King on the Dark Tower movies
Posted: September 10, 2010, 08:51
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Stephen King exclusive: Who should star in 'The Dark Tower'? 'The Twilight cast, of course!'
by Kristen Baldwin
With news that Stephen King’s enormously popular book series The Dark Tower will be coming to a big and small screen near you, we here at EW.com could not stop ourselves from reaching out to the bestselling author (and EW columnist) via email to get a few more answers about the highly-anticipated project. Here’s what he had to say:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Dark Tower is such a dense series — did you always think it needed more than a single movie or TV show treatment?
STEPHEN KING: I always thought it would take more than a single movie, but I didn’t see this solution coming — i.e., several movies and TV series. It was Ron [Howard] and Akiva [Goldsman]‘s idea. Once it was raised, I thought at once it was the solution.
What about Ron Howard and NBC makes them a good fit for the franchise?
When working as a director, Ron is very similar to the way I work as a writer. We both tell honest stories that have (I flatter myself) style and substance but not a lot of show-offy frills.
In a perfect world, who would play Roland? Eddie? Susannah? Jake?
The Twilight cast, of course! Just kidding. I haven’t got as far as casting in my thoughts, but when I write about Susannah Dean, I always kind of see Angela Bassett in my mind’s eye. Mostly I just want good people in those parts. Ron Howard will find them, I’m sure.
And who would you want to play?
I’d love to be the voice of Blaine the Mono.
There’s a lot of blood in the series — how much is the TV series going to be censored? It likely would have been easier to join forces with a network without restrictions, à la HBO, no?
I don’t see that as a problem at all! We’ll have just enough latitude to make a great series. I’ve worked in network TV before, and every time I was squeezed a little, it just made me look for creative solutions. Besides, I always like to play in the biggest auditorium available!
Thanks to David Squyres
