Stephen King addresses challenges of making Dark Tower

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

While IT is doing gangbusters (clownbusters?) at the box office, moviegoers have already forgotten about the flop that was THE DARK TOWER. Fans had been waiting for the adaptation of Stephen King’s massive fantasy series, and what they got was 90 minutes of Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey trying to patch up a sinking tugboat. Now that the movie has come and bombed, King has opened up to reflect on why it was difficult a movie to make, and why it probably failed in the end.

Speaking with Vulture, King couldn’t help but acknowledge that trying to turn a book series that spans thousands of pages into a movie was always going to be a major challenge. What also didn’t help matters was the fact that the movie had to be PG-13, even though the content of the source material was so violent and bloody:

The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages. The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way. That was something that had to be overcome, although I’ve gotta say, I thought [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman did a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie. The TV series they’re developing now … we’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see.

It seems King was ultimately satisfied with the flick but has accepted the fact there probably won’t be a film sequel, with Sony putting all its resources into a TV series adaptation. Though the movie didn’t cost too much to make ($60 million), the movie’s global total only reached $110 million, less than the opening weekend of IT.  Doing a TV show seems much more interesting to Sony, as it would be less expensive and would allow them to develop the story over time, which is something fans of the series would probably prefer.

The intent with DARK TOWER, it seemed, was to make a franchise in the style of YA series like HUNGER GAMES and MAZE RUNNER. What Sony didn’t get was that DARK TOWER is not that kind of series, and the fans of it are not young adults itching for a romance between two hot twenty-somethings. The was reflected in their lack of turnout, as the movie did even worse than they thought it would. Fans want a gritty adaptation of the book series, and doing it as a TV-MA show seems to be the best way to go about it. GAME OF THRONES is a critically acclaimed show that fans of the books love (for the most part), but trying to imagine what it would be like as a one-off movie is enough to send me into a coma.

IT is in theaters now and DARK TOWER hits Blu-ray October 31.