CONNECTING
KING
THE DARK TOWER SERIES FREQUENTLY
REFERENCES STEPHEN KING’S OTHER
BOOKS. HERE ARE FIVE EXAMPLESTHE STAND
Probably King’s most epic non-Dark
To w e r story, this post-apocalyptic
tale is referenced in Wizard And
Glass when Roland and his ka-tet
pass through a place ravaged by
Captain Trips, the superflu that kicks
off The Stand. Randall Flagg, that
story’s villain, is also one of the
man in black’s guises throughout
The Dark Tower.
INSOMNIA
The Crimson King, essentially the
man in black’s infernal boss, and the
real antagonist of the Dark Tower
novels, was first introduced in King’s
1994 epic about an elderly man
battling the forces of darkness in
Derry, Maine.HEARTS IN
ATLANTIS
This compendium of novellas
introduces Ted Brautigan, a kindly
man with great telepathic power who
is enslaved by the Crimson King as
a Breaker (a being with power to
destroy the beams holding up the
Dark Tower) and is a major character
in The Dark Tower. He was played by
Anthony Hopkins in the 2001 movie
Hearts Of Atlantis, but that
contained no references to the
wider Kingiverse.
THE SHINING
Danny Torrance, the young hero of
The Shining, is mentioned by name
in the Dark Tower novels. In the film,
it’s possible that Jake Chambers’
psychic abilities are a version of
Danny’s ability to ‘shine’. In the
trailer, a photo of the Overlook Hotel
can be seen on a therapist’s desk.
SALEM’S LOT
Father Frank Callahan is a minor
character in King’s vampire thriller
Salem’s Lot. Tainted by association
with that novel’s head vampire,
Callahan is cast aside and wanders
the Earth, eventually pitching up in
The Dark Tower’s fifth book,
Wolves Of The Calla.get to the really good stuff. “It’s almost like
a long poem,” says Arcel. “A lot of it is very
inaccessible. Knowing what this saga is in full
means that you just can’t take that tone from
Book One and put it on the screen.”
The solution, as it turned out, was already
there in Goldman’s script. “I like Akiva
Goldsman as a writer very much,” says King.
“He said, ‘Why don’t we start in media res, in the
middle of the story?’ Akiva’s idea, and Nik’s
idea, was to say, ‘Maybe this is the second time
around for Roland Deschain...’”
Regrettable but unavoidable spoilers follow:
at the end of the final book, Roland finds the
Dark Tower, but at great cost: his ka-tet is
rent asunder and he finds himself back at the
beginning of his quest. This time, though, he
bears the Horn Of Eld, an artefact he once gave
away and which signals that things might turn
out differently. The Dark Tower also begins with
Roland in possession of the Horn, suggesting
that what is printed past is prologue, and the
story here can unfold in surprising ways. “We
were able to do a pseudo-sequel to the books,”
says Arcel. “The last telling of the story, the last
turn of the wheel.”IN THE books, Roland is many things
— taciturn, often unlikeable, obsessive and, when
it comes to the actual gunslinging, a super-cool
mixture of Knight Of The Round Table and
Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name. It’s
perhaps this latter comparison that has led to
Roland being depicted so often over the years by
artists (including Thomas Jane’s character in the
opening sequence of King pal Frank Darabont’s
The Mist) as an Eastwoodian figure. “In the
books, it’s never said that Roland Deschain is a
Caucasian person,” says King. “It was just taken
for granted that Roland is a white guy.”
Certainly, Arcel had no such preconceptions,
and when he was presented with a list of possible
Rolands, Elba’s name stood out. “He looks right
and cool and badass,” says Arcel. “I wasn’t
thinking about the colour of his skin. I was told,
‘Get ready for the debate.’ I said, ‘What debate?’
There were some idiots who said, ‘Isn’t Roland
white?’ But most people got it.”
Elba admits that, “There was some
backlash,” but is more focused on the
positive aspects of his colour-blind casting.
“It is progressive,” he says. “I don’t think this
role would have come my way five years ago
for various reasons. But I think the landscape
has changed.”
Elba didn’t take The Dark Tower to make
a political statement, though. Instead, it was the
character that grabbed him by the six-shooters.
“Roland is not an emotional guy,” says Elba.
“He’s a man of few words. He’s conflicted. He
lands on the side of good against evil, but isn’t
afraid to be a little bit evil himself.” And he
certainly didn’t take it because he was a fan of
the books. In fact, he hadn’t read them. Still
hasn’t. “I definitely attempted them,” he laughs.“I got through the first one while we were
making it. I’m continuing to do the rest.” He
shouldn’t feel bad. The man in black hadn’t read
it either.“WHERE ARE you, Walter?
Where are you?”
Matthew McConaughey is looking for
Walter. Not literally — he’s looking on his
iPhone for the name of a song he used to get
into Walter Padick’s twisted mind. “Here,
songy, songy,” says McConaughey in that
alrightalrightalright drawl. “Oh, here it is!
Them Shoes, by Patrick Sweany. That’s got
a strong Walter vibe.”
The lyrics — “My mind is filled with ghosts/
They’re more than most of all my loves gone
wrong” — may not immediately bring to mind
the Devil, but that’s exactly who Walter is: the
man in black, the silver-tongued sorcerer
scheming to bring down the Dark Tower, is
King’s version of Satan. “It just seemed to
chime with what I was feeling at the time,”