It is yet to be seen what Columbia Pictures have planned for The Dark Tower beyond 2017. But, if it was up to the director and stars of the film, there will be many more installments to follow. Filmmaker Nikoaj Arcel has made the bold claim already that he would love to helm the sequel, going public on his goal days before his title opens in theaters on August 4.
The 95-minute action feature is an adaptation from the Stephen King novel, with the trailer already dropping a number of Easter Eggs to other properties of the horror writer like IT and The Shining. If those inside the production have any say, the crossover opportunities will be endless.
DT 2 Already There To Use, Just Need Studio's Blessing
Director Arcel explained to IndieWire that the 1987 book The Drawing of Three would be the blueprint to make The Dark Tower 2, with the beginning of that tale starting just 7 hours after the conclusion of the original.
"The best way to continue the series, if we are lucky enough to continue, would be with what is actually book two, because now the other characters start coming into the story," he remarked. "They start gathering the band of heroes. This is really only trying to encompass novel one, with elements from some of the other novels."
Yet this confidence is not misguided. He recalled his meetings with the creator himself - Mr. Stephen King.
"He was so nice and so supportive, from the moment I got the job,” Arcel said. “He made me feel like an immediate collaborator. He was like, ‘Okay, Nik, what are we gonna do? Let’s talk this out.’ He just made me feel welcome and safe from the get-go."
The Original Is Still The Best For Idris and Matt
With Englishman Idris Elba taking on the lead role of Roland Deschain a.k.a. The Gunslinger, the actor admitted that the opportunity to start a series from scratch was too tempting to turn down.
"What brought me was this opportunity to make something original, something that was definitely going to be an exercise for the imagination of any audience, whether you read the books or not," he told Cinemablend. "Getting to play a gunslingin' hero, that was my main one. Outside of wanting to work with Matthew (McConaughey) and Nic (Arcel) and the Sony team, it was really about this page 1 fantastic new idea, new film, new concept, new franchise, new hero."
But it was not just a franchise for the sake of it. Speaking to the Associated Press, this is the chance to start from the ground up.
"I wanted to be the hero, but I just didn't want to be any old hero. I wanted to be in something original. I didn't want to be in a remake, you know, I've got family with Marvel, I've got family with Disney and now I've made family in this lineage. This is original. This is me at the helm and it's a character that we haven't seen before."
Matthew McConaughey echoed those sentiments, seeing the villain role of The Man in Black as an ideal vehicle to put his imprint on the figure before anyone else could get the chance.
"There are franchises out there, and I've seen them, had some offers, and they were ones that I even liked. But I felt like they were the second or third one, and the characters I was being offered were sort of an amendment to the story, because they'd succeeded earlier. This came across my desk, and I said, 'Oh, this is original, a chance to get in on the ground floor, to have some authorship with the character that I would go play. To get in with Idris, Nikolaj, and Sony, and the creators, and go 'Hey, we're gonna be the first to tell the story. We're gonna be the first to present you The Dark Tower. And if it's a success, we can come back and do another one.'"
Source: IndieWire, Cinemablend, Associated Press
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