Only 35 days separate the release of The Dark Tower and Andy Muschietti’s It reboot, and though the mere thought of two Stephen King adaptations in two months is enough to leave horror fans weak at the knees, yesterday brought forth a rather disconcerting report about The Dark Tower and the alleged hurdles it faced throughout proudction.
In short, it appears as though Nikolaj Arcel’s rendition of the King classic suffered from the ol’ “too many cooks in the kitchen” cliché, which really begs the question: can Sony’s Dark Tower movie prove the naysayers wrong and achieve box office success later this week? Or will it be dead on arrival?
Whatever the case, it’s emerged that Arcel’s fantasy epic, one that’s been angled as a continuation of King’s novel saga, stretches for 95 minutes in total. That’s a relatively lean runtime for such an ambitious project, though it remains to be seen if that slight script has much of an effect on the end product. By stark contrast, Muschietti’s It reboot clocks in at 135 minutes, and that’s even considering the fact that both the director and his producing partner Barbara Muschietti were forced to nix two fairly crucial scenes to stay within budget.
Adapting a horror tome that spans over 1,000 pages naturally requires a suitable running time, and up above, you’ll find the latest, international promo for New Line’s adaptation, which hopes to kick-start a two-part saga chronicling The Losers Club and their encounter with Pennywise.
Granted, a shape-shifting demon isn’t the only cause for concern, as The Losers Club will also confront a handful of Derry’s local bullies – namely Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton), Patrick Hockstetter (Owen Teague), Victor Criss (Logan Thompson), and Belch Huggins (Jake Sim).
The Dark Tower opens first on Friday, August 4th, so stay tuned to find out how Nikolaj Arcel’s epic fares with critics. On the other hand, It Part 1 – The Losers Club debuts on September 8th.
