Posted in: Amazon Studios, Streaming, TV | Tagged with: Amazon, Glen Mazzara, Prime Video, Stephen King, The Dark Tower
Thanks to the third season of The Stunt List, you can check out Glen Mazzaras’ pilot script for his series adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.
Developed by Showrunner/Executive Producer Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead, The Shield, Beacon 23), Akiva Goldsman (Titans, Star Trek: Discovery), bestselling author Stephen KingAmazon Studios’ The Dark Tower The streaming series adaptation was intended to be a more faithful retelling of the books than what was attempted in the feature film. The series would begin years before the events of the film and focus on Deschain’s origins and backstory: from how he got his guns and became a gunslinger to his first encounter with the villainous Man in Black. Sam Strike (Roland Deschain, also known as The Gunslinger), Jasper Pääkkönen (The Man in Black aka Randall Flagg aka Marten Broadcloak), game of Thrones‘ Hieronymus Flynn, Michael Rooker (The Walking Dead), And Joanna Ribeiro (The man who fell from the sky) were on board the 13-episode series produced by Media Rights Capital (MRC). Unfortunately, in January 2020, Amazon decided not to continue the series – but now, almost five years later, we have the chance to read Mazzara’s script for the pilot episode – courtesy of The stunt list Season 3. That’s right – if you go to the website, you can see the vision Mazzara had in mind for the series adaptation.
In 2020, Mazzara was a guest at The King Cast Podcast, where he gave listeners a glimpse into the pilot’s plot. “The story of the pilot is essentially about Roland in the desert. The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed him. In this version, he’s chasing Marten because Marten was with Gabrielle (Roland’s mother) and swore revenge. In the books, (Roland) gets his guns out to kill Marten and then Marten kind of disappears from the narrative. So (Roland) chases Marten across the desert and ends up in Hambry. He meets Susan,” Mazzara explains.
“In the pilot, it’s the Festival of the Kissing Moon and she’s introduced to the mayor and meets Roland on the street. Roland goes into Traveler’s Rest. He has the scene where the Big Coffin Hunters take down Sheemie and Roland gets into a classic western standoff. The Ka-Tet catches up and we see Cuthbert using the slingshot and taking out one of the Big Coffin Hunters. They go into the square and while they’re arguing, Roland explains that he’s here to find and kill Marten, Susan grabs him and they dance. They actually dance to a Flogging Molly tune, which I love. The Big Coffin Hunters come in and chase him across the square, but Roland sees Marten, so everything ends up colliding.”
If you’re a fan of King’s fantasy series, be sure to indulge in the podcast above. But in case you need any more convincing, Mazzara also revealed what he was most excited about adapting for the small screen: “I was really excited about Blaine. I had ideas for it. I was really excited about Callahan. In fact, I wanted to do Callahan’s backstory from the time he leaves Salem’s Lot to the time he ends up in Mid-World as its own miniseries. I didn’t think you could really fit that into The Dark Tower, so I wanted to spin that off. I was going to hire the best joke writers in Hollywood to write how Roland and Susannah meet Dandelo. I really wanted it to be laugh-out-loud funny. There were all these things I really wanted to do.”
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