Aaron Paul Has Had Meetings About Playing 'Eddie Dean' In THE DARK TOWER

Aaron Paul Has Had Meetings About Playing 'Eddie Dean' In THE DARK TOWER

Well, it seems Ron Howard's vision for a big/small screen adaptation of Stephen King's Dark Tower is not only alive and well, but might just have Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul attached to play one of the main characters. Read on for more.

News
By MarkCassidy - Jan 21, 2014 10:01 AM EST
Filed Under: Horror
Source: AICN

It's been a while since we heard anything substantial regarding Ron Howard's ambitious take on The Dark Tower, but now almost by chance we have an update from an actor who may well be involved in the production. While chatting to Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Need For Speed) at Sundance about his new film Hellion, AICN's Quint mentions that he's always thought he'd make a great Eddie Dean in a Dark Tower adaptation, and not only does Paul confirm that one is still on the cards, but also reveals he's had "a ton of meetings" regarding that very role. Here's the guts of their conversation.



Quint: For what it’s worth when I watched the first season of Breaking Bad I immediately thought you’d be perfect as Eddie Dean in a Dark Tower movie. I don’t know if you’ve read those books…

Aaron Paul: I have not read them all. He shows up midway through the second book, right?

Quint: Yes. I know it’s typecasting a little bit, but you’d be my choice for the part.

Aaron Paul: Thank you. I’ve had a ton of meetings on that. I just had a general sit down with Ron Howard, who is a huge fan of the show (Breaking Bad, naturally), which is such a crazy thing to even think that Ron Howard even knows who I am. They’re definitely planning on making it.

Quint: It's such a tough series to crack, man. I don't envy them trying to make it work.

Aaron Paul: I'm excited. Their goal is to do three films, but also have a television element to it, which will be very interesting. From what I hear, Eddie Dean is a pretty epic, iconic character.


When Paul is told that it's a great role and he should not turn it down when it's offered, the actor replies that he "definitely will not". Interesting stuff indeed. For those unfamiliar with the character, Edward "Eddie" Cantor Dean is a 23 year old former heroine addict and a member of The Gunslinger Roland Deschain's second "ka-tet". As Quint mentions, it almost would be type casting for Paul to play him...but at the same time there's no denying that he would be perfect for the role! What do you guys think?
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SuperCat
SuperCat - 1/21/2014, 11:19 AM
chewish
chewish - 1/21/2014, 11:26 AM
Can't wait for Dark Tower, it could be a pretty groundbreaking franchise for Hollywood if done correctly
batz11
batz11 - 1/21/2014, 11:27 AM
Aaron is a really solid actor, I watched the entire run of BB when they did the marathon over the holidays (yeah, didn't leave the house for 3 [frick]ing straight days, thank god for DVR and FFing through commercials)...I had so many shows on my "can't miss" list, I couldn't find the time to stay up with BB, but WOW, the series is [frick]ing amazing and AP is a very, very good actor...big fan of his, looking forward to more roles with him...
ezio619
ezio619 - 1/21/2014, 11:28 AM
i heard aaron paul audtioned for star lord with actors such as jensen ackles, but i think chris pratt is gonna be great as star lord
HeyZeusKreesto
HeyZeusKreesto - 1/21/2014, 11:32 AM
I really thought this project was dead, after hearing nothing about it for so long. I'm glad they're still working on in. I loved the series, read all 7 in a row. And I would be completely cool with this casting choice. Now if we can just go back in time and snag a younger Clint Eastwood for Roland...
warburtron
warburtron - 1/21/2014, 11:36 AM
good call... definitely see him in the role. Wonder how wary he is of being type cast?
warburtron
warburtron - 1/21/2014, 11:40 AM
I also reckon that in ten years if and when the movies are finished the world will hate the ending. 'a la' "Lost*
ChiliConCarney
ChiliConCarney - 1/21/2014, 11:41 AM
Been reading these books recently and this is exactly who I had in mind for the role.
JonStarkgaryen
JonStarkgaryen - 1/21/2014, 11:48 AM
@war: maybe this time Roland will have the horn....
HeyZeusKreesto
HeyZeusKreesto - 1/21/2014, 12:19 PM
@Warburton: I thought the Dark Tower ending was way more satisfying than Lost. At least if you read the whole ending, and didn't stop where King said you should. I really like the idea of *SPOILERS AHEAD* him repeating the cycle, seemingly becoming a better person every time.
hench
hench - 1/21/2014, 1:01 PM
Perfect casting for Eddie. Man I hope they can make these films.
BawbScharf
BawbScharf - 1/21/2014, 1:32 PM
Great. Now if they begin filming the first four movies back to back tomorrow they can also cast Chandler Riggs as Jake Chambers.
BlackIceJoe
BlackIceJoe - 1/21/2014, 2:00 PM
I can't understand why the Dark Tower series has not become a HBO tv show. It makes more sense to be a tv show instead of a movie. The reason why is you will never be able to show all that needs to be shown in a two hour to three hour movie. Instead making it a tv series you can add a lot more of the book. Plus if it was on HBO you know it can go into more of the book which could not be shown on basic tv.
BawbScharf
BawbScharf - 1/21/2014, 2:20 PM
I just think that WB, who currently have a lot of the SK rights if I am not mistaken, are really overlooking a prime opportunity to do the Cinematic Universe idea that everyone wants to do with comic properties with a NEW medium where it doesn't seem like a copy cat idea or a passing film fad, but a brand new way to make and improve films. And the "shared universe" idea loans itself to the Dark Tower series and related SK books. Either WB needs to get the Dark Tower rights somehow or more believably whoever currently has the DT rights comes to a deal to get the properties that WB has (which I believe are the two biggest ones of three that are NOT direct DT books, The Stand and IT)to the studio that has DT. That way you CAN have the full story either on film, premium channels, or both. The only problem I see is why invest so much time in money to a butt load of movies that need to have an R-rating to work or at the very least stay true to the books. DT and a few select others (probably Insomnia and Hearts in Atlantis)MIGHT be able to work under PG 13 but certainly not IT (and not because of the sewer gang bang which will most assuredly be cut out of EVERY adaptation ever made of it), Desperation, Regulators, Salem's Lot and The Stand would need an R-rating (the Stand might be able to slide because it is not at its heart a horror movie). Still it would be great to see these movies on the big screen under the same umbrella.
scapegoatjones
scapegoatjones - 1/21/2014, 2:43 PM
its funny that all the things that they had thought would be challenging to pull off with the DT (multiple movies/tv mini-series) are all being done with CBMs. Paul is a great actor but not a great Eddie Dean. Dean is a lean NY accented heroin addict that is described very differently than Paul. SK himself commented that he felt Dean was the closest to himself of any character in the series (save for the obv inclusion of one character later in the books). He seems like the soup of the day choice acting-wise, which sounds like its right out of SK's poor casting handbook. We're talking about the author who cast the lead actor for Wings in many of his projects, and also went as far as to say that Kubrick/Nicholson's version of the Shining wasn't good enough so he tried to redo it and choke the living shit out of it with inferior casting.

Christian Bale and/or Viggo are the only logical choices for Roland. In fact many of the actors associated with TDK franchise could be great choices. Cillian could play an iteration of The Man in Black, hell even JGL would be a better Dean than Paul.
eyesore
eyesore - 1/21/2014, 3:31 PM
yes, do it...really do it.
Mankzin2
Mankzin2 - 1/21/2014, 3:37 PM
@warburton
The ending of Dark Tower was amazing, I can not think of a more satisfying way to end it, it blindsided me and totally made sense. Now I do have the Audio Books which are really good, so I've listened to it several times and picked up certain things that of course I missed or wondered about the first read.
. Now I hope you didn't make the mistake like I initial made during my first reading and fell for that little trick King played where you thought it was over when Roland just entered the tower. For some unknown reason I picked it up the book several weeks later and what I thought was just King commentary on the book ended up being the true ending which just blew me away. SO IF YOU MADE THAT MISTAKE PICK IT BACK UP
eyesore
eyesore - 1/21/2014, 3:43 PM
I still think Timothy Olyphant should play Roland. He can do TV and film easy enough. Hes old enough to pull off older Roland and young enough to do younger Roland. He has a very "Clint Eastwood" look about him and plays a good cowboy type.
This is easily the most desired book to movie film I want to see.
ExAmaxis
ExAmaxis - 1/21/2014, 3:51 PM
I don't know about "Eddie Dean", but i could see him as Logan/Wolverine in a "Marvel Studios X-Men" movie.
Don't be harsh on me, but i find him definitely smaller than Hugh and a solid actor at the same time. All he can do, is to find a personal trainer to put some weight and gain some muscle, and a good "makeup artist/hairdresser" to give him a proper "Wolverine" look.
What do you think?
Mankzin2
Mankzin2 - 1/21/2014, 3:57 PM
Also, I agree about it being on HBO as well as in the movies. You could easily start with the first book on HBO and the second in the movies and just split the heavy violent parts to HBO and the parts that can be easily converted to PG in the movies. The third would be HBO. The fourth a movie. The fifth is HBO because of the kidnaping of one of the twins and violence and the remaining books all movies just cutting back little on the violence. Of course you need to overlap the endings and beginnings when they switch first on HBO to the movies. So on total you have 5 movies and 3 HBO seasons.
Mankzin2
Mankzin2 - 1/21/2014, 4:09 PM
Actually now that I think about it all the books are violent and if you take away it just ruins it. The only book that could be PG is the fifth book and that just barely.
MightyZeus
MightyZeus - 1/21/2014, 4:59 PM
Hopefully the project will get picked up. Looking forward if the Dark Tower series begins to get made. Although i think it should be confined to three films. It would be better if the book series where to be adapted to a tv show preferably on the network of AMC.
dirkage87
dirkage87 - 1/21/2014, 5:06 PM
Noooo I've always pictured Eddie Dean as Tom Hiddleston and Roland Deschain as Hugh Jackman, cuz he looks exactly like Clint Eastwood who the character is a carbon copy of
ComicsToFilm
ComicsToFilm - 1/21/2014, 5:08 PM
Excited to hear it's alive and well/still planning the tv crossover. He could be great.
dirkage87
dirkage87 - 1/21/2014, 5:15 PM
There's no way they're gonna make 7 movies to cover all the books. They're are going to butcher the he'll out of these stories. Their best bet is to have Peter Jackson or Del Torro or even Tarrantino make a big budget HBO show out of it. That way they can have a season for each book and give proper time/treatment for each book. Even if they did a movie for each book, 3 hours does not serve it justice, especially the longer books like book 7. WB, seriously, call me, I gots mad ideas lol I'll be waiting....
BawbScharf
BawbScharf - 1/21/2014, 7:25 PM
7 would most assuredly be split into two films. Firstly because it kind is like two books in one anyways. Secondly, it is a popular trend to split the last one in two and this one certainly justifies it more than say Twilight did.

The other option would be to move the first half (attack on the Breaker Camp) of 7 down to SoS since that is a fairly short book and I don't think there is enough content there for one film. Its been a while but it is was a lot of Eddie and Roland talking to *MAJOR SPOILER* and a whole lot of exposition.
breakUbatman
breakUbatman - 1/21/2014, 9:24 PM
Cool just finished book 7 last week
warburtron
warburtron - 1/22/2014, 1:32 AM
I liked the ending to dark tower too, it's the WORLD I said would hate it . I'm legitimately speaking for the WORLD. With all the questions about life/ death/ alternate dimensions etc being asked but not wrapped up with a ribbon will frustrate people, almost a bit like ...
Lem1
Lem1 - 1/22/2014, 5:27 AM
Dude's playing 'Joshua' in Sir Ridley Scott's "Exodus" alongside Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, John Turturro, Sir Ben Kingsley, Maria Valverde, Golshifteh Farahani....
And I know absolutely nothing of this 'Dark Tower'...but I am intrigued.
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