The Dark Tower Trailer

No spoilers included this time! 🙂

So the first trailer for The Dark Tower dropped today, and first of all it looks AMAZING. And I mean that purely visually. The effects, the quicktime gun loading, Idris Elba in his gunslinger get up (I might be drooling…) Everything just looks awesome.

However, for months now, while I’ve been snatching up any news about this movie like an owl snatches up a fluffy bunny rabbit going for a midnight snack, several thoughts have been running through my mind:

Where is Eddie? (And why didn’t they cast Aaron Paul to play him?)

Where is the truly badass Susannah?

WHERE IS OY THE BILLY-BUMBLER??

The answer is, sadly, nowhere to be seen. It doesn’t look like any of those characters will be present on the big screen.

All in all, there were very few visuals in the trailer that matched up with anything from the actual novels. The closest we got to a direct parallel was Jake entering the house with the portal to Mid-World. But instead of this:

We got… a hole in the wall?

That doesn’t mean there isn’t anything to get excited about. Jake is in the movie, and since Jake and Roland’s relationship is arguably the most important relationship in the story, that tells me that the emotional heart of Roland’s quest will likely remain intact. Also, Idris Elba as Roland and Matthew McConaughey as Walter, the Man in Black? HELL YES to both. It’s just going to be different. It’s not going to be a faithful adaptation of any of the seven (eight depending on who you ask…) novels that make up The Dark Tower.

But that’s ok! Because I’ve finally given this movie permission to be so different from the books I love so much. Not because I realize that there might not be a way to turn Stephen King’s magnum-opus into a series of faithfully adapted movies, but because of this:

For anyone who’s read the books THAT SHOULD BLOW YOUR MIND. For anyone who hasn’t read the books, I won’t spoil it for you. Just know this:

1) You need to read the books.

2) That post solves every issue I had with the movie deviating from the books.

3) This is going to be amazing!

As one last bonus, did you catch the reference to The Shining?

Apparently there’s also a reference to IT, but since I’m a big wimp with a heap of coulrophobia thanks to the original movie, I don’t think I’m going to go looking for it…

Anyway, I can’t wait for August 4th!