Worried About The Rose: Potential Problems With The Dark Tower Movie

I began reading the Stephen Kings "Dark Tower" saga in 2002 when I was in 8th grade. I had already read a few King books, such as "The Stand", "The Eyes of The Dragon", and "The Dead Zone" when I began my journey to the Tower, in the same place as most everyone else: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed."

That sentence has entered into my mind many times since then. Often over the years I have imagined that opening sequence played out in live action. Sand blowing by as our (anti)hero walks on through the seemingly endless Mohaine Desert, trekking after a barely visible speck in the distance. Closer to the end of his journey than he was when he began, but still so far away from the man he's after. And further still, from the Dark Tower.

So, Imagine my surprise when, after years of false starts on the project, it was announced that the Dark Tower movie is actually in production. Really this time, it is filming even as I write this. We are finally going to see this story adapted for the screen. Only not in any way I could have possibly imagined.

Which is saying something, because before Ron Howard stepped down as Director I was even afraid of THIS 

Instead of starting at the beginning, the story will begin "medias res" according to King himself, who seems to be fairly actively involved in the project. It has also been said that the film will cobble together various plot aspects from all 8 novels(+one short story) to inform the plot, creating somewhat of a Dark Tower greatest hits movie, while keeping with the overall story structure of "The Gunslinger"(book one of the series). This is simultaneously frightening and exciting, exciting because its an interesting way to explore the material, and frightening because it seems like the producers are trying to have their cake and eat it too.

The Dark Tower movie needs to be a commercial success before anyone even starts thinking about a potential sequel(s) to flesh out the full story. This means the studio has to ensure that they can make the film easily accessible to the general audience, while at the same time appeasing book fans who are deeply invested in the franchise on an emotional level. Take the Harry Potter Franchise for instance: Would the films have been such massive hits had "The Sorcerers Stone " been shunned by book fans? Would the other 7 movies have even been made? I think not. At least not the ones we ended up with.

Then there is the matter of casting. The studio has cast Idris Elba in the role if Roland Deschain, a character that, up to this point, has been exclusively described/visualized as white. This caused a bit of an uproar in the fan community, with many being accused of racism for not accepting the casting, even by the producer of the film. I believe that by taking this stance the studio feels they can silence detractors of the film(even those of aspects not connected to the casting) by pulling the "race card" to dismiss their criticisms outright.

This is a problem.

If you look at most online articles regarding the project, you will notice this issue being actively skirted outside of message boards and forums, and many articles are even going too far the other way in their obviously pandering praise pf the casting. I saw one article showing set photos say that the Gunslinger was "perfectly visualized from the books" via Elba in costume. This could not be more laughable, as Elba looks very little like Roland as described/visualized thus far, and it has little to do with race.

Elba is more bulky of frame than Roland, who has been described as "Long, tall and ugly" by one character. Elba has the tall part down, but you'd be extremely hard pressed to find someone calling Idris "lean" or "ugly". Plus the fact that he just looks too CLEAN in costume. He looks like he just walked off the set of Bonanza, not like he's been doing years of hard living in the desert. And I swear to God if i don't see at least one shot of him wearing a hat at some point I'm going to loose my fucking mind.

Maybe he dropped it when he picked up the Horn of Eld.

I had only two problems with Elba being cast. One being that because he looks so different than the character I've visualized is my head and seen illustrations of over the years, I'm not going to be watching "Roland", I'm going to be watching "Idris Elba pretending to be Roland." But I would have had this very same problem had say, Jonah Hill, been cast in the role.

"The Man in Black fled across the desert, and The Gunslinger waddled."

Second, if a sequel IS made I fear that to keep the initial racially charged dynamic between Roland and Detta/Odetta/Susannah, a black female wheelchair bound paraplegic with a hardcore racist split personality(Detta) in the books, that they might "Hollywood" it up by race changing Susannah as well, reducing her to a clichéd, one note white racist stereotype, instead of the fully developed, intricately layered character as presented the novels. If that happens, if it is ALLOWED to happen, I'm gonna be really disappointed in King for not putting a stop to it. It will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he does not look at his stories, his characters, as any more than properties to license.

But of course we all already knew that. Just look at the shitshow that is "Under the Dome". On the plus side Matthew McConaughey looks perfect as the Man in Black, and based on interviews Elba really seems to have a great take on the character. It looks like they will debut the first footage in October, so we wont have to wait much longer to see him in action. If they pull this off, I'll be the first to eat my words.

Lets just hope Ka is on their side.

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