been a Netflix/HBO series.

The Dark Tower hasn't had an easy journey to screen.

Its release has been burdened by fairly damning reports of a troubled production and disastrous test screenings, which already put a cloud over the Stephen King adaptation, in a summer that has set its buzz already worryingly low.

With the books series' expansive universe already having crossed the desks of Ron Howard and J.J. Abrams alike, Sony Pictures eventually took on the task of telling the story of the Gunslinger (Idris Elba) and his eternal battle with the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) to prevent him from destroying the Tower, which holds the entire universe together.

Here's what the critics thought.

Variety - Owen Gleiberman

It aims low and hits (sort of). It’s a competent and watchable paranoid metaphysical video game that doesn’t overstay its welcome, includes some luridly entertaining visual effects, and — it has to be said — summons an emotional impact of close to zero. Which in a film like this one isn’t necessarily a disadvantage.

The Hollywood Reporter - John DeFore

Though far from the muddled train wreck we've been led to expect, this Tower lacks the world-constructing gravitas of either the Tolkien books that inspired King or the franchise-launching movies that Sony execs surely have in mind. Though satisfying enough to please many casual moviegoers drawn in by King's name and stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, it will likely disappoint many serious fans and leave other newbies underwhelmed.

Mashable - Angie Han

The Dark Tower isn't really a movie for people who've never read Stephen King's Dark Tower books. It hardly bothers to serve up any exposition, so newbies are thrown right into the deep end of its convoluted mythology.

But it's probably not for people who have read the books, either. The movie version is disappointingly lacking in the magic of King's novels. (The metaphorical, literary kind of magic, I mean – there's still plenty of magic in the plot, which the characters talk about constantly.)

The Nerdist - Victoria McNally

That, in fact, is the biggest challenge in adapting something as expansive and genre-bending as The Dark Tower: how do you make it stand out from all the other sci-fi and fantasy franchises that indirectly owe their existence to it?

In this area, the movie has a difficult time setting itself apart; despite all the Stephen King easter eggs, at times it feels more like somebody took the Western-futuristic aesthetic of Firefly, blended it together with the sorcery and demons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and slapped some Stargates in for good measure.

Uproxx - Mike Ryan

The Dark Tower is so astoundingly awful that when you leave the theater you’ll likely be less mad you wasted your time than flabbergasted that something like this could a) happen and b) be released as something that, theoretically, is going to launch a multi-platform franchise.

Indiewire - Kate Erbland

And while this all sounds fantastical and mind-bending, The Dark Tower is startlingly low on both energy or any larger sense of magic or a wider world beyond whatever Jake is able to experience.

While Elba and Taylor make a fine match, and the film picks up tremendous steam once they’re paired together, the script’s aim to keep things as lean and tight as possible mean they’re forced to rush through a complex story that deserves much more than a time-strapped take that gets significantly less interesting as it goes along.

Poser wrote:

jiggles wrote:Should've been a Netflix/HBO series.

On that note,a TV series has just been confirmed, based on Wizard and Glass.

Moggy wrote:Damn, I was sort of looking forward to this but it doesn’t even sound like it will be worth an illegal download.

Let’s hope that IT gives us a decent King adaptation this year.