This is really just about my favorite series of books, almost as much as I like Tolkien’s series of books.
Anyway, I’d like to get some discussion about it here. Namely, how do you think Roland’s world is related to ours? Or what exactly happened to the “Blasted Lands” from the The Wastelands.
And if the series were to be made into a movie, who would you cast in what role?
In the book Black House (the follow-up to The Talisman), the insinuation is that the Territories from The Talisman is the same world as Roland’s. If that’s the case, then The Talisman explains this: The ‘Blasted Lands’ are where the first American nuclear tests were perfomed, in the rough equivalent of Nevada.
Good question:
Roland - Ideally, I could see De Niro making a great Roland. He’s just grizzled enough.
Eddie Dean - Sounds odd, but I always pictured singer Tom Cochrane a Eddie.
Susannah/Odetta/Detta - Angela Bassett
Jake - Anyone could play this. What’s Haley Joel Osment doing now?
I think Willem DaFoe would make a great Roland (at least based on the paintings in the books.)
We had a pretty interesting thread on this one a little while ago…
Here, if you’re interested.
I won’t repeat myself from there, but I like the casting question so I’ll do that one. 
For starters–When filming begins, deport HJ Osment to a different state from the set! That kid squicks me out.
Roland–I haven’t a clue. But whoever they get has to be tall, have small eyes, and be able to go all blank-faced without looking psychotic.
Susannah–Basset would be good, but I always pictured the character as pretty dark-skinned. How sad is it that I can’t think of any darker actresses?
Eddie–I picture Edward Norton for some reason.
Jake–This is hard. I think I’d actually like to see a talented unknown in this role. There aren’t many “big name” kid actors, so they always seem out of place in their parts to me–I’ve seen them too many other places.
[sub]okay, so I’m a shitty casting director. I tried.[/sub]
Except for the fact that I can’t stand Clint Eastwood, I rekon he could do “the look” for Roland. Just dirty him down a bit and tire him out, he always looks so bloody energised. Donald Sutherland could probably do it too, or else Sam Elliot?
Someone with the cowboy thang going on 
Angela Basset has totally got the presence to do Susannah, but I always saw her as a bit “rounder” than I have ever seen Basset. I heart Angela Basset mmmm…
There is an actress who has been in a million films, but always in a very far from central role, she looks like Susannan to me. Let me go IMDB her…Aha, here she is, Kimberly Scott. I think she would be good, I have always liked the couple of lines she has gotten to say
I really like the ideas of DaFoe and Norton for Roland and Eddie, respectively.
I have a suggestion for Susannah - Merrin Dungey. She plays Jennifer Garner’s roommate on Alias. I think she’d be perfect. (But I like Bassett as well.)
Does anyone else think a movie for the Dark Tower would be impossible?
Two more thoughts on the casting for Roland (and an apology for resurrecting this thread):
I recently re-watched “Road House.” What about Sam Elliot? I think he’d do Roland justice. He’s got the same body type, I think. In other words, I agree with Iteki.
Or, we could use Hugh Jackman, except he’s not old enough. I picture Roland being in his 40’s, in terms of appearance.
I asked this in the other thread, but can someone please give a short reminder as to what’s up in the series, or point me to some really simple summaries? I read them all so long ago, and I need a catch-me-up…
Okay, Apos…I’m gonna assume you’re still familiar with the basic premise.
Roland trailed the Man in Black, Walter, through the desert in “The Gunslinger.” Along the way, he killed the residents of a town (whose name is eluding me) in self-defense. He met up with Walter, after meeting Jake (a child who died in New York, and awoke in a way station in Roland’s world). He sacrificed Jake in his pursuit of the tower. He holds palaver with Walter, and falls asleep. When he awakens, Walter has been dead for many years.
Roland is attacked by lobster-like creatures at the beginning of “The Drawing of the Three.” He loses the first two fingers of his right hand, and his right big toe to one of these creatures. Infection sets in. Roland stumbles upon a door to New York, with the words “The Prisoner” written on it. He opens the door, and steps into the mind of Eddie Dean, a herion junkie. After a shootout in New York, Roland draws Eddie into his world.
He has to perform a similar feat with Detta Walker/Odetta Walker, a woman with multiple personality disorder (her door reads “The Lady of the Shadows”). She is also wheelchair-bound from an accident years before in which she was pushed in front of a subway train. Turns out the same man that pushed her, Jack Mort, also dropped a brick on her head years before, which led to her developing her multiple personalities.
Roland successfully draws her into his world, and succeeds in merging her personalities into a new one: Susannah Dean. She and Eddie fall in love.
Roland finds a third door, “The Pusher.” Upon entering, he is in Jack Mort’s mind. Mort is also responsible for Jake’s death, where he was pushed in front of a car.
Roland forces Mort to commit suicide by jumping in front of a subway train.
At the end of “The Drawing of the Three,” Roland has completed his task of drawing Detta/Odetta/Susannah out of the shadows, and has started training Eddie and Susannah to become gunslingers.
In “The Wastelands,” Roland is slowly going insane. When he killed Jack Mort, he stopped Jake’s death. However, he had already encountered Jake (at the way station). Jake is in a similar situation in the New York of his time. Jake finds a key, and keeps it (also a book of riddles and a book called “Charlie the Choo-Choo”). Eddie has a vision, and starts whittling a key of his own. Both of these keys are necessary when Jake is drawn into Roland’s world, as well.
During their travels, they discover a billy-bumbler named Oy. Jake adopts him as a pet. When crossing a bridge, they run into a man named Gasher, who appears to be dying from what Roland calls “whore’s blossom.” He forces the party to hand over Jake, to take to a man called the Tick-Tock Man. Roland does, reluctantly.
Roland and Oy trail Gasher and Jake, while Roland sends Eddie and Susannah to find Blaine the Mono, a monorail that should help them in their quest to get to the Tower.
Roland and Oy manage to rescue Jake, and meet up with Eddie and Susannah at Blaine’s station. Blaine, however, is at least semi-sentient, and is suicidal due to the death of his companion train, Patricia. Roland convinces Blaine to spare their lives if they can win a riddle contest against him. “The Wastelands” ends with the foursome on Blaine, about to start the contest.
At the beginning of “Wizard and Glass,” the contest is won when Eddie starts asking “dead baby” riddles. Upon their departure from Blaine, Roland starts to tell some of his past. His romance with a girl also named Susannah, and the trouble that followed, as she was to be the “consort” of a nobleman in Gilead.
It’s been a while since I’ve read “Wizard and Glass,” so I need to refamiliarize myself with it before I try to tell you more.
Hey, thanks a lot! It’s definately all coming back to me: I remember feeling sort of cheated about the return of Jake.
But I still don’t remember much about why Roland was chasing the Man in Black or heading to the Tower in the first place… or what’s been hinted at as being the secret of the tower.
From what I recall…
Marten was Walter’s master, and an even more powerful wizard. Marten seduced Roland’s mother, driving Roland to such an anger that he forced his rite of passage early (using a hawk as his weapon) to become an official gunslinger so he could hunt down Marten.
Marten had been hoping that Roland would fail this test and either be killed or sent west in disgrace. Instead, Roland passes, and instead of killing Martin he is confronted by his father Stephen. Roland’s father convinces him not to go after Martin, and dispatches him on an “easy” mission to keep him out of the way. This mission is the main portion of Wizard and Glass.
When Roland returns, the circumstances of his return (which I won’t spoil for you) force him to be sent out again. Marten has fled by this time, so he chases Walter in the hopes that he will lead Roland to Marten.
Somewhere on this quest he learns about the Tower, and the nature of his mission changes from personal revenge to saving the multiverse. The Tower (as far as we’ve been told!) acts as some central pin on which all universes spin - and it’s beginning to fail.
Tying this all together a bit is the unmasking of Marten as Flagg, who we’ve come to know and love from other stories as an omnipresent force of chaos . Obviously Roland has a rather large part in the grand grand grand scheme of all things, since this guy is worried about him.
Great recap, Superdude. The only thing I would add is that Wizard and Glass isn’t in Gilead (where Roland is from), but far from Mid-World in Mejis.
Also, Susannah is pregnant, either by Eddie or by the demon that raped her in The Wastelands.
I believe the name of the town was Lud. I haven’t read the book in many years, but that sounds right.
No movie. Cannot/should not be done.
And to King: If you are bloody retiring, what are you waiting for with these books!!!
Wizard and Glass was so spectacular, but it’s been bloody years! Yeaaarrgh!
Lud was the town (or, actually, big city) the four companions find at the end of The Waste Lands. I can’t remember the name of the town Roland slaughtered at the beginning of The Gunslinger.
Corrections to my above synopsis: The third door read “Death,” not “The Pusher.” Roland’s love’s name was Susan Delgado, not Sussannah.
Oh, and how about [link=“http://us.imdb.com/Name?Glenn,%20Scott”]Scott Glenn[/link] as Roland?
Dammit. Scott Glenn, from Backdraft and Urban Cowboy, among others.
Yeah, he could do a damned good Roland, I think I keep pitching Roland too old. Nice one Superdude! Heres the link btw.
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Glenn,+Scott
And a mustachioed Glenn in The Shipping News.
http://us.imdb.com/EGallery?source=ss&group=0120824&photo=Ss/0120824/shipping_news_8.jpg&path=pgallery&path_key=Glenn,%20Scott
Damn you all. I just read the entire series last year and this thread has given me the urge to read them all over again…
Two things- The town where Roland killed the entire population with his pistols was Tulla (just read that today! )
And the last books of the series have already been written!
http://www.stephenking.com/pr18feb2003.html
I was, honestly, overjoyed. I feared this would end up an incomplete series, King would retire or (heaven forbid) pass on, and we’d never know what the end of the story was.
I’ll admit I didn’t like Wizard/Glass much, but I have high hopes for the rest of it, especially from the ‘teaser’ chapter from book 5 that was released.
As for casting… Hrm… Lemme think on that one.
[link]http://us.imdb.com/Name?Ruffalo,%20Mark[/link]
I know that several people have pegged Edward Norton as Eddie Dean, but I honestly think that Mark Ruffalo could do as good a job, if not better. Did anyone see him in You Can Count On Me? I thought he was brilliant, and he really hit me as Eddie Dean.