October 29th, 2005

Filed under:
Books

Gunslinger Comes to Comics

Last fall I wrote about the brilliance of Stephen King’s Dark Tower books. I mostly quoted Cory Doctorow, actually, who put it better than I could. I haven’t read the final novel of the seven-book series, but I’m looking very forward to it.

Happily, Slashdot reports that King and Marvel comics are going to collaborate on a comic book based on the series. Can a movie (or movies) be far behind?

Thinking about a possible movie, I’ve been puzzling over who should play the lead–essentially, a younger Clint Eastwood. My friend Matthew offered the obvious solution: Viggo Mortensen.

Comments: 7 Responses so far

Arsheena (my SO) chimed in with Robert Davi, and I have to say that I’m impressed with what that conjures in my mind’s eye.

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!!!! My favorite series! I’m so looking forward to it…a 36 year-old woman buying comics. Bah.

Viggo is *exactly* who I would cast as Roland. Sweeeet. Thanks for the update, Darren.

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Not so sure you need a younger guy to portray Roland. How about Sam Elliot or Michael Madsen?

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I’m in the middle of “the song of Susannah”, and as you have, I’ve been marveling at the epic that could be the Dark Tower (each two novels a movie). Wow, Viggo would be perfect, but don’t forget they’ll also need a yougner version for the battle of Meijis. As for Eddie Dean, I can’t help but see someone with the physical traits of a Johnny Depp or someone in that range, and please, let’s band together and send our mind’s voice to the producers to NOT use Halle Berry for Susannah.

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[...] A while back I speculated on who should play the lead character in the books–Roland the Gunslinger. My friend Matthew produced the best answer I’ve heard in Viggo Mortensen. [...]

Viggo doesn’t seem like he’d have the “hard edge” necessary for Roland. Perhaps as Eddy though…

Russell Crowe might be a good Roland though. The only actor for Susannah that I can come up with is Jada Pinkett…Halle Berry would be pretty terrible.

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There’s no way Viggo Mortensen can play Roland. He would play him exactly like he played Aragorn in LOTR and we’d have to look at his hairy butt crack chin all over again.

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