Mike Flanagan's Adaptation of Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'

[Man in the Suit]

As the Walking Dead expert in this thread, I can confirm neither the first season nor Mazzara's seasons are the best.

Carry on.

 

[TheVileOne]

Seems like that awful movie really poisoned the well for this becoming a transmedia franchise.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

As the Walking Dead expert in this thread, I can confirm neither the first season nor Mazzara's seasons are the best.

Carry on.

Is there such a thing as a "best" season of the Walking Dead? I mean outside of the pilot (which is fantastic) and the footage Darabont shot for season 2, it's basically crappy Game of Thrones, but without the great direction and budget.

 

[Man in the Suit]

Is there such a thing as a "best" season of the Walking Dead? I mean outside of the pilot (which is fantastic) and the footage Darabont shot for season 2, it's basically crappy Game of Thrones, but without the great direction and budget.

Yes, there is a best and it's Season 5. The only footage Darabont shot for Season 2 was some 2nd unit in the premiere and it's not even the best work that season. Outside of some medieval inspiration in this latest season, it's nothing like Game of Thrones.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Yes, there is a best and it's Season 5. The only footage Darabont shot for Season 2 was some 2nd unit in the premiere and it's not even the best work that season. Outside of some medieval inspiration in this latest season, it's nothing like Game of Thrones.

Remembers what happened to Beth... nah. And yet I'd say it is still the best material from season 2, no matter how much the Punisher busted his ass to out do it. The Walking Dead has a lot in common on a fundamental level with GoT, especially when you considering all the political maneuvering, factions, and the overtly direct comparison to the Wall storylines. But that wasn't even what I meant. I was speaking about them being the classic big ole television event shows, but with the Walking Dead being the cheap ugly cousin of the two.

 

[Man in the Suit]

Remembers what happened to Beth... nah. And yet I'd say it is still the best material from season 2, no matter how much the Punisher busted his ass to out do it. The Walking Dead has a lot in common on a fundamental level with GoT, especially when you considering all the political maneuvering, factions, and the overtly direct comparison to the Wall storylines. But that wasn't even what I meant. I was speaking about them being the classic big ole television event shows, but with the Walking Dead being the cheap ugly cousin of the two.

That happened to Beth and it's still the best.

 

[DarkKnight88]

So what happens with this pilot now? Will it ever be released? Obviously people are getting to see it, so I wouldn't mind it getting "leaked" online since it seems it'll not be "officially" shown.

 

[Persona]

To each their own. The response from most Dark Tower fans has been overwhelmingly positive to the discussion, lot of fans heartbroken right now that we will never see this version. Vespe and Wampler are enormous fans of King and the series, saw the pilot, and said Glen nailed it. He gets it. Listen to the end of the interview where Glen talks about how The Dark Tower isn't as much about plot as it is about inhabiting the space of its world(s). He got it. He really did.

But it's a moot point now.

 

[Persona]

That is not a bad comparison. But somehow worse. Like let's make a Batman show, but don't have Batman actually show up until halfway through season 3, after we played out all the important origin beats, and then kind of have to have him continually remember them as the series goes on, because they are important to explore in the moment.

The reason we watch Roland's past play out the way we do in the original work, where a lot of it is patch work, is because he is basically reliving the same story, and thus in the process we learn why this jaded, coldhearted gunslinger became the way he is, while also watching it be undone at the same time. He is going through the same tale with his new Ka-tet that he went through with his first, but instead of isolating him, it makes him believe in the concept of family again. It's really well done, especially as the make up of his new Ka-tet is basically a bunch of hims.

When you flip that all around, tell it the way it is suggested it should be told here, removes a lot of the mystery, a lot of character arc, and just adds a lot of unnecessary material that slows the narrative to a crawl imo.

When I read what he said about the midway point of season 3, it told me the showrunner did not understand why the story started where it did, or the impact his idea would have on the beginning and end of the story,

Spoiler

final reset or not. Though honestly, I don't know how you take perhaps the most famous aspect of the entire thing, that the story starts where it ends, and abandon that. Especially as it is arguably King's most famous opening line because of it. Well that and because it's rather brilliant.

Did you listen to the whole podcast? There is absolutely a complete and thorough thought process behind the decisions he was making that showed both an understanding of how to make this work for a general TV audience and also a great understanding and love for the source material. He was not removing the mystery or undermining Roland's character arc or the cyclical conclusion of the story, at all, the way he was going to do it was going to actually enhance those elements in the television format. I mean, seriously, your comments are coming off like you are writing this guy off without even trying to understand his approach, and he details that approach with great clarify and insight in the interview.

I think the only thing most people will agree on when it comes to Walking Dead is the pilot is the best thing about it and then there's a big drop-off after that. I won't argue you guys on that. I still thought it was watchable television and was engaged by it up through about S4. Mazzara took over immediately after Darabont dropped out and was the showrunner through the third season. I liked his seasons, particularly S3. Also, he co-wrote the S2 finale, which I think is one of the show's best episodes.

He was also a key writer and important producer through most of the Shield's run and supervising producer on the third season. Like most long-standing TV writers/producers he has plenty of duds to his name, sure, and I'm not here to try to convince you guys to like Glen Mazzara or something, but to act like he would have been incapable of delivering something good for The Dark Tower seems overly and preemptively judgmental and I guess I don't get the point of it. To make it seem better that we aren't getting his vision of the series? Okay, fine, but after listening to that podcast I think I will be a bit surprised if whoever steps up to the plate next invests themselves nearly as hard as Glen did, and really I'm kind of wondering if it will even ever get made now that it has a movie flop and un-picked pilot to its name.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Did you listen to the whole podcast? There is absolutely a complete and thorough thought process behind the decisions he was making that showed both an understanding of how to make this work for a general TV audience and also a great understanding and love for the source material. He was not removing the mystery or undermining Roland's character arc or the cyclical conclusion of the story, at all, the way he was going to do it was going to actually enhance those elements in the television format. I mean, seriously, your comments are coming off like you are writing this guy off without even trying to understand his approach, and he details that approach with great clarify and insight in the interview.

I think the only thing most people will agree on when it comes to Walking Dead is the pilot is the best thing about it and then there's a big drop-off after that. I won't argue you guys on that. I still thought it was watchable television and was engaged by it up through about S4. Mazzara took over immediately after Darabont dropped out and was the showrunner through the third season. I liked his seasons, particularly S3. Also, he co-wrote the S2 finale, which I think is one of the show's best episodes.

He was also a key writer and important producer through most of the Shield's run and supervising producer on the third season. Like most long-standing TV writers/producers he has plenty of duds to his name, sure, and I'm not here to try to convince you guys to like Glen Mazzara or something, but to act like he would have been incapable of delivering something good for The Dark Tower seems overly and preemptively judgmental and I guess I don't get the point of it. To make it seem better that we aren't getting his vision of the series? Okay, fine, but after listening to that podcast I think I will be a bit surprised if whoever steps up to the plate next invests themselves nearly as hard as Glen did, and really I'm kind of wondering if it will even ever get made now that it has a movie flop and un-picked pilot to its name.

Of course he was. He was telling his entire backstory before the story starts. That's the mystery. What turned Roland into the man he is. That is what he was going to tell first. It would be like if the prequels came out before the OT. It would remove the entire mystery of Vader.

A showrunner with an extremely poor track record, whose pilot did not get picked up after Amazon spent a small fortune on it, and then on a podcast explained a poor way to tell the story. Why would I assume he was going to make even a decent show?

Also knowing stuff in the world is very different then understanding the characters and how to tell the story. Both Lindelof and Snyder knew the story and characters of Watchmen. Only one of them actually understood the story and told it correctly. Lindelof.

Also why are you finding all these Dark Tower fans? You keep mentioning how sad they are about this. Are you talking about 10? 100? 1000? 10,000? Not big gathering places for the Dark Tower on the internet, and the few places I went to didn't really seem to care. More then a few happy it didn't go through based on when the pilot was set. So how many people are you talking about here?

 

[Persona]

Dark Tower fans amongst my personal friends and on Reddit and Twitter... But you know, it's whatever. It's not worth arguing about, it's not even gonna happen. I got worked up because I have been following the production as closely as possible since it was announced, was excited about the cast and crew, got super bummed when it was passed on, and then this podcast re-opened the wound because I really appreciated Glen's investment and thought process behind what he was trying to do. You think his approach sounds misguided, fair enough. Maybe in 20 years or whatever (if I live that long) I will get to see a decent adaptation of The Dark Tower. But I'm not exactly hopeful that's gonna happen.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Dark Tower fans amongst my personal friends and on Reddit and Twitter... But you know, it's whatever. It's not worth arguing about, it's not even gonna happen. I got worked up because I have been following the production as closely as possible since it was announced, was excited about the cast and crew, got super bummed when it was passed on, and then this podcast re-opened the wound because I really appreciated Glen's investment and thought process behind what he was trying to do. You think his approach sounds misguided, fair enough. Maybe in 20 years or whatever (if I live that long) I will get to see a decent adaptation of The Dark Tower. But I'm not exactly hopeful that's gonna happen.

So definitely less then 100.

 

[:eek:]

Stephen King Was to Feature in Scrapped Dark Tower Series

 

[Persona]

So definitely less then 100.

I mean, probably, yeah. Some of the sites and podcasts that I follow on Twitter kept RTing fan reactions to the podcast so I am sure there was an echo chamber effect there, haha.

 

[Persona]

Stephen King Was to Feature in Scrapped Dark Tower Series

I think they misinterpreted Glen's comments.

 

[:eek:]

Review of the unaired pilot

Lilja's Library - The World of Stephen King [1996 - 2020]

 

[DarkKnight88]

Review of the unaired pilot

Lilja's Library - The World of Stephen King [1996 - 2020]

Sounds like a, “meh, but maybe would’ve been good a few further episodes in.”

 

[Persona]

Well, the reviewer liked it a lot but the review isn't the most well-written and no idea what kind of bias is in play given they somehow saw the pilot.

Cool to see some screengrabs, though. I was looking forward to Joana Ribeiro as Susan Delgado.

 

[:eek:]

Flanagan Wants To Adapt "Dark Tower" - Dark Horizons

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Flanagan Wants To Adapt "Dark Tower" - Dark Horizons

I would break many a blood vessel laughing if this happen. One, because it would be utterly awesome. Second because it would make the idea that the one from the dude who made Hawthorne was a good idea one of the great Sliding Doors moments in movie/television history.

 

[Snow Queen]

I prefer to think of him as the guy from the Crash and Damien shows.

 

[Fincher]

Flanagan Wants To Adapt "Dark Tower" - Dark Horizons

I'm up for it.

 

[VictusMortuus]

Heck yeah, in fact no one should be allowed to adapt any of King’s works except for Flanagan or Darabont.

 

[Rorschach2012]

Hot damn just let him do it. This is a no brainer. He actively wants to do it and we know he could balance being faithful to the books while also making it commercially viable.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Heck yeah, in fact no one should be allowed to adapt any of King’s works except for Flanagan or Darabont.

...and 80s Rob Reiner!