Hollywood, why you gotta whip us back and forth like this? We reported almost exactly a month ago that the adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series was scrapped by Universal, but now you’re telling us that Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are still shopping around for financing and a new studio for their project. And while we’re not unhappy that the adaptation is showing new signs of life, we would at least like some finality on the subject either way. Oh? Hollywood doesn’t read this, and is, in fact, not one single entity that makes decisions as a whole? Moving on.
Howard and Akiva Goldsman pitched the series to Universal as a combination film/television franchise–featuring three non-consecutive films and two television mini-series to run in between the releases of the films–who dropped the project for being a little too ambitious/pricey/risky.
The team behind the adaptation still doesn’t seem to have dropped their ambitious proposal, though, and still plans on going ahead with the multi-medium project. It just might take a little longer–Howard says that, if they successfully find financing for the film, it will probably be at least a year before filming even begins. This is, in part, because Ron Howard is currently also working on a Formula One movie called Rush, about racer Niki Lauda. We also have to imagine some part of it also has to do with the fact that they still don’t have financing or a major studio behind them.
When the film/series finally does (maybe) get made, though, so far reports say that Javier Bardem will still be attached to play gunslinger Roland Deschain. So there’s that.
(via Hollywood Reporter)
