‘The Dark Tower’ Tested Badly, Sony Considered Replacing The Director During Editing

It’s safe to say no-one is particularly optimistic about “The Dark Tower” this weekend. The promotional material has been uneven at best, and many have wondering how Stephen King‘s magnum opus could be wrangled into a single film. We’ve already heard that the film serves as an introduction for a larger franchise, and thus its trim runtime is a reflection of not overwhelming audiences with too much information. However, it sounds like the film had a very rock road to cinemas.

Variety reports that “The Dark Tower” is your classic case of a studio and director creatively clashing, with the added mix of a production company wielding far more power than usual behind-the scenes.

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According to the trade, Nikolaj Arcel (“A Royal Affair“), making his big budget Hollywood debut, was “in over his head.” Trouble first arose last fall when the film, with unfinished special effects, had three very poorly received test screenings, with audiences apparently bewildered by the story and overall left pretty unimpressed. Things were so bad that Sony considered bringing in a more experienced director to recut the film, but in the end stuck with Arcel, who was helped out by producers Ron Howard (who was originally slated to direct) and Akiva Goldsman.

Meanwhile, the studio had another thorn in their side with MRC, who co-financed the picture. The deal between the two gave MRC “kill rights” over every element of “The Dark Tower,” from the production to marketing, which made it hard for the two sides to ever agree on anything. But they did agree to spend $6 million on reshoots that were primarily to give more context to why Idris Elba‘s The Gunslinger hates Matthew McConaughey‘s The Man In Black so much. It’s the kind of thing you think they would’ve sorted out at script level, but what do I know.

All this being said, Sony and Arcel deny there was any static, and everything was part of the normal process of making a big tentpole picture.

“On a film with two studios and powerful producers, obviously there is much passionate creative debate on how to work certain ideas or beats,” the director said. “But I felt supported throughout, and they all looked to me for answers. If someone had jumped into my editing room and taken over — I would have left instantly.”

We’ll see the results when “The Dark Tower” opens on Friday.