The Dark Tower Pilot Script Released For Stephen King Series
Few likely want to remember the 2017 film adaptation of Stephen King’s popular fantasy series, The Dark Tower. The movie was heavily criticized for trying to cram way too much into the movie, leaving both book fans and general audiences disappointed. However, The Dark Tower was also supposed to become a series back in 2020, and while that ultimately did not happen, the showrunner has recently shared the script for the pilot episode.
The Scrapped Dark Pilot Series
Glen Mazzara of The Walking Dead fame was the man behind the series that was supposed to air on Amazon. With the show falling through at this point, Mazzara recently posted on X to share the full script for the pilot of his The Dark Tower series so fans could get a sense of what could have been. The plan had been for the series to be a faithful recreation of the story from the book series.
The description for The Dark Tower series before it was scrapped said, “Based on The Dark Tower books by Stephen King, young Roland Deschain investigates a treacherous plot in the town of Mejis, far from his hometown of Gilead. Here, he finds love and learns of his true destiny.”
Begins With Roland’s Past
Based on that description, it appears Mazzara’s The Dark Tower series may have been starting with the events of the fourth book, Wizard and Glass. The majority of this book is spent on Roland recounting his past and what led him onto the path he is on as a gunslinger. In his travels with his friends, a young Roland meets a girl named Susan, with whom he falls in love, and makes it his mission to help her town. Though the book is largely a prequel, it seems the TV series would have started here chronologically.
Based On The Stephen King Epic Series
Book one of King’s series was The Gunslinger, which is more of a Western-inspired story in comparison to the later books, jumping to a modern setting and beyond. It would have been especially interesting to see how a faithful The Dark Tower series adaptation would have handled the later books, as they began incorporating characters from many of King’s most famous novels. This includes the likes of Salem’s Lot, The Stand, and Eyes of the Dragon. Stephen King himself eventually became a character in the books.
Another Adaptation From Netflix’s Horror Master
Though Amazon rejected the pilot from being turned into a full season, they are still very interested in having The Dark Tower as a series. Fans of the series will know that recent rumblings have confirmed that famed horror director Mike Flanagan has now received the green light to do the series for Amazon. Not much is known in detail yet, but Flanagan does promise a faithful adaptation.
Fans Are Still Waiting For A Good Adaptation
As for Mazzara’s pilot, it is unclear what exactly led to Amazon passing on it. Perhaps Amazon felt that starting with content from the fourth novel was not a strong entry point. Nothing was far enough along to confirm any casting for this version of The Dark Tower series, but rumors were that actors Michael Rooker, Jerome Flynn, and Joana Ribeiro were all planned to be involved.
Fans of Mazzara’s script might be disappointed, but at least it sounds like it will not be a long wait before Flanagan shares his version of The Dark Tower as a series that will hopefully finally do justice to the books.
Source: The Stunt List
