Source: Deadline | Posted By: Dan Geer
The film/TV adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels has been running into some roadblocks in recent months, and now it seems to have hit the biggest roadblock of them all: Universal has officially passed on the ambitious project. Read on for details!
The original plan was to have Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman and Brian Grazer produce a film trilogy, as well as two seasons of a TV series that would air in between the release of each film. Universal was set to back the project, with Howard directing the first feature as well as the first episode of the series. Unfortunately, the project was too big for Universal to consider going forward with in its initial draft, so they decided to let Goldsman have a crack at script rewrites in order to cut the budget down. This ended up delaying the start of production from this summer to sometime next February.
The big roadblock hit when the producers presented Universal with their newly revised draft of the first feature film and first season of the TV series. According to Deadline, Universal then decided that they were only willing to commit to backing the first film. Needless to say, the producers found this to be unacceptable, since they were hoping to shoot the TV series back-to-back with the films in order to keep the cast and sets from the films in place. Thus, the project has to either die, or fall into the hands of a new studio.
Legend has it that Warner Brothers might be willing to take on the project, since Goldsman‘s Weed Productions is based there (and WB is backing Peter Jackson‘s two-film adaptation of The Hobbit) but nothing has been made official in that regard. As it stands, The Dark Tower film/TV adaptation is looking for a new studio home in order to get produced, which means that everything we knew about the series, including Javier Bardem starring as gunslinger Roland Deschain, is up in the air at this point.
Perhaps this will turn out for the better, like with what happened with The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Originally, it was given a two-film treatment until New Line Cinema, now under Warner Brothers, decided to make it into the three films we have today. If The Dark Tower falls into the lap of Warner Brothers, maybe they will be just as generous, and approve of an even better treatment than Goldsman‘s first script. Only time will tell…
Head on over to Deadline for the full article!
