'The Dark Tower' Producer Confirms Twists to Stephen King's Narrative are Coming
Two things have been made apparent in recent months. The Dark Tower, produced by Ron Howard and starring Idris Elba as the Gunslinger, will not be a direct adaptation, and Elba is not the man readers envisioned as the protagonist.
On how the project came about, Howard said "JJ Abrams was working on it at first and then Akiva told me JJ was involved in so many projects he let it go. We started talking about what it could be. I read all the novels and we broke them down. He presented this idea to Stephen King, and this is insider material you might not get, but it was about introducing the Horn of Eld into the very first story.
"He knew it would allow us to use elements of the novels in a new combination that would give us the latitude to be true to the essence of the novels, but also re-balance and refocus the narrative in a cinematic way. That was the jumping off point that began this process."
He explains a new focus on the Jake Chambers-Roland relationship at the center of the film, intended to launch the universe. "We simplified the storyline, made it less expensive as a result, but we still utilised a lot of those important structural adjustments that Akiva and I had devised going back years ago.
"We wanted to restructure the novels to be most cinematic and Stephen King agreed completely and understood the journey we were on immediately and supported it. We used this group to inspire our thinking and stay in the universe of Dark Tower."
Source: Collider
