'The Dark Tower' Director Explains Film’s 95-Minute Runtime

It’s rare for a summer movie, particularly one with franchise ambitions, not to glance against a two-hour runtime, and very often, they push that mark. That’s why it was all the more surprising, and to some alarming, when it was revealed that next month’s Stephen King adaptation “The Dark Tower” clocks in at a slim 95-minutes. Some believed that somehow, the length of a movie is a measure of its quality, but most of the concern came with the fact that the author’s epic tome was arriving in a movie that was so slim. However, it appears there’s a good reason for that.

Director Nikolaj Arcel explains that “The Dark Tower” is supposed to the first film in a series (and if things wind up being successful, a TV series too) and as such, they didn’t want to overwhelm audiences with too much information right out of the gate. So, they kept the narrative trim with the idea that future films will build out the world.

READ MORE: New Trailer For ‘The Dark Tower’ Falls Between Darkness & Light

“The good news here…the reason why many fans are worried about the run time is that they think we are trying to do everything in this film. Which we are not. This is ideally the first film. This is an introduction to the world and the characters. It’s not meant to be all the novels and we’re just trying to cram everything in there. So that’s one thing. And the script was really lean and tight,” he told Slashfilm. “When I got on board, the script was very short, very lean. That’s one of the things that attracted me to it. I said ‘This is smart.’ You start with a lean, mean story and you don’t try to cram everything in there. You just build the basic ideas. And if people enjoy it and if they like this world and these characters, we can start expanding.”

Of course, it’s a big question if audiences will take to “The Dark Tower,” and certainly thus far, the marketing hasn’t been all that compelling. But we’ll see if a new franchise is born when the film opens on August 4th.