Stephen King's The Dark Tower

[_____V_____]

Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams could begin work on their long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' series, as soon as they wrap hit TV show Lost.

The writer has been speaking to MTV News about the hotly anticipated project, and he admitted the scale of the challenge was on a par with adapting Alan Moore's similarly seminal tome - Watchmen.

"Having seen [Watchmen director] Zack [Snyder] go through what he went through on Watchmen in terms of saying 'where can I digress from the material', I just get headaches thinking about changing anything" he said. "It was the defining literary tale of my young adulthood."

His attachment to the material which makes writing the script difficult, says Lindelof: "My reverence for Stephen King is now getting in the way of what any good writer would do first when they're adapting a book, which is take creative license in changing stuff."

King's seven book series has become a cult classic due to its ambitious mix of fantasy, philosophy and narrative complexity. Such a wealth of source material would make it franchise material, according to Lindelof.

"Paramount is certainly looking at it as a franchise movie and thinking about sequels," he said. "But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Ideas have been thrown around that are very informal at this point."

[scouse mac]

Not entirely sure how these books would translate to the screen. Slow yet interesting is the best way to descibe them.

Wouldnt mind finding out what they do with them though.

[milktoaste]

I'm sure they easily make more than one kickass movie out of the series. They spead up the story a little bit and I'd watch it.

[Doc Faustus]

If they steer clear of the dull Wizard and Glass stuff, it will be pretty damn good.

[Haunted]

These books are almost sacred to me. I'd love to keep the images that I got in my head as I was reading them, however I will definitely go see the movies.

[_____V_____]

It's often a safe bet adapting a Stephen King story, with the likes of The Shining, Stand By Me and Carrie, you're certainly guaranteed a good plot at least.

So it's no surprise that director Ron Howard is looking to adapt his fantasy The Dark Tower.

The book, which has also become a graphic novel, will be turned into a film, providing the base for a TV spin off series.

Howard, who will be working with producer Brian Grazer (Frost/Nixon) and producer/writer Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend), is hoping to make the film and then let Imagine's TV department take over the running of the series.

The Dark Tower, which is a mixture of horror, fantasy and western genres, centres around Roland Deschain - the last gunslinger of his kind on a quest to save the world.

Although it all sounds very exciting, we'll be waiting to see what happens - it's not the first time the rights have been bought - it was initially designed as a project for the Lost producers after the series ended - but sadly it became too complicated and rights were returned to King.

So will Howard and his movie men of the apocalypse be riding off into the sunset with this one? Or will it become another production showdown?

Only time will tell.

[siorai]

If they steer clear of the dull Wizard and Glass stuff, it will be pretty damn good.

Wizard and Glass was great, but did really feel quite out of place, stuck in the middle like it was. Admittedly I couldn't wait for it to end when I first read it, but it adds a serious amount of depth to the overall story so I came to appreciate it afterward.

[endo]

I just didn't get into the Dark Tower series. I love pretty much everything he's written, but it took a lot on my part to finish this series.
I'd check it out on film, I guess, when it finally made it to cable.

[_____V_____]

Finally there is some news regarding Ron Howard's adaptions of the Steven King's Dark Tower saga. Ron is going to be directing two versions of the book; One will be a mini series filmed for TV in 2012, and the other will be a major motion picture with a release set for 2013.

This official announcement regarding the movie appeared today in The New York Post:

Javier Bardem has officially signed an epic deal to star in the movie and TV adaptations of Stephen King's "Dark Tower" book series. The Oscar-winning actor will play Roland Deschain in the eagerly awaited Ron Howard and Brian Grazer adaptation of King's beloved seven-novel saga.

It's a momentous deal because each of the three movies in the series is to be followed by a TV miniseries. A well-placed source confirmed to Page Six, "Bardem has signed on to the first movie and the miniseries, but the intention is that he will star in all three movies and each of the TV series. It's an enormous deal for any actor, but Bardem was always the first choice."

The story follows "Gunslinger" Deschain as he travels through an Old West-like landscape in search of the mythical Dark Tower to save civilization.

The first movie is expected to go into production in September with Howard directing.

[Fearonsarms]

I don't know whether to be excited or not by this. I just hope it does indeed see the light of day but I'm not optimistic-after having my hopes dashed when "At The Mountains Of Madness" was shelved. I'd hate to be let down like that again.

[_____V_____]

Variety reports that executives at Universal are having some doubts about Ron Howard’s ambitious plans to turn Stephen King’s "Dark Tower" series into a set of films and TV show.

Yes, Universal would seem to be having one of its budget panic spasms, the same sort of worries that ended up shunting Guillermo del Toro’s planned Lovecraft adaptation "At the Mountains of Madness" – which had Tom Cruise interested, no less – back into limbo.

It’s not really surprising that Howard, even though he had the backing of his Imagine producing partner Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman on script duties, might be facing an uphill struggle. The plan to turn the seven-book series (with more reportedly on the way) into a massive trilogy with a prequel TV drama filling in plot gaps is all but unprecedented and therefore difficult for the studio to figure out what it can afford to spend and how much revenue it’ll make.

And King’s concept, which finds a post-apocalyptic Wild West wasteland working in parallel to the modern world, is a tricky one to compress and sell.

But before you start ringing any alarm bells, no decision has been made and according to the trade mag’s sources, the project is still moving ahead for now. Javier Bardem is all but locked in to play gunslinger Roland Deschain and Howard is busy tracking down other actors.

While there’s a chance Universal could pull the plug and send the project into turnaround, Howard would still have the ability to offer it around to other studios, and it’s possible another company could come aboard in partnership to share the cost.

[_____V_____]

The bigger the dream, the harsher the wake-up call.

That's the lesson Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsmith and fans of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" are learning today, as Deadline is reporting that Universal Studios has just put the kibosh on the huge and hugely ambitious adaptation of the wildly popular sci-fi series of novels.

Looks like Roland's quest to reach the Dark Tower is going to drag on a little bit longer after all.

Of course, the decision by Universal isn't a huge shock. After all, despite the fact that King's "Dark Tower" books have been perennial bestsellers for decades now, the plan to adapt them for the big screen wasn't exactly a sure thing. That's because, in a laudable effort to try and do the material justice, Howard and Goldsmith, who were on board as director and writer respectively, had proposed a unique arrangement that would have not only required a big screen trilogy, but also a TV series that would have run between films to fill in the gap.

In the end, though, Universal apparently decided that the project was going to cost so much money and be so difficult to pull off -- the plan was to film the first movie and the entire first season of the TV show at the same time -- that it was too big a risk. Because of that, they were only willing to make the first movie, which in turn caused Howard and his crew to back out; without a commitment to the TV, they felt the project wouldn't work.

It's a big blow for fans looking forward to seeing the story of the gunslinger Roland and his band of companions. But there is still some faint hope that another studio might swoop in and scoop up the project. It's unlikely, but hey, you know what they say.

Dreams never really die.