Does anyone else have this horrible reoccurring nightmare revolving around a movie adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower that had a great cast and much promise but ended up being a complete, muddled, bland mess? In the dream, fans of the beloved book series wait years for a film version only to be painfully let down and ashamed. It’s a scary dream - terrifying even - but it didn’t happen right? Nothing that bad could ever happen. Shudder
Well, that horrific movie adaptation of the books did happen and it was horrible and all Stephen King fans were disappointed. But we are Stephen King fans - we’re used to being disappointed by movie adaptations. Many assumed the turkey of a film would be the end of The Dark Tower on the big screen - and it may have been. But it wasn’t the end of the The Dark Tower on the small screen.
Deadline says that Amazon’s kinda-forgotten Dark Tower TV series, which has quietly been moving along in pre-production, has cast its Roland Deschain. English actor Sam Strike, known for his work on Nightflyers and EastEnders, will be playing the Gunslinger. He’s obviously very different from the previous Roland, Idris Elba, and a strong indication that the show will be radically different from the aforementioned movie. Good!
Sure looks dour enough to be Roland
I don’t know much about Strike but I can tell you he 1) looks young 2) looks a bit bland. The blandness can be overcome with good acting, make-up and direction. The age, however, is quite curious. We are obviously seeing a young Roland. That means that series will probably be focusing on the story from King’s Wizard and Glass book, which acted as Roland’s origin. At least that’s what I would assume. The other possibility is that the show will tweak with King’s series and make Roland younger for the entire run. So it’s either more of a prequel storyline or they’re just toying with canon. Oh boy, I can hear fans (including myself) grumbling now.
Deadline says that Jasper Pääkkönen has also been cast in the show, playing the villainous Marten. I won’t go into many details about Marten. Let’s just say you’re well aware of him if you’ve read some of King’s other books.
Once again we have a Dark Tower project in development. Once again things seem promising. Once again fans are hoping and praying that this adaptation does the books justice. And now, once again, we must wait.