At the moment I'm writing this, THE DARK TOWER is currently sitting at 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, which, considering how long fans have been waiting to see Stephen King's epic released on the big-screen, is a far cry from the reception we were hoping that it would get. With an incredible amount of story left untold, it was the hope that THE DARK TOWER would be the first of a new franchise, but based on the reaction, we may be witnessing yet another franchise crashing and burning after just one film. Still, the film was relatively cheap to produce ($60 million), so it doesn't need to reach blockbuster status in order to get the ball rolling on a sequel.
Stephen King spoke with several sites before a screening of the film, including Birth.Movies.Death, and was asked what elements he wished had made it into the film, before saying that he hopes that the potential sequel goes for an R-rating.
Well, there are things that I think the hardcore fans are going to wish was in the movie and all I can say is, if the movie’s a success, there will be a sequel. I would love to see those doors into our world and there’s some of that in this movie. I would love to see Roland on the beach with those lobster monstrosities and I understand the rationale behind the movie, that it’s PG-13. I totally signed off on that. I think it’s the right thing to do. I want as many people as possible to attend for all kinds of reasons; part of it having to do with the dynamic between the gunslinger and the boy because I think that’s a father-son relationship, but I would love to see the next picture be R. Because I think that’s sort of where we’re coming from now, where the movies need to go. For a long time, PG-13 was the safe spot to go and when pictures were R, studio executives would say “Well, we know that this movie is going to make 20-30% less money because we’re going to exclude a market, a prime —— part of the movie going public." I think movies like Deadpool and Logan to some degree.
I'm doubtful that an R-rating would solve the problems of THE DARK TOWER, which our own Chris Bumbray called "a tragedy" as far as missed-opportunities go in his review. Bumbray added that the film is like "a muddled mess of an adaptation that plays like someone wrote a young adult novelization of a couple of the books, and that was turned into a movie." Yeesh. Still, it's not like THE DARK TOWER is all bad, both Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey have been praised, but there's plenty of work to be done if a sequel really is on the horizon.
It's also possible that the next we see of THE DARK TOWER may not be on the big-screen, but on television in the form of a companion series. Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) was recently tapped to run the potential series, which will reportedly be based on "Wizard and Glass," the fourth book in The Dark Tower series, and revolve around a younger Roland and his group. Development is still in the early stages, so who knows if it will even happen or not, but based on the reaction to the feature-film, I'm not about to hold my breath.
Those of you who have seen THE DARK TOWER, let us know what you thought of the film in the comments and tell us how you would salvage the series.