Stephen King posted this on Facebook. And with it he said this “The Dark Tower is close, now. The Crimson King awaits. Soon Roland will raise the Horn of Eld. And blow. #DarkTowerMovie”
Now, book fans probably notice something already: Roland lost the horn at the Battle of Jericho Hill (or was it Cuthbert who last blew it?). Will there be a flashback to that battle? I am wondering if Roland will tell Jake the story about the battle.
I am on the sixth book right now (my third time through the series) and to be honest, I cannot imagine how you could cut things out. Unless you just boil this story down to the basics: the Dark Tower holds all of creation together, someone is trying to tear it down and Roland must stop him. I guess if you think of it that way, then yeah, you can do whatever you want to the story to make it different from the book.
I also started thinking about something else. What if the whole “Last time around” is referring to the books. Remember (seriously, major spoiler coming), when Roland enters the top room of the tower, he is taken back to the beginning. Roland realizes in those final moments that he has done this many, many times, and for some reason, this time he has the Horn of Eld and he wonders if maybe this time will be different and if he will finally have a chance to rest. The final line is: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
Is it possible that this movie series is a new adventure? He has the Horn of Eld, maybe he will do things differently this time around. Maybe he does not allow Jake to die the first time. Maybe there is no Susannah and Eddie Dean. Perhaps. Or I could just be really crazy here. That is definitely quite probable.
And in other Dark Tower news, there have been some images of Idris Elba on the set (so at least we know that the movie is actually happening, since there is actual filming).
I just do not know how I feel about him as Roland. I tried to say that race does not matter. And yet, race was an important component of the books. Susannah (Odetta Holmes/Detta Walker) is clearly defined by her struggles in the 1960s. Again, if they are just reinterpreting the story any way they want, then yeah I suppose that it does not matter if he is white, black, purple, or whatever. As I said before, I can even see the whole thing working with Detta Walker calling Roland an Uncle Tom mahfah.
I will say this, the guns look great. You can almost feel those big, sandalwood grips. Elba definitely looks like a gunslinger. I can even hear him telling someone that they only deal in lead. Hopefully he ditches the cellphone though.
I am excited for this movie. At the same time, I am scared. I am afraid that if it is terrible that it will somehow taint the books.
