--- title: The Dark Tower: Why It Took So Long to Make the Movie Happen description: All eight books in the series have topped bestseller lists, yet the Dark Tower has languished in in production hell. Here's what happened. canonical: https://time.com/4882998/dark-tower-movie/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-03T15:09:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T16:49:33.931Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Why It Took So Long to Make a 'Dark Tower' Movie Happen og:description: All eight books in the series have topped bestseller lists, yet the Dark Tower has languished in in production hell. Here's what happened. og:url: https://time.com/4882998/dark-tower-movie/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d44f1971e29f6af/6988d82822fb853e96e223ad/df-09019_r-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: DF-09019_r-(1) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why It Took So Long to Make a 'Dark Tower' Movie Happen twitter:description: All eight books in the series have topped bestseller lists, yet the Dark Tower has languished in in production hell. Here's what happened. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d44f1971e29f6af/6988d82822fb853e96e223ad/df-09019_r-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why It Took So Long to Make a _Dark Tower_ Movie  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Aug 3, 2017 3:09 PM CUT  (L-R) Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in The Dark Tower (L-R) Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in The Dark TowerIlze Kitshoff—Sony Pictures  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Aug 3, 2017 3:09 PM CUT **Spoiler alert for the** **_Dark Tower_** **books ahead** [_The Dark Tower_](http://time.com/4764810/the-dark-tower-stephen-king-trailer/ "undefined") is the seemingly perfect series to make the leap to the big screen. Stephen King’s popular novels have made for many a [movie and television show](http://www.vulture.com/2017/08/every-stephen-king-movie-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html "undefined"), and the _Dark Tower_ series is perhaps his [best-selling exception](https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/3/15528554/the-dark-tower-stephen-king-film-adaptation-explainer "undefined"). All eight books in the series have topped bestseller lists, and the stories have been spun out into [comics](http://stephenking.com/darktower/comic/ "undefined") and even an [online game](http://stephenking.com/darktower/discordia.html "undefined"). King has [millions of loyal followers](https://twitter.com/StephenKing "undefined"), and this particular sprawling tale is filled with the sort of magic and mythos that have made _Harry Potter_ and [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/gameofthrones "undefined") such successes. And yet, _Dark Tower_ languished in in production hell for nearly a decade. Here’s what happened. ### What exactly is _The Dark Tower_ series? King’s series — encompassing eight books and one novella — mashes up elements of fantasy, horror, sci-fi and Western. The author has cited _Lord of the Rings_ and the _The Good, the Bad_ _, and the Ugly_ as inspirations. He’s referred to the works as [his magnum opus](http://screenrant.com/dark-tower-movie-stephen-king-video/ "undefined"), and it took decades for him to complete the series. The first book, _The Gunslinger_, was published in 1982, the last, _The Dark Tower_, in 2004. The plot is complicated, but the famous first line of the series holds the key: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” The Man in Black is the villain — well, _a_ villain — and our hero is Roland Deschain, a cowboy knight known as a gunslinger. Roland is on a quest to find the Dark Tower, a place that links multiple worlds together. Along the way Roland befriends a boy named Jake Chamber who lives in the world readers recognize but has visions of Roland’s reality, a post-apocalyptic universe called Mid-World. Characters and aspects of _The Dark Tower_ also occasionally show up in other King novels, like _The Shining_, _Salem’s Lot_ and _The Stand_. ### Why is it so difficult to adapt? The books’ complicated mythology might make them ripe for television adaptation — where creators have dozens of hours to explore the material — but the story is harder to condense into a film. (That’s part of the reason [book readers are concerned](https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2017/07/20/will-the-dark-tower-be-this-summers-the-avengers-or-g-i-joe/#c540d3e7748a "undefined") with the upcoming movie’s relatively brief 95 minute run-time.) Director Nikolaj Arcel [listed some of the challenges to Uproxx](http://uproxx.com/movies/the-dark-tower-nikolaj-arcel/ "undefined"): “So many characters, so many ideas, so many plots, so many things you’ve got to remember from book one to be able to follow book five.” ### So when did the saga of the making of _The Dark Tower_ begin? In 2007, the team behind _Lost_, including J.J. Abrams, Carlton Cuse and [Damon Lindelof](http://time.com/4732113/damon-lindelof-leftovers-lost/ "undefined"), optioned the book series. It seemed to be a match made in heaven: _Lost_ and _Dark Tower_ both merge realism with magical elements. However, the team never adapted the series: They claimed that their show, which was still airing at the time, had drained them — though Abrams did go on to take a crack at two other epics, _Star Trek_ and _Star Wars_. In 2010 the rights to _Dark Tower_ expired. ### But the project didn’t die? Nope. That year, Universal scooped up the rights and recruited Ron Howard (_Apollo 13_) to direct. Universal planned to turn the books into both a movie and television series. A movie would premiere every two years with the TV show filling in the gaps between the films. That project, too, fell through, in part because of how expensive the unprecedented movie-TV crossover project would have been. ### **So how did this version come to be?** Sony acquired the right to the series and signed Stephen King super fan Nikolaj Arcel (_A Royal_ _Affair_) to direct and [Idris Elba to star as Roland](http://time.com/4406454/idris-elba-stephen-king-the-dark-tower/ "undefined"), a casting decision that received King’s [seal of approval](http://collider.com/dark-tower-featurette-stephen-king/ "undefined"). [Matthew McConaughey then signed on to play the villain](http://time.com/4406901/matthew-mcconaughey-the-dark-tower-villain/ "undefined"), The Man in Black. Arcel told _Entertainment Weekly_ of his adaptation: “The tower is a beacon of light in a world that’s cynical and dark and sometimes feels a little hopeless, and this is about the quest for that.” ### Does the movie share a plot with the first book? This is rather complicated. _The Dark Tower_ film is actually a sequel to the entire series. “The hardcore fans of _The Dark Tower_ series will know that this is actually a sequel to the books in a way,” Arcel [explained](http://ew.com/article/2016/07/14/dark-tower-movie-wont-feature-eddie-susannah/ "undefined") to _Entertainment Weekly_. “It has a lot of the same elements, a lot of the same characters, but it is a different journey.” It’s difficult to explain what Arcel means without spoiling the entire book series. You’ve been warned. ### Wait it’s a sequel? In the final book of the _Dark Tower_ series, King introduces parallel timelines. Roland finds out that he’s been completing the same quest over and over again with differing results. He’s then sent back to the beginning with no memory of what transpired before. So _The Dark Tower_ is a version of one of these lived-over lives, which means events may be different than those experienced by Roland in the book. Apparently, the movie fuses together parts of the first novel _The Gunslinger_ and the third novel _The Waste Lands_ together. ### **Is there still a TV show coming?** Maybe. Arcel [told IndieWire](http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/09/21/its-official-theres-going-to-be-a-wizard-and-glass-tv-series "undefined") that he and several others have written a script for the long-gestating TV series based on the fourth book, _Wizard and Glass_. He added that the producers plan to feature Elba in the show in some capacity. It’s still unclear whether McConaughey would make the jump to the the small screen. However, no network, streaming service or cable network has signed on to make the series yet. The fate of that show may depend on the film’s box office returns. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4882998/dark-tower-movie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4882998/dark-tower-movie/"},"headline":"Why It Took So Long to Make a Dark Tower Movie","datePublished":"2017-08-03T15:09:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T16:49:33.931Z","description":"All eight books in the series have topped bestseller lists, yet the Dark Tower has languished in in production hell. 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