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Thursday
04Sep2008

'Lost' Writer Damon Lindelof Wants to Make Stephen King's 'Dark Tower'...Someday

DateThursday, September 4, 2008 at 2:31AM
There are dream pairings in Hollywood only so often: Lemmon and Matthau, Hepburn and Tracey, Bogey and Bacall, Pam and Tommy. Surely, anyone with a nose for good drama thinks the combination of Stephen King and Damon Lindelof - one of the creative engines behind Lost - is a pretty good duo.

Unfortunately, when Lindelof optioned the great unfilmed King classic, The Dark Tower, his eyes were bigger than his stomach. The writer-producer tells AMCTV that we shouldn't expect to see The Dark Tower soon, which is no big surprise; we've been waiting nearly 20 years anyway.

"The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we've got seven books we're looking at," Lindelof admitted. "And the idea of doing that at the same time Carlton [Cuse] and I are bringing Lost to a close is simply not viable."

He added, "There are always Dark Tower conversations, but the figuring out of what this will look like as a movie has not begun."

So what does that mean on its surface? Probably that we won't see The Dark Tower in theaters for, what, five years at least? If Lost is running through 2010, which is the plan according to ABC, then it's safe to assume that Lindelof probably won't start configuring The Dark Tower until after the show goes off the air. That's two years. Then you figure at least a year, maybe two just to write the first film in a series that Lindelof dreams will include seven movies. Add another year or two for production and the perfect release date, and we're at 2013 if not as late as 2015, depending on unforeseen influences.

Lindelof could farm out the script; after all, J.J. Abrams, Lindelof's employer, has done that sort of thing for several years now. If Lindelof just keeps his producer hat on while someone else does a draft or two to his specifications, then there's no reason the script couldn't be done by 2010, meaning a 2012 release date is a possibility.

No matter what happens, I wouldn't hold my breath for this to make much progress in the next year or so, unless you're really, really good at holding your breath (hi, David Blaine).

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment3 Comments |

Reader Comments (3)

lost over by 2010..sadness. I want it to end sooner.
Still the last season did pick up some steam so maybe the next season will hold me instead of shoving me into a dark cave with no answers.

Thursday, September 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOrinn

The Dark Tower Comic books and the fantastic art of Jae Lee (demonstrated proudly above) should serve as the template here. Hell, the art direction is already half complete!

"We can't figure out how it's going to look."???

More llke, "We're trying to figure out how not to eff this up and turn it into another travesty like Kingdom Hospital".

Hope I'm not alone in saying that these guys are in over their heads...how dare they compare themselves to Peter Jackson!

Thursday, September 4, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWill

i am all about them making seven movies, one for each book. i had an intersting thought about the ending though. at the end of seven roland finds cuthberts horn, witch is possibly his salvation from running on an endless loop to save the tower. maybe in the opening scene of the first movie roland will have the horn already, meaning the movies take place right where the books left off. then the whole thing could run the same as the books, only with roland actually ending his quest somehow instead of the cycle repeating again. if you think this is a good idea please spread it around. many dt fans ive talked to think it would be exciting to see the actual end.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 | Unregistered Commenteri eat foil

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