Stephen King's Stuff

[Dead & Messed Up]

Roland is most definitely not an antihero. Probably just a bad choice of words on that blog.

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As I recall, the original novel has him rape a woman with a revolver, shoot an entire town to death (including a woman he was intimate with), and drop a boy he's come to love for the sake of information.

Yes, the subsequent novels are a long redemptive arc, but there's definite grounds for the term, I think.

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And this is coming from someone who adores the books.

[Acapelli]

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As I recall, the original novel has him rape a woman with a revolver, shoot an entire town to death (including a woman he was intimate with), and drop a boy he's come to love for the sake of information.

Yes, the subsequent novels are a long redemptive arc, but there's definite grounds for the term, I think.

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And this is coming from someone who adores the books.

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wasn't that town somewhat zombified? it's been a while since i read the gunslinger

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[Dead & Messed Up]

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wasn't that town somewhat zombified? it's been a while since i read the gunslinger

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They were brainwashed by the Man in Black, but they weren't zombified.

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[D_Davis]

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He redeems himself, though. It's pretty much one of the main themes of the series. He may start out as an anti-hero, at least in his past, but he becomes a champion of good.

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I'd say he is more of a troubled hero, a man who deals with his demons. It's probably just semantics, though.

[Sven]

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As I recall, the original novel has him rape a woman with a revolver,

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Why don't I remember this? Did I read a later version that has this excised? Very weird...

... not having recollection of this event, I side with D. Troubled, yes, and has a past, but it seems such an insignificant sliver in the series's throughline. To me he just seemed like a man of unfortunate consequence, rather than an "antihero."

[Dead & Messed Up]

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He redeems himself, though. It's pretty much one of the main themes of the series. He may start out as an anti-hero, at least in his past, but he becomes a champion of good.

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I'd say he is more of a troubled hero, a man who deals with his demons. It's probably just semantics, though.

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In his past, and through the main course of the first novel. I think "troubled" does his severe problems a disservice, though, since it takes seven books for him to truly understand where he's gone wrong, and even at the very end...
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the Tower judges him and forces another go-round.

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I think it is semantics - he's sympathetic, but he definitely possesses antihero qualities.

[D_Davis]

One could argue that a driving theme of the books is the redemption of the post-modern, cynical, anti-hero; of finding and bringing back the old world goodness of our heroes, the kinds of heroes that the world has turned away from.

After all, the world has moved on.

[Rowland]

My favorite Dark Tower novels were the first two, after which I progressively lost more and more interest until I finished the tedious Wizard and Glass out of sheer obligation. Wolves of the Calla is in my closet somewhere, but I doubt I'll return to the series, since it has been so long and my memories of the books are musty when they aren't nonexistent.

[D_Davis]

So wasn't this project recently scrapped?

Oh well.

At least they're making Under the Dome into an HBO mini-series. That is infinitely more filmable.

[megladon8]

So wasn't this project recently scrapped?

Oh well.

At least they're making Under the Dome into an HBO mini-series. That is infinitely more filmable.

I got the book for my mom for Christmas.

I was really surprised by how huge it is. I was expecting a 200-300 pager, but what came was another one of King's epic tomes.

[megladon8]

So...Universal is officially creating 3 movies and a TV series.

[Henry Gale]

See, this is the sort of approach that I wish Abrams, Burk, Lindelof and Cuse had come up with, since they said they passed on the rights when they couldn't find a way to properly serve the story in any number of films. But still, no matter how ambitious this storytelling format may be, it's still being headed up by Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman, two people that I don't necessarily see with the complete contempt that a lot of people seem to, but who still haven't really shown anything as storytellers that suggest they can properly convey something as sprawling and epically dense as this.

Plus, what kind of a budget would they seriously consider giving to the series? On NBC no less...

[Dukefrukem]

3 movies and a TV series? what the heck?

[number8]

Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman?

Shitslingers.

[D_Davis]

Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman?

Shitslingers.

My interest just fell through the bottom of the barrel.

[D_Davis]

And I don't dislike Howard. Heck, he could probably direct a pretty good King flick with something like The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, or even Under the Dome, something that focuses more on the human drama. However, I just can't see him doing this. It seems really out of place. But, then again, I thought that Pete Jackson was a terrible fit with Lord of the Rings, and I ended up loving those movies. Oh well, at least my expectations will be very low.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I'd call Ron Howard a proficient, acceptable director, but his victories (Apollo 13, Ransom) lack the stylistic juice of his peers. He might be able to create a "good" Dark Tower film, but will he able to make a series that's cinematic?

If he stepped back and took a supervisory role to other directors, I'd be more interested.

Also:

[number8]

I still don't know why anyone would give this to anyone but Darabont.

[D_Davis]

I still don't know why anyone would give this to anyone but Darabont.

I know, right?

[Irish]

I still don't know why anyone would give this to anyone but Darabont.

Do people still trust Darabont with King adaptations after The Mist?

[D_Davis]

Do people still trust Darabont with King adaptations after The Mist?

More than ever for me. Such a great film, especially the black and white version. That's how it should've been released.

[Grouchy]

Do people still trust Darabont with King adaptations after The Mist?

What? I completely trust him because of that film.

[number8]

Do people still trust Darabont with King adaptations after The Mist?

Considering it's the best King adaptation he's done, yes.

[Irish]

Considering it's the best King adaptation he's done, yes.

Whoa, what? Disagree there in a big way. Aside from its artistic merits (or lack of them), Mist was always a domestic bomb. I'm not sure the powers-that-be would put Darabont in charge of such a large project (if it's still 3 movies & a show).

[megladon8]

Yeah, The Mist was incredible.