Things haven’t looked good for awhile for the planned project to adapt Stephen King’s Dark Tower to the visual world and according to Deadline, it’s falling apart even faster now as Universal Pictures has backed away more formally from the plan. The studio was the one working with Ron Howard and his team to bring the seven novel series out in the form of three movies and two short-run TV series to bridge between each of them but it was requiring a lot of commitments and a whole lot of money to pull off. Universal was keen on the project for quite some time, but things started to change after the NBCUniversal/Comcast deal when finances were looked at with a tighter plan and may be influenced by the Comcast deal that had gone through.
The project is potentially not dead in the water though, as it could end up with Warner Bros, where one of the producing partners is backing The Hobbit. With Warner looking for something big to carry past the Harry Potter movies, this could be ideal and could end up with a solid broadcast deal as well, either on the CW or through another network.
This stunning development comes after Universal in May pushed plans to start production this summer on the first film. The studio claimed to be on track for a February, postponing to reduce the budget. This temporarily dispelled rumors that Universal was putting the project in turnaround, rumors that cropped up when the studio put workers on hiatus. But it was only a temporary respite. I’m told that this time, the studio reviewed Goldsman’s script for the first film and the first leg of the TV series, and would only commit to the single film. That wasn’t good enough for the filmmakers, who had already hired comic book and Heroes and Battlestar Galactica writer/producer Mark Verheiden to co-write the TV component with Goldsman, which was to be made for NBC Universal Television (studio insiders deny that the studio was only willing to make the movie and not the series). I know the filmmakers planned to make it all part of the first shoot while they had the cast in place and the sets erected. I’d heard back in May that Warner Bros–where Goldsman’s Weed Road is based and which is fully financing two installments of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit–was a possible landing place for the adaptation of King’s 7-novel epic that is that author’s answer to Tolkien’s LOTR novels. The Dark Tower is about the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers, with Deschain becoming humanity’s last hope to save civilization as he hits the road to find the Dark Tower. Along the way, he encounters characters, good and bad, in a world that has an old West feel.
man this sucks- hopefully it will get made and soon. I loved this series it would be a perfect fit to follow potter. Stephen King already has a massive fan base- what they need to do is find a few newcoming actors to fill the lead roles out- they would be hungry enough to do it for less money and a good shot of fame and be willing to sign a multi-year deal contract. If it can be done with lord of the rings it can be done with the dark tower