Stephen King has opened up about the challenges faced by the writers who had to adapt his ‘Dark Tower’ book series for the big screen – admitting making his violent story suitable to get a PG-13 rating would have been the most difficult thing.
The writer’s novels were given the movie treatment over the summer, with director Nikolaj Arcel at the helm for the blockbuster – which received mixed reviews – which starred Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba.
King – famed for his horror fiction – enjoyed the film and appreciates that the various scribes who worked on the screenplay, Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas and Arcel, must have had a hard time dumbing down the violent acts of his characters in the sci-fi western.
Speaking to Vulture, King said: "The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages. The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way. That was something that had to be overcome, although I’ve gotta say, I thought [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman did a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie."
On the subject of another upcoming adaptation of ‘The Dark Tower for TV – which was announced before the movie – the author is excited to see what will be a "complete reboot".
King, 70, said: "The TV series they’re developing now … we’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see."
King’s work is having a renaissance on the screen with the re-imagining of his 1986 novel ‘IT’ – starring Bill Skarsgard as the evil Pennywise the Dancing Clown – receiving critical acclaim and breaking box office records for an R-rated film.
And King himself was shocked by how terrifying and gripping Andy Muschietti’s vision of his film was.
He previously explained: "I had hopes, but I was not prepared for how good it really was. It’s something that’s different and at the same time, it’s something that audiences are gonna relate to. They’re gonna like the characters. To me, it’s all about character. If you like the character, if you care, the scares generally work."
Stephen King says rating for The Dark Tower was a challenge
