Stephen King Fantasy Series The Dark Tower Lands at HBO

Apparently one fantasy series wasn't enough for HBO, as it has just been revealed that Stephen King's 8-book series The Dark Tower will land on HBO. The book series is being adapted in an interesting way: the first book will be made into a movie, which will be followed by an HBO series covering the rest of the books. HBO did an excellent job with Game of Thrones, and The Dark Tower is one of my favorite series, so I'm beyond excited to see how this project turns out, especially since Javier Bardem wants to play the lead. Unfortunately, the movie portion hasn't found a studio, yet, and Bardem's involvement could depend on scheduling. Let's keep our fingers crossed on this one, ok, everyone?

A synopsis of the first book, courtesy of StephenKing.com:

The opening chapter in the epic Dark Tower series. Roland, the last gunslinger, in a world where time has moved on, pursues his nemesis, The Man in Black, across a desert. Roland’s ultimate goal is the Dark Tower, the nexus of all universes. This mysterious icon’s power is failing, threatening everything in existence.

Weekend

Weekend crept up on me. I went into the movie not expecting much—although I am a fan of romance, I had never found a gay romance I could truly connect with, probably because I was unable to easily see myself paralleled in the films, which, admittedly, is important for me when considering romance. And the beginning Weekend didn’t do much for me—I didn’t really like Russell, the protagonist, and I felt the cinematography was trying too hard with it’s shallow depth-of-field and reliance on mirrors to depict the divisive life of the modern gay man. However, as the movie progressed, I found myself forgetting my dislikes. In Russell and Glen’s short-lived, weekend-long love story I found more depth in the character of Russell; realized that the quiet, watchful shot-composition brought us–the viewers–into a closer relationship with the characters, as if we were leaning in and they were whispering to us; and realized that Weekend was not a gay love story, it was a love story. Well written, beautifully shot, truthfully acted, and—most importantly—emotionally pure, Weekend depicts love as what is should be: blind and un-ruled by the backwardness of society.

This poignant, truthful and soft-spoken approach to this sojournant love story bears resemblance to Lost in Translation, which is high praise indeed, especially as Weekend defies being merely imitative and branches out into new ground in it’s refreshing and truthful approach to love. Weekend is a movie that deserves to be seen.