The Dark Tower TV series will be "complete reboot," says Stephen King

‘The Dark Tower’ creator Stephen King has downplayed any connection between the in-development TV show based on his book series, and the recent ‘Dark Tower’ movie.

Speaking to Vulture, the 70-year old author says, “The TV series they’re developing now … we’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see.”

King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ is a genre-bending nine-book series written over the course of 30 years (first book ‘The Gunslinger’ was published in 1982; final volume ‘The Wind Through the Keyhole’ arrived 2012), and is regarded by many devotees to be the prolific author’s definitive work.

As such, many King fans were distinctly underwhelmed by this year’s ‘The Dark Tower’ movie, which – despite the casting of Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in the lead roles – boiled down the epic dimension-hopping fantasy to a fairly simple, 95 minute adventure.

While King insists it was “a pretty good movie,” he does note that director Nikolaj Arcel’s film struggled in some respects: “The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages.

“The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way.”

There had long been plans for ‘The Dark Tower’ to be adapted to the screen utilising both film and television, initially with designs on a big screen trilogy with two small-screen mini-series bridging the gaps between them.

However, after the lukewarm reception to ‘The Dark Tower’ (global box office of $112 million off a $60 million budget, and a damning 15% rating on Rotten Tomatoes), it seems inevitable that studio Sony will be rethinking things.

Even so, Idris Elba has insisted a second ‘Dark Tower’ movie may still happen, telling Radio Times there are “definitely talks” for a sequel. The actor also states, “I’d personally prefer to do another Dark Tower film, exploring some more of the gunslinger – as a film,” but notes that “any TV series that is an offshoot from the film can have more time to explore some themes.”

Given that it’s still early days for ‘The Dark Tower’ TV series, there’s no indication of whether or not Elba and/or McConaughey would return – but, if King is correct in saying it would be a “total reboot,” it wouldn’t be too surprising if they don’t.

‘The Dark Tower’ is released to home entertainment in December.

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