• I definitely like the idea of a series, although a movie would be incredible if it had the staying power of Harry Potter and the beauty and style of the Lord of the Rings series. In either case, I have been waiting for years to see this incredible journey on the screen.

• I've been saying for some time that someone should take a series of books like the Dark Tower and make them into a television series. Some might complain that we already know the ending, but that's not true for everyone, and the same complaint applies to film or mini-series adaptations as well. Regardless, I'm ecstatic to hear JJ and Team Darlton are involved! Would that they had been the ones to adapt Watchmen...

• I've been itching to see the first four books on filmed ever since Wizards and Glass came out (that's when I jumped into the series). Now, if only there was some way to wipe out the whole "Stephen King is god" plot, it'd be perfect. But since some pretty major plot points hinge on that notion, I don't see it happening. As for the whole show vs. movie conversation; personally, I think the material would work better as films. Perhaps five films at 2.5-3 hours a piece. I'd suggest Book IV, Books 1&2, Book 3, Book 5, and Books 6-7 in that order. john <a href="http://www.freeformovies.com">Free Movie Downloads</a>

• I would love to see these books turned into a 7 movie deal. I think they should start off with wizard and the glass as a prequel and add the stuff with roland's teacher. I realize this probably won't happen because it is 7 movies and each one would turn out to be quite long except for the first two. But I would at least like to see it become a tv series. truth be told, i dont really care how it is done as long as its done right.

• fuck jj abrams... fuckin hack.... and the stories... yeah they fall apart eventually too... and i dont think itll work...

• Some of you make my brain hurt. Sean T. whatever? Terrible terrible books?? What the hell are you reading?? Or maybe you have no brain. I would love to push you off a cliff. It's got to be a series, every story has to be told, oh my god Wizard and Glass is crucial so shut up, and wow. It's an amazing series of books, if it gets made into anything, rock on. Why pick at it? Let it be. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't, we still have the books! Jeezy peezy.

• Some of you make my brain hurt. Sean T. whatever? Terrible terrible books?? What the hell are you reading?? Or maybe you have no brain. I would love to push you off a cliff. It's got to be a series, every story has to be told, oh my god Wizard and Glass is crucial so shut up, and wow. It's an amazing series of books, if it gets made into anything, rock on. Why pick at it? Let it be. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't, we still have the books! Jeezy peezy.

• Dear god... please turn it into a miniseries... I couldnt stand Zac Effron playing Eddie, I really could not. At least with a mini series theres a larger pool of "talent" they could work from...

• Okay, I know I'm coming to this late, and others may have touched on it in posts previous, but... A) Why all the hate on Stephen King movies? Remember that The Shawshank Redemption - one of the greatest movies of all time and, I might add, a plot that readers of the story all knew the ending to - was a Stephen King adaptation. Sure, it was a hundred page story that was made into a near 3 hour movie, but it still worked. A lot. The problem comes when they ask the venerable Mr. King to take a stab at adaptation. B) I agree with some of the other commentators that there is a lot to stories that could be done away with. As long as the main themes persist: a knight on a lonely, seemingly impossible mission who finds compatriots along the way, the father-son dynamic between Roland and Jake, the sacrifices made to attain the goal. It could be good. Great, even. And JJ Abrams, while I don't kneel at his altar, is pretty damn good. C) Bruce Campbell as Roland? Think BC in Brisco County, not the Evil Dead movies. Does he have the chops? With adequate direction, yes. Nerd appeal? Definitely. Age? Between the relatively young Roland we see at the beginning of the saga and the aged, nearly decrepit Roland we see at the end, Bruce is in the prime age range. He would have to work to regain his slim physique, but we all know it'd doable with the proper dedication. I know that no one is probably reading this thread anymore, but I thought I'd share my thoughts.

• ***SPOILERS AHOY!*** If it did have to go the movie route I wouldn't want The Waste Lands to be lumped in at the end of the first movie, there's a hell of a lot of excellent stuff in that book that would make some great film (ie the fight at the beginning with the giant robot bear who's name escapes me at the moment, the Drawing of Jake with the demon house et al, the City of Lud and Blaine the Mono). I would prefer a TV series though, although I would like something a little different. Instead of recreating the books, why not get Stephen King to write the story but set it after the last book and maybe actually bring the full cycle to a final close? I mean, can you imagine if they made the books into the a series and kept the ending of Roland going all the back to the beginning? People who had never read the books would be tearing their hair out! If the story was actually given a new ending and had the story changed it would avoid the problem of the book readers not bothering to watch it as they know what was going to happen. I heard about Abrahms picking this up a few years back and I was pretty psyched back then, mainly because he's such a huge King fan that I'm sure he'll do the series justice =o)

• Screw that I want to see a set of movies or tv series for George R R Martins' A Song of Ice and Fire books. HBO has talked about doing them, they'll make an insanely good tv series.

• My vote is for TV series. My vote for Harry Potter was also for it to be remade as a TV series. Seven books could make seven SEASONS of content.

• &#64;Nat-Wu JJ and The Warriors that would be sweet one of my all time favorite movies. And @ MyNoNos if I remember right he bought the rights for $19

• Massive changes are going to have to be made to the series anyway. Just from the standpoint of telling a decent narrative they're going to either have to chop up Wizard and glass and tell the backstory through a series of Flashbacks or they're going to have to start with Wizard and Glass and then lead into The Gunslinger. There's a whole lot of fluff in those books that can be trimmed out, and condensed and it'll be a lot easier to take Simon and his magic chalk if I've only had to sit through three films rather than seven.

• Didn't Abrams buy the rights for a symbolic $1.08 or something also? I might have made that up too, heavy heavy drinking today.

• This is a bad gamble. Based on the fact that books made film rarely preserve the essence of the story, and the fact that the last two if not three novels of the series should never have been released, I can't see this working. Good luck.

• High-budget animated series on ShoTime or HBO where they could handle all the gore and language and get the right people playing the right roles. I've always imagined Roland's voice as sounding like Clint Eastwood or David Hayter (at different points in the narrative) so either one of them would be able to do it for the animated series. Who cares if they don't look the part or are just too damn old to act out the scenes as long as their voices fit the character? At least that's the way I've felt about it for years now.

• hate to say it but a tv series would be the only way the dark tower could be done right for no studio would go for a seven movie deal which would be needed given the source material. though the first three books could be combined as a movie then the rest as a tv series. though either way certain stuff int he books will not be allowed to happen either in a movie version or tv version of the dark tower.

• I'd prefer a tv series, but either way I have to say that at this point I pretty much trust J.J. Abrams with anything he chooses to do. I have seen the new Star Trek, and now I would believe this man could turn The Warriors into a blockbuster.

• 7 years is an unmanageably long stretch of time for both the actors and the audience. I think what we'll get is a movie based on the first book to see if it sells, then if numbers are good maybe two more. The second being also good, and the third where they try and cram the last 5 novels in with flagging interest and a lower budget.

• ABC is actually going to start a big viral campaign for a new show coming out this fall called "Flash Forward" that is supposed to be the new "Lost" kind of a show, so they probably wouldn't go for Dark Tower. I also think that Dark Tower is a little too dark and strange for t.v., but as a three or four part movie, if they could get a deal for four, that would be great. The special effects would be way better, and if it did well, maybe they could do something with the prequel comic books as well. I dunno.

• My vote is definitely for the TV series. The Dark Tower is odd enough to fill the void that is going to be left by the departure of Lost.

• Hm. TV series is probably the way to go with this one, I think. With liberal re-writes at the end of the story. IMO, it went to hell and was just a mess after Wolves.

• Gods, yes. I'm so happy to hear that this fell into good hands. I've been itching to see the first four books on filmed ever since Wizards and Glass came out (that's when I jumped into the series). Now, if only there was some way to wipe out the whole "Stephen King is god" plot, it'd be perfect. But since some pretty major plot points hinge on that notion, I don't see it happening. As for the whole show vs. movie conversation; personally, I think the material would work better as films. Perhaps five films at 2.5-3 hours a piece. I'd suggest Book IV, Books 1&2, Book 3, Book 5, and Books 6-7 in that order.

• I've known about this for about a year or two and I have to say, if it will be movies I'm glad it was JJ that got it because he could be the only one that makes them good. If its a tv series I would hope HBO picked it up and kept it up. But I would kind of like to see Direct to Video movies. Now before I get hatred thrown at me hear me out. If Watchmen were a DTV movie I think it would have faired better. Because they left so much on the cutting room that no one could follow it that hadn't read the books. So if they had just gone for the dtv and kept everything in from the start people wouldnt be left with bad tastes in their mouths. So I say a good Theater quality dtv would be excellent. They could keep everything that needs to stay in and make them as long as they want.

• I love this series of books, but I am reluctant to get to excited about any adaptation of them, be it tv or film. Having the Lost creators is exciting news, though. Hard to say whether tv or film would be better, one versus the other. A film could be fantastic, but could also end up semi-tanking like Watchmen did - drawing in die-hard fans, without peaking the interest of John Q. Public. A TV version would have to end up so watered down, but having the ability to stretch the story over seasons rather than 2 hours per film would help to expand on so much more. Having an HBO version sounds like it could be amazing... but, if any of their past shows are an indication, Dark Tower would get in two fantastic seasons and then HBO would say it's too expensive to produce and can it (i.e. Deadwood / Carnivale). And having 2 wonderful seasons with no conclusion is just painful. I'm definitely going to keep an eye on this as it develops.

• I actually agree that a TV miniseries would probably work better. Hence the difference in quality between the shitpile that was David Lynch's Dune and the Dune/Children of Dune miniseries. Maybe not aesthetically, but in terms of a faithful adaptation, oh yes.

• Actually the graphic novels work suprisingly well. They tell the story chronologically as opposed to how the books are written. I suspect any screenplay (movie or books) would be more tied into this approach. Though I love the Dark Tower, there was an awful lot of filler. i don't think you'd even need seven series for TV.

• I am torn, as much as I love movies I like TV series more. Not because it is free but you can fit more into a TV show and you could get more out of the Dark Tower as a show. Now ABC? It would be great but why not HBO? WOuld not have to cut things out of it then, well cut less out. I mean yeah it sucks having to pay to get to watch some shows but I think it would be worth paying to watch a maxi-series of the dark tower by J.J

• I think doing Dark Tower as an ongoing series would be pretty amazing. Even if ABC were to pick it up, I don't think they'd have to stick to the one-story-arc-per-season model. They could work it--as for network TV not being able to be graphic enough, I disagree. It won't be tantamount to a horror flick, sure, but LOST has pushed the envelope pretty far already in what's able to be shown. And honestly, sometimes the horror of the unseen is worse than the seen, in my opinion. Great idea, I think, especially to take over after LOST ends. With the LOST crowd following Abrams, and the fans of the recent comic book series, and the King faithful? That's a pretty heavy-hitting core audience just to start out.

• I'd want a TV miniseries. About 24 hours total for the entire series, but I ultimately want some tight writing.

• I think the actor who plays Sawyer on lost would be a good Roland, but they MUST get Gary Oldman to play Martin/Walter, such a perfect fit!

• i've always felt that the dark tower would only really work as a series on hbo or something. the networks would have to censor a bunch of stuff. you can't have detta without a shitload of expletives.

• Make it a series whenever they try to make movies out of long book series they always lose something, they do it with tv series too but at least with something that is long they can add it in better than just squeezing alot of info into a 2 hour block. Aslo with the comics they have made, they can be incorporated as well. It doesn't have to be 7 seasons long since the first few books would squeeze nicely together as one season, but it would be nice to see done.

• I love me some Dark Tower. I'd prefer for it to be some epic major motion picture. The Lord of The Rings wasn't supposed to transition well to film (and God help us, I'm not opening this for discusion again LotR fan) but it made a billion dollars. Being a realist, this is gonna be done on TV. I would highly prefer it be HBO. I was once read they were toying with an HBO anime makeover. Maybe I made that up though...

• A TV series would be potentially interesting except, ironically enough, I don't think that fans of the book series (this includes myself) would have the patience to sit week after week watching a story which they all know how it eventually all ends. Perhaps if the series took more of an "expanded universe" concept, filling in the gaps between the books and the like. The Marvel comics series doing this are being received well as far as I know, so the idea could work in series format with broader appeal. But if you you want to stay faithful to the books, do a movie trilogy instead, or maybe four movies with one solely devoted Wizard & Glass.

• Screw ABC. They won't let the series have the violence and sex it deserves. I am a gorn fan, but can anyone honestly say that a network station would do the series justice? I say we look to HBO or Showtime. They could provide the money needed and we wouldn't have any limitations on the content.

• I would think a TV series on HBO or one of the premium channels would work best, because it would allow the stories to breathe a little bit. They could be a little more serialized than episodic, and they wouldn't necessarily have to have one book per season. The Gunslinger wouldn't take more than 4-5 episodes, while the last two could take years apiece.

• ... Huh. Well, good luck to him. I haven't read the Dark Tower novels, but having read the plot summaries, I'd say it's a sufficient mindfuck. On the other hand, if Abrams is spearheading it, it might turn out good. Unlike Stephen King's other films...

• Yeah, I'm gonna go with the TV series idea. It's too long to do in movies, I reckon. It would be interesting to see who they'd cast as Roland, too.

• I think the first three books could be combined into two movies. The first book is fairly short, particularly by comparison to later works. Once we've seen him draw his three, they get a little more convoluted. Wizard and Glass is a love story, I can imagine them skipping that entirely, but I think it'd have to be its own movie if they made it into a film at all. Wolves of the Calla is another, it would need its own movie. Song of Susannah could be left out entirely or its events told in flashback in the movie of the final book. I can see a trilogy: "The Drawing of the Three," "Wolves of the Calla," "The Dark Tower." They'd be long movies, but I think Abrams could make it work and between the Marvel cross promotions and the Stephen King marketing juggernaut, I think they'd do well. Finally, a Stephen King movie to justify his cameo, eh?

• Amazingly, this might actually work. And for the record, I think the odds of it appearing as a TV series are better than the odds of seven films. Who would play Roland, do you think?

• I think it's a lot to ask of people to stick around for seven seasons of a story they already know the ending to. Especially when every season but the first will be based on <a href="http://www.alltooflat.com/about/personal/sean/2007/10/the_blogslinger_blogging_the_d_16.html">a terrible, terrible books</a>.

• Honestly, there's a lot you could cut from the books and never miss. It could be done in three films.

• I have a hard time seeing any network agreeing to a seven-year, faithful adaptation of a series of novels, mainly because the events won't be much of a surprise. Movies on the other hand, I could see. Seven movies could be a stretch, although it's being done with Harry Potter, so who knows?

• It sounds so crazy, it just might work.

• I think that might actually be worth a damn. You're damn straight about ABC needing a post-Lost show to keep up with other networks.

• I say make it a TV series. There isn't going to be much to watch after LOST that has the same kind of kick. Shows come and go... but with LOST, I'm there every damn week. Cramming A huge series into a couple of movies always sucks.

• You don't need 7 movies to do it. It took 7 books, but honestly, the journey itself felt rather short in some ways. I'd love to see how audiences react when *SPOILER* Stephen King would make an appearance in the movie...playing himself writing their story! It was interesting in the book, but still kinda awkward and interrupting of the flow, in my opinion.

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