Nikolaj Arcel

The years-in-the-making adaptation of Stephen King’s epic fantasy series finally comes to the screen. But was it worth the wait?

Something fishy is going on with the two Stephen King movies coming out this year. At least, their runtimes aren’t exactly what you’d expect. It was recently revealed that The Dark Tower clocks in at a lean 95 minutes long, and now we’re hearing that Andres Muschietti’s It is considerably longer than two hours: approximately 135 minutes.

The Dark Tower, oddly enough, is not the 2.5-hour fantasy epic most people were expecting it to be when the movie version was announced. When news broke earlier this week that the movie is only 95 minutes long, we all kinda raised a brow (even though, given the modern blockbuster era’s love of movies that are way too long, the public now breathes a sigh of relief at anything under two hours). But director Nikolaj Arcel recently spoke about why his movie is so lean, and it makes a lot of sense.

When a big studio tentpole comes out, it’s common practice for the personnel involved to take their next jobs around the same time, riding the crest of publicity generated by the release. Usually, the offers start coming in shortly after the film in question hits theaters and proves successful or less-so, and the news will follow that. But when, say, the director of the upcoming Dark Tower adaptation signs a deal for his next project weeks in advance of his big premiere, it’s a sign foretelling one of two things. It’s either so good that a studio made him an offer too appealing to pass up, or so bad that he just wants to sign a contract before word gets out.

The world approaches a great cataclysm in the latest trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s fantasy novel The Dark Tower, but the specific nature of that cosmic upheaval, I know not what. Not having read the source novel, I’ve decided to go into the film cold when it premieres on August 4, and so far, I’ve done a pretty solid job of keeping myself unsullied by plot revelations. The new international trailer does me a favor, too, by playing all of its details of plot close to the vest. There’s a whole lot of ominous talking, stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey appear to have some manner of beef that could decide the fate of the known universe, but beyond that, I’m in the dark (tower).

The Dark Tower movie hasn’t even dropped a first trailer, let alone confirmation a TV arm of the franchise will ever come to fruition. Still, executive producer Ron Howard at least remains optimistic, saying “creatively, it could work very well.”

Ready for even more new photos and details from The Dark Tower? Good, because we have plenty. In addition to yesterday’s sneak peeks and exciting intel on the long-awaited adaptation, we have a handful of new photos featuring Idris Elba’s Gunslinger and his young companion Jake Chambers, played by newcomer Tom Taylor. The pics also give us a good look at Mid-World, the world beyond our own where the titular tower stands and an epic journey awaits.

Not long ago, Stephen King shared a teaser photo from The Dark Tower that hinted at a potentially huge game-changer for the long-developing film adaptation. The TL;DR version: It’s not an adaptation, necessarily, but a sequel. To explain exactly why that is would be to get into book spoiler territory, so I’ll save that for later in this post. For now, director Nikolaj Arcel has confirmed our suspicions about that photo and what it means for Roland’s quest in The Dark Tower.

Fans of The Dark Tower have been (rightfully) concerned about the long-developing movie adaptation, and those concerns have only been intensified as casting reports reveal that the film contains characters who don’t appear until (much) later in Stephen King’s series. But King himself has shared a new teaser image indicating that director Nikolaj Arcel has found a way to justify some of those changes, while also suggesting a big (possible) game-changer for the adaptation.

One of the trickiest roles to cast in an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is that of Jake Chambers, the young boy who meets Roland Deschain during his journey in the first novel and becomes a key figure in the gunslinger’s story — not just once, but twice. He’s an incredibly vital member of the story, but given his age (11), the length of the series, and the impossibility of keeping a kid from growing up, Jake is easily the most difficult role to fill. But director Nikolaj Arcel has done it anyway, casting a relative newcomer in the long-awaited adaptation.