Stephen King has some of the best adaptations authors could ask for. From the classic The Shining by Kubrick (granted, the author is not a fan of the adaptation, since it diverges from his novel) to groundbreaking box offices for the horror genre in IT, to even miniseries such as The Outsider by HBO, there have been a huge amount of great King adaptations. However, even with the author’s luck of having people that genuinely love adaptations of his novels, it didn’t work well every time. The Firestarter remake was a disappointment, and one of his most beloved stories, The Dark Tower, received a feature film that let a lot of fans down.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

The Dark Tower tells the story of the last gunslinger in Mid-Worlds, Roland Deschain. He is traveling in search of the tower that connects all worlds, The Dark Tower. He has to protect the tower at all costs because there are some dark forces, like the Great Old Ones, that want to destroy it: generating darkness and fire in the universe.

Fans of the book series are celebrating that The Dark Tower will be adapted into a television series. The news couldn’t be better, as a filmmaker that has adapted other works by the same author is going to be the one in charge: Mike Flanagan. Here is what didn’t work in the movie and why Flanagan is the best choice to direct the new adaptation.

Criticism of The Dark Tower

     Sony Pictures

The Dark Tower is one of the most essential stories in Stephen King’s body of work. But unfortunately for fans, the movie couldn’t grasp the best parts of this tale, creating a film that felt like a compilation of other sci-fi action stories. The Dark Tower series contains eight books, one short story, and a children’s book, and is considered by many as one of the most unfilmable literary creations by King.

One of the biggest problems the movie had was the targeted audience being too broad: the rating was PG-13. This was something that the author himself thought was a big mistake. King told Vulture, “The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages. The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way.” The rating diminished all sense of danger, and how graphic the violence is, which is an intrinsic part of the world of these characters. The Dark Tower starts right in the middle of the series in the books, which was a concern the author had but that the studio ignored.

The Movie Focused Less on The Dark Tower’s Main Character

The movie also changed the focus on main character Roland to the teen character with the shine, Jake. Roland became more of a side character who seemed very shallow, with his plot solely focused on getting revenge. He is one of the characters fans were most eager to see, and Idris Elba gave a good performance. However, the script didn’t allow him the time or material to grow or stand out, and his character became like many others. Picking Jake as an entrance point for the audience made some sense, as he doesn’t understand the world around him and needs explanations (just as the viewer does). Unfortunately, it made the story too generic and lost a lot of the power Roland brings.

Looking at it as a movie alone, and not even as an adaptation, it simply doesn’t work. The fast pace does not allow for emotional payoff moments. Take the scene of Roland’s father’s death — it is quick, and there are no stakes since it’s the same scene where we meet him. This hinders the rest of the movie, as when characters die or have a change of heart, it is so quick and the decision-making is not really shown, never allowing the audience to embark on the emotional journey with them.

Mike Flanagan and Stephen King Stories

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Mike Flanagan is no stranger to adapting Stephen King novels. He directed and co-wrote the screenplay of Gerald’s Game in 2017. The Netflix movie received a lot of good critics (including King himself), as it is a hard adaptation to make and Flanagan was able to transport the feelings King’s words evoke to the screen. Flanagan also continued one of King’s most iconic stories, The Shining, with his adaptation of Doctor Sleep. Unfortunately, Doctor Sleep had a disappointing box office, but it has been praised by fans and the author himself as a great adaptation.

Flanagan was also going to be involved in another adaptation that fell through, Revival. The filmmaker had to abandon the project because he didn’t receive a green light from the production company. The project may never be done since it is an expensive production, mostly because of the monsters, which demands a large scale of special effects.

Why Flanagan Is the Right Choice for The Dark Tower

     Netflix

Recently it has been announced that Flanagan will be the one directing the adaptation of The Dark Tower as a television series. The change from a feature film to a show already gives fans hope that it will do better justice to the long series of books. However, movies are not completely off the table, as Flanagan stated that in order for him to tell this story it would take five seasons of a show and two movies.

A big green flag is that Flanagan calls the project his ‘Holy Grail’ as he is as big a fan of King as anyone who watches the adaptations.

Flanagan has proved that he can transport the dread present in King’s words as very few people can. Both feature films he has made have some very intimate and internal moments and motives that could be lost if anyone else made them. His adaptations are also character-centric, following closely how the novels are constructed. There is a heavy emotional weight in the filmmaker’s other projects, like in The Haunting of Hill House, that is extremely necessary when talking about King’s books; that acclaimed series further proves Flanagan’s ability to adapt iconic books.

Flanagan will definitely take the criticism the film received and try to learn as much as he can from it. However, from his own body of work alone, it is possible to see that he has mastered King-centric elements that can enhance this story in particular, such as a group of main characters with no one sidelined, atmospheric scenarios, deep wells of emotion, and dialogue-heavy stories.