Journeying to The Dark Tower

I was delighted to accept an invitation to a press screening of the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower hosted at Sony Pictures Europe’s London Offices.

I was unsure what to expect as the reviews [from the US] have been disappointing, which surprised me due to the strength of the two leads Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba, as well as the base narrative from Stephen King.

Firstly, the film retains the flavour [rather than a pure adaptation] of King’s opening to his sequence of fantasy novels featuring The Gunslinger. It mixes the ‘there are worlds other than these’ tagline with an urgent cinematic ‘take’ of these books; so-much-so that the running time flies by in a hail of bullets and action like a John Woo production, but one with a supernatural undercurrent to the proceedings.

The special effects are impressive, as is the action and urgency of the tale when a young boy named Jake Chambers is still recovering from the death of his Fireman Father and finds himself plagued with nightmares and visions. His Mother and Step-Father as well as his school are disturbed by the boy’s behaviour.

The visions emanate from another dimension of sorts, and relate to the eponymous Tower, as well as The Man in Black [Matthew McConaughey] and the Gunslinger [Idris Elba]. No one believes Jake, that is until the link between the dimensions is established as well as the significance of The Tower – and then the inter-dimensional war commences.

Alternating between current day New York and the Wasteland, diehard Stephen King readers [if eagle eyed] will notice subtle references to this writer’s work interspersed throughout the film; which at times is breathless as well as stimulating.

The climax is satisfying and leaves the dimensional door ajar for future adventures; and despite what others have said, The Dark Tower remains an exciting and invigorating film from a fevered imagination.

I thanked Kerry Hood and Nick Sayers of Hodder and Stoughton [Stephen King’s long standing British Publishers] for the invitation to visit The Dark Tower as well as having a good chat with Phillipa Pride [King’s UK Editor] and of Book Doctor.

The film opens in cinemas in the UK on Friday 18^th August; and remember Shots Magazine have copies of The Dark Tower in Paperback available Here

With writer Matt Thorne

The Face through the Key Hole

Following Stephen King’s remarkable 11 / 22 / 63 the great folks at Hodder and Stoughton have organized a rather surreal competition to celebrate the upcoming Dark Tower novel -

To celebrate the publication of The Wind through the Keyhole, the hotly anticipated new episode in Stephen King’s fantasy series The Dark Tower, we’re inviting you to help make literary history; lucky entrants will have their faces featured on the back of the jacket artwork.

Using mosaic design technologies, thousands of readers’ images will be incorporated in the illustration on the back cover of The Wind through the Keyhole.

One winner will also be selected at random to receive the entire STEPHEN KING backlist published by Hodder in the UK.

For your chance to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, all you have to do is upload your photo via this facebook app

Or click > https://www.facebook.com/stephenkingbooks.

We can’t guarantee that everyone’s photo will make it on – but we’ll contact you when the jacket is ready so you can see if your face is featured, and if you’ve been lucky, you can share your pixels of fame with friends and family!

The closing date for entries is 23rd January 2012. Terms and conditions apply, click here for more details.

The Wind through the Keyhole is published in April 2012