Summary
Akiva Goldsman, a co-writer on the Stephen King movieThe Dark Tower,acknowledges it as a failure. The 2017 movie was an adaptation of thepopular Stephen King book series, which featured a leading cast including Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Taylor, Abbey Lee, Fran Kranz, Claudia Kim, and Ben Gavin.The Dark Towerwas directed by Nikolaj Arceland written by Arcel, Keff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jansen, and Goldsman.
Speaking withColliderat a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Goldsman reflected on his experience working onThe Dark Tower. He reacted bluntly, stating that he"just kind of failed at"adapting the novel. The writer ultimately summarized the process as “a lot of significant hopes and dreams that led to not very much.” Check out the full quote from Goldsman below:
I kind of just failed at The Dark Tower. It’s not that it got away. We just failed at it. We tried to put the pieces together, we couldn’t hang on, it kept shifting, everybody had a different point of view. So many of us had started it and lost it. By the end, it was a lot of significant hopes and dreams that led to not very much. That’s not exactly passing on a thing, but it’s a loss of it.
Why The Dark Tower Is Considered Such A Massive Failure
The Dark Tower Did Poorly With Critics And Audiences
Though the King novel on which it is based is well-regarded,The Dark Towerreceived abysmal reviewsupon its release seven years ago,garnering a paltry 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. Among audiences, the movie fared slightly better, but still came out rotten with a 44% audience approval rating.The Dark Towerwas largely considered an incoherent, poorly plotted adaptation, so it makes sense why Goldsman would characterize it as a failure.
In addition to the poor critical reviews,The Dark Towerdid not do well at the box office,grossing only $113.2 million worldwide. On its face, that raw number may not seem incredibly low, but it is an underperformance when considering that the film boasted a $60 million budget. Once marketing and publicity is added, films usually need about 2-2.5x their budget to break even.The Dark Towerfell just below that threshold, and thus likely lost money rather than earning any.
Every Stephen King Movie Ranked, From Worst To Best
Stephen King is one of the most adapted authors of all time, and the bestselling horror writer has over 50 movies released to his name.
The combination of the poor reviews and the box office totalmakesThe Dark Towera massive flop overall. While this was disappointing at the time for fans of the King property, the hope for a successfuladaptation has not been completely dashed. Acclaimed horror directorMike Flanagan is involved with a TV adaptation ofThe Dark Tower. This will give the franchise another chance at audience and critical acclaim, hopefully making up for the shortcomings of Goldsman and his team.
The Dark Tower
Cast
Idris Elba, Tom Taylor, Claudia Kim, and Matthew McConaughey star in The Dark Tower, a Western Sci-Fi film directed by Nikolaj Arcel. Released in 2017, The Dark Tower follows a young boy with visions of an apocalyptic future in which a powerful man, dubbed The Man in Black, lays waste to the universe. The film is based on the Stephen King book series.
