Movie posters by David Graham

More here, and some available as prints.

The Dark Tower review

TB:

The film spends a good half-hour or so just setting up Jake, which wouldn’t be a problem if that wasn’t over a quarter of the movie. By the time he meets Roland (Idris Elba), we’re well into Act Two, and Roland is relegated to a background role. He’s the gunslinger who appeared in Jake’s most recent visions, the one person who might be able to stop the Man In Black, and there’s one quick flashback (which I’ll address below) that is meant to establish a fairly complicated backstory, but other than that, there’s really nothing about Roland that would suggest he is a character worth following through this story. He’s a cipher. He’s a guy who shoots well in the film, and nothing more. This is Jake’s journey, after all.

"FYI... theatres are being told The Dark Tower is 94mins, not 95mins"

Potential spoiler (if true):
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Worse still, given that the whole point of this film is to harvest the built-in Stephen King Fanbase dollars, the film ends on what one person familiar with the project called, “what might be the worst studio-dictated happy ending since Brazil” and one that seems diabolically calculated to infuriate King fans with a giant middle finger to the entire Dark Tower concept.

"85 minutes. As in: the runtime of the current cut of The Dark Tower being screened"

Uh-oh.

The Overlook Hotel in the trailer for The Dark Tower

Dark Tower Gunslinger original art by Laurence Campbell available

Pages are $150-$170.

For Dark Tower fans, the Charlie the Choo-Choo illustrated book is available at Amazon

"Engineer Bob has a secret: His train engine, Charlie the Choo-Choo, is alive…and also his best friend. From celebrated author Beryl Evans and illustrator Ned Dameron comes a story about friendship, loyalty, and hard work." Available in hardcover or digital.

Dark Tower The Drawing of the Three: The Sailor #2 cover

By Jay Anacleto.

Stephen King gave away Charlie the Choo-Choo books at SDCC

The "author" was there to sign, too. A few copies are available at ebay.

Feels like The Dark Tower movie starts right after book seven ends

The Dark Tower is close, now. The Crimson King awaits. Soon Roland will raise the Horn of Eld. And blow. pic.twitter.com/rqGSKM3dWL

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) May 19, 2016

Link roundup

1. The Dark Tower movie is really happening, will deviate greatly from the books:

“[The movie] starts in media res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they’ll get behind it, because it is the story,” King says.

Arcel declined to specify which books his movie focus on, but he did offer this clue: “A lot of it takes place in our day, in the modern world.”

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Arcel acknowledges that skin color actually was an important factor in the relationship between Roland and Susannah

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For now, The Dark Tower is one movie, with only the possibility of more.

For the best, and maybe it'll work as what happens right after the events of the last book....

2. Dogs used as ball boys at a tennis match.

3. "The careers of pro football players are decreasing at an unprecedented rate"

From 2008 to 2014, the average NFL career dropped in length by about two and a half years.

"'The Dark Tower' is something else you have in development. Why has it taken so long to get this off the ground?"

CBR:

The key has been to try to find which part of the story do you tell first and how do you tell it.

Link roundup

1. io9 posted a gallery of location concept art made for the Ron Howard Dark Tower franchise. Susannah is walking in the images.

2. "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize."

3. LA Times:

Orange County's transition to making its network of toll roads cashless has now resulted in more than 13,000 violations a day — a figure that has prompted the toll agency to ease first-time penalty fees through the summer. 

The Transportation Corridor Agencies closed down its tollbooths in mid-May in favor of a cashless system in which commuters would either use transponders or go online to pay tolls.

Aaron Paul says he's had "a ton of meetings" about being Eddie Dean in Ron Howard's Dark Tower movies.

The Dark Tower poster

The Dark Tower by Drew Struzan.

The Dark Tower in the style of Dr. Deuss

The Dark Tower meets Dr. Seuss by DrFaustusAU.

Blaine the Mono at Disneyland?

The new monorails at Disneyland reminded me of The Dark Tower's Patricia and Blaine. I wonder if they ask riddles.

Movie poster for The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three

Movie poster by Sean Hartter for The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three.