I always pictured Eddie as John Leguizamo.  Not quite as out there as he was in Spun, but close.

It's interesting to hear the different type of actors people envision in these roles. I guess we all have our own unique vision for Roland and the gang.

One character I haven't seen any fan casting for at all is the Crimson King. I assume that's because King completely botched the character. If it were up to me, I think I'd cut the Crimson King out altogether and make Flagg/Walter the main heavy.

Fair enough, t3cii! I've never pictured Eddie as Italian, and I tend not to care about details like hair/eye color and ethnicity unless those qualities are somehow important to the story being told. For me, what's "important" about Eddie includes his shifty junkie selfishness (Foster would play this like gangbusters), his quick sly/goofy wit (ditto, and the same for Olyphant), his emerging sense of self-worth and cold Gunslingin' assuredness (Olyphant specialities, and Foster showed his Badass certifieds in 3:10 to Yuma). Both are actors I enjoy watching, and I'd enjoy seeing what they'd do in the role.

I think Hawkes would be one hell of a Marten/Randall Flagg based off of his Winter's Bone performance (funny, scary, weirdly-magnetic), but I'd also add him to the Eddie Dean list as well.

ETA: I tend to agree re: the Crimson King. I'd prefer the King to stay Sauron-esque and barely-glimpsed. Have Roland's confrontations focus on the King's emissary, Marten/Flagg.

I can honestly say that I can live without seeing this being filmed.  There are going to have to be so many radical changes to it (wholeheartedly agree with the 'Detta needing to be dialled waaaaaaay back, and the Crimson King just not being in it).

I mean, if they did get the whole damn thing down would you keep Stephen King in it? Would you keep Flagg and Calahan as coming from his universe, or just character names within this particluar one?  Would you keep all the other vague literary references (Shardik, Harry Potter)?

I just can't see this working at all, and I really don't see Ron Howard being able to make it work.  I'm not being precious about it, or even saying that it's unfilmable, I just don't think it would be very good.

The only bit of casting I would say is a lock is that 'Oy will be CGI :)

I know we all want this to be good, but I just can't help imagining the glorious disaster that would surely unfold if Stephen King were to play himself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Bain 

I can honestly say that I can live without seeing this being filmed.  There are going to have to be so many radical changes to it (wholeheartedly agree with the 'Detta needing to be dialled waaaaaaay back, and the Crimson King just not being in it).

 

I mean, if they did get the whole damn thing down would you keep Stephen King in it? Would you keep Flagg and Calahan as coming from his universe, or just character names within this particluar one?  Would you keep all the other vague literary references (Shardik, Harry Potter)?

 

I just can't see this working at all, and I really don't see Ron Howard being able to make it work.  I'm not being precious about it, or even saying that it's unfilmable, I just don't think it would be very good.

 

The only bit of casting I would say is a lock is that 'Oy will be CGI :)

 Pretty much all of this.  The only thing I'd kind of be interested in that could work is a stand-alone WIZARD & GLASS movie. 

Yeah, I think there's tons of good stuff to mine from King's series: particularly the interplay of cowboys as Knights of the Round Table in a world crumbling beneath the twin weights of science and magic.  But for a film version to work, an incredible amount of stuff will have to be jettisoned.  Then again, given how the Dark Tower series wound up, is that such a bad thing?

Who am I kidding?  I'd rather see IT brought to life on the big screen.

Eddie, in my mind's eye, looks like Sean Penn circa Carlito's Way, but more drugged out.

If we could meld time together, my dream cast would be Clint from the late 60's, Penn from the late 80's, Angela Bassett from the early 90's, and Haly Joel Oment right around 2000, but trapped as a 12 year old for the entire shoot. Speaking of, how ARE they planning to handle Jake? The whole shebang is going to take seven years to produce, and in the books Jake ages only a few years; in the last book Roland makes small notes about the boy appearing taller and the beginnings of puberty, but that's it. Curious to see how they handle that.

And I'd keep the Crimson King merely as a Sauron-like threat, alway behind the shadows driving the threat forward, but never fully revealed. I'd say a voiceless visage of what the Crimson King was drawn as in the books would be enough to convey how terrifying he should be. I say should be, cause anyone who read the series knows how he ended up.

Mattioli: "Then again, given how the Dark Tower series wound up, is that such a bad thing?"

Not in my humble opinion.

I want this to happen for two reasons:

1) I want to see the Drawing of the Three dramatized.

2) I want to see Wizard and Glass dramatized.

Since those two books would seem (seem being the key word) to be likely choices for the "miniseries" portion of this project, that gets me extra excited about them. Those stories told without compressing them into a two-hour-and-change film? With what seems like class-A actors and a serious budget?

Yes. Please.

The Crimson King as Sauron was absolutely fine in the books, till they turned him into Mouser from Mario 2 at the last minute.

As for dream casting:

Eddie: I kept seeing Edward Norton in my head, but he's too old at this point, and he'd be caught dead doing TV.

Detta: I approve of the Naomie Harris pick.

Jake: Fucked if I know. Kodi McPhee would be fine, but if Viggo gets Roland, that just gets messy. What's Max Records up to these days?

Callahan: Cromwell. He's done it before. He can do it again.

Flagg: It's trendy to drop his name nowadays, but, fuck it: Fassbender.

My one great plea is this: Fuck the book; do NOT make the Wolves of the Calla Dr. Doombots. PLEASE.

Fassbender as Flagg would be great.  Can do the menacing, can do the charming, hell even when I think of Randall Flagg now I see Fassbender.

What's with all the 40 year-olds getting tossed around for Eddie? He's practically a teenager when he's introduced. I know it's hard to think of a proven name that's not at least 30. Hell, I can't think of anyone good who looks young and isn't named Shia or Cera. Johnny Lewis maybe?

Shit, Darryl Sabara would be preferable to freakin' Joel McHale (sorry, Custer).

Eddie's not a teenager in Drawing of the Three. He pretty solidly late 20's/just turned 30. As for who currently could play him...I'm not sure. Actually, yes I am. Ben Foster.

My Beautiful Dark Tower Fantasy:

Roland: I think Viggo would actually be good.

Eddie: I'm with Jesse.  I like Timothy Olyphant.  I think he could both be the dipshit Eddie and the hard as nails Eddie. 

Susannah: Khandi Alexander

Jake: It's probably too easy, but I liked that kid from the road.

Mordred: Used

Crimson King: Gone, or at least used better.

Walter/Flagg/Whatever the Hell: Not disposed of so lazily.

Alternate Universe Happy Ending Bullshit: Gone.

Harry Potter Bombs Thrown by the Crimson King: Gone

Weird reference to Terminator in Drawing of the Three that ends up giving a guy a heart attack: kept

Drawing of the Three: As close to the source material as possible

Big question: what are they going to do with the meta-King stuff?  My guess is cut it.  I know a lot of people hated it but I thought it worked given the context of the story and was actually handled well.  In fact, of the last three books, Song of Susannah is my favorite.  The last book is the worst, if you ask me. 

Anyway, my vote?  Ron Howard stands in for King!  Just kidding...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Clark 

Eddie's not a teenager in Drawing of the Three. He pretty solidly late 20's/just turned 30. As for who currently could play him...I'm not sure. Actually, yes I am. Ben Foster.

He's actually 21 when introduced (according to wikipedia). 

But the important thing is that he's still largely an adolescent when he meets the gunslinger.  And yeah, in the 21st century you see a lot of adolescents pushing 40, and those characters have been Paul Rudd's bread and butter as he's aged, but it should never be a question in the audience's eyes that Roland is (at least) a generation ahead of Eddie. 

What about Aaron Paul for Eddie?  He's in the right range. 

I'd sort of assumed Paul wouldn't want to sign on to another 5 years of playing another junkie sidekick to another ruthless, craggy protagonist.   But if they can entice Viggo back into playing a knight in another epic fantasy...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Schwartz Shit, Darryl Sabara would be preferable to freakin' Joel McHale (sorry, Custer).

Call me crazy, but, as I read this, I can't help but think McHale has the potential to be a pretty awesome Flagg.
 

No worries, Schwartz. McHale's a crazy left-field choice and I know it. That said, I genuinely think he could play the role. His work in the Informant and on Community shows that he's got some chops. As you've pointed out though (and I'd completely forgotten) Eddie's young when he first joins up with Roland.

I can't shake the idea of Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton and Kevin Costner as the Big Coffin Hunters. It'll never, ever, ever happen, and there are probably better combinations of actors, but it'd be heaven for me.

Sam Elliot is far and away the best choice for Jonas.

As for the other Big Coffin Hunters, get some of those Lost alumni involved.  Maybe Josh Holloway for Clay Reynolds.

Now I kind of want Titus Welliver in some role, ANY role, fuzzy.

Titus Welliver would make a great Walter.

Speaking of which, Walter is exhibit A for King's inability to keep his own continuity straight. He explicitly says in the first book that Walter isn't Marten, and that he's actually a servant, set to put the Gunslinger on track to confronting Marten. Then suddenly he IS Marten in the last book. Bull. Shit.

And yes, the Crimson King is another example of this. For most of the book he's a cosmic entity who the tower may have been built to contain at the dawn of the universe. Then suddenly he's an old dude who showed up the tower five minutes before Roland did, and is also a senile idiot.

I actually think Ron Howard is likely to improve on some of this mess from a plotting perspective. What I'm concerned about is that the series contains storylines about drug addiction and race relations and serial killers along with all the fantasy shit, which is part of what keeps it from floating away into Pomposity Land like so many other fantasy series. Actually the first few books in the series each try for a different tone--the Gunslinger (still my favorite of the series) is kind of riding the post-Dangerous Visions New Wave of SF/fantasy, The Drawing of the Three has a strong veneer of mid-80s crime novel, the Waste Lands is more of a flat-out post-apocalypse action book with some overt literary references tossed in, and Wizard and Glass is a western romance. Now I ask you: do you really think Opie, of all people, can get all those styles to work, let alone synthesizing them together?

I guess I'm going to have to watch The Missing to see how he does westerns, at least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Prankster 
I guess I'm going to have to watch The Missing to see how he does westerns, at least.

For the folks hoping Detta gets toned down, I wouldn't count on it based on how Howard handles Native Americans in The Missing. The film's race relations play like a D.W. Griffith wet dream.

I thought we were supposed to know who was cast by now?

Out of all of the cast suggestions, I'll agree that Sam Elliot is the best choice for Jonas. It's funny how he perfectly matches the description of the character. I'd be very surprised if he wasn't cast in the role.

A few other casting suggestions:

Callahan - I think Kris Kristofferson would be a good choice. He has a sort of drifter look to him, and I seem to recall a portion of the book where Callahan is wandering from town to town.

Marten - How about Dominc West? He almost looks like the illustration from the comic series, and he played a manipulative bastard in 300:

Clay Reynolds - Garrant Dillahunt. Chances are you might be unfamiliar with the name, but he's made a career as a character actor. I could see him in the role.

Roy Depape - Josh Holloway?

Who should play Mordred? Honestly, I think King had one too many villains in this series.

Paul Dano. And only if they beef up his part, and don't have him shit himself to death like the book.

Speaking of which, I am all for whoever said they could do whatever the fuck they want with this if Roland starts out with the horn. They could even skip around the whole Stephen King angle by Roland figuring out he's done this before on the page. But then they'd have to hire Charlie Kaufman.

People unfamiliar with Dillahunt need to be kicked in the shins. And now that you mention it, I want him in this somewhere. Clay Reynolds would be fine.

EDIT: You know what? Fuck it. Dillahunt for Flagg!

Justin, thats the best idea yet.  I actually wanted King to start the whole fucking caboodle again with the horn, just to see how he may have made it different.

While it would require people read the series first it would enable them to do what they want, but still maintain Wizard and Glass as it was (agree with everyone here that that's the one most likely to be a solid conversion).

I would dearly love to know how the whole thing would have shaken out had King not ben hit by that campervan.

Thinking about it The Waste Lands' would make a good 12 episode series (although I'd ditch Blaine the Mono).  Would be quite the mid season 'twist' to give the second half its Escape from New York vibe.