This idea was already pushed by the movie that came out in 2017 that every Stephen King story ever written is connected by one unifying linchpin, and that connection is the Dark Tower. As one of the greatest stories he’s ever created, this book series ended up becoming the absolute backbone and nerve center of King’s stories since every story exists within its universe, but one way or another, every single universe makes its way back to the tower, which has to stand, or the universes crumble. And of course, at every turn, someone is willing and ready to undermine the tower or take control of the influence it has over the many worlds. In other words, the Dark Tower is the reason that everything can exist the way it does, and the saga that sees the tower as the main goal is the one that was somehow treated with the least amount of respect out of the many King stories that have been rolled out between the TV series and movies. Some might want to argue, but the fact is that The Dark Tower is the type of story that should be representing King’s name in the movies, while the others are rolled out on their own but still given a connection to the core movies.
This isn’t bound to happen since it would appear that the idea is to keep rolling out movies on their own with little if any connection. It might sound like a petty argument to make, but the level of connection that King’s stories have could be something great for TV or the movies, but with the way things have already gone it feels as though a serious overhaul would be needed to set things in a manner that might make a little more sense. But given the difference of opinions between fans, producers, authors, and directors, it’s bound to happen that keeping these stories moving around one another in a manner that might be more interesting will remain a common practice.
This is the constant frustration of adapting a book to the big screen since a great number of things are going to change and the overall connection to the book might be nearly severed based on what the producers and directors want to do. In some cases, the movies end up being just as good if not better than the books that they’re drawn from, but in the case of the Dark Tower, things didn’t go as smoothly and the dialogue that was so great in the books was reduced to something halting and horrible in the movie. Plus, there are plenty of other ideas that connect to The Dark Tower that people would love to see, such as Salem’s Lot, Insomnia, The Stand, and many others. The idea of creating a multi-faceted universe that revolves around such a powerful story is something that immediately sounds enchanting and capable of keeping the attention of the fans that one would want to attract. But somehow, a disconnection between the books and the movies occurred in a way that made it nearly impossible to see a clean transition.
One detractor is that Stephen King approved of the movies, which is a type of validation that those in Hollywood are doing something right when in truth there’s been a lot of miscommunication that could have easily been untangled and produced something interesting even if it wasn’t entirely accurate. But so far there’s been a lot of hit-and-miss action going on and the unfortunate truth is while some of the King movies that have come out in the last decade have been great, they’ve usually ended up playing host to several flaws as well. As a big fan of Stephen King, it’s tough to realize that it’s possible to say anything bad about something that started in his head and found its way to the page and then the big or small screen. It’s been a lot more fun to take note of the stories that were finally given a great deal of respect and ignore the flops. But in recent years it’s been tough to say nothing about the treatment that some of the greater stories have received.
As important as the Dark Tower is to King’s stories it’s interesting that nothing has done the story any justice yet, or that King hasn’t pushed for this to happen. It’s easy to think that an author might not have as much pull as one thinks when it comes to the movies and TV shows that are made from their works, but it was a hope that King would insist that The Dark Tower become a series of movies or a running TV series with a set number of seasons. It’s kind of a shame to see great stories reduced to a punchline, but that’s what has happened to The Dark Tower as of now.
Follow Us
