THE GUNSLINGER

I read this book a long, long time ago and remember enjoying it quite a bit. It's part of Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER series and I've read the first 4 books, but the problem is, I can't remember a single thing about any of them. I don't know if that reflects poorly about my memory or the books themselves, but it's probably been 11 years since I read the first one.

But Stephen King has always been one of my favorite writers (even if he has kind of fallen off the past decade or so). I read MISERY when I was 12—which is a good story in itself that I'll tell sometime—and did an entire project on him in 7th grade. Got a letter from his wife and everything. So, even if he does write some run-of-the-mill horror novels from time to time, he still has a penchant for great storytelling and I'll always have a soft spot for his stuff.

I'm kind of getting back into his work because of LOST, in a way. JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, the guys that created LOST, did an interview with King a few years back where they basically just talked about how they loved each others work the entire time. It ended with the news that Abrams and Lindelof had acquired the rights to THE DARK TOWER series and were planning on adapting it.

Cut to a few years later, Abrams is busy making fantastic films of his own and Lindelof just finished working probably 100 hours a week for six years straight getting LOST finished, and neither of them probably have the time or desire to spend another 6 years on a single project. So in come Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman to pick up the ball and run with it.

Since THE DARK TOWER is something like 8 books and 4 or 5 comic prequels, they have kind of an ambitious plan. First up, a movie based on THE GUNSLINGER, which leads to a season-long TV series, a second film, another TV series and concludes with a third movie. The plan is to shoot all the films at the same time (which sometimes works, i.e. THE LORD OF THE RINGS and sometimes doesn't, i.e. THE MATRIX, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 2 and 3) and use some of the sets and production aspects for the show.

Now if everything goes right, this could be a fantastic project. Ron Howard has an excellent track record, and the source material is ripe for a great set of films.

Guess I better get started on the books. That way I can complain when I see the movies and things have been changed.