Source: THR | Posted By: Dan Geer

Last week, some reports appeared online claiming that the Universal-Imagine-NBC film/TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower book series hit some snags and that the project was in turnaround (meaning it might not happen or could move to another studio home).

Yesterday, Universal stated that they are in fact keeping the project, but that the “snags” that were reported had to do with budgetary concerns the studio has. As of right now, producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman are working on trying to bring the budget down. Read on for more info and speculation on what this could mean for Universal’s epic project.

Originally, the adaptation was intended to be a film trilogy and two seasons of a TV series that would air in between each film. Now, since the readjusting of the budget means that Goldsman must do some rewrites in order to honor a lower budget, it begs the question of whether or not this massive undertaking will even be possible. As of right now, this is still the intent, but my guess is that something will have to be sacrificed somewhere. Where the sacrifices will be made is unclear at this point.

What is clear is that the filming start date will be delayed from the fall of this year to some time next year. Could this mean that star Javier Bardem, who was cast as Roland Deschain in the film and TV series, might not be able to be involved with the project? It is certainly a possibility, since his schedule would have to be readjusted to fit the schedule of The Dark Tower‘s production. As of right now, he is still on board.

Fans of the book series can definitely have legitimate reason for concern, as cuts in the budget could scale down the story dramatically (which would have happened already, being that the story is said to be one of the biggest, most epic stories ever written and often thought of as “unfilmable”).

Ron Howard is still set to direct the first film as well as the first episode of the TV show. Stay tuned as more details emerge.