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Universal Dismantles The Dark Tower
The studio has passed...

19 July 2011  |  Written by James White  |  Source: Deadline


Universal Dismantles The Dark Tower

Whoops. The storm clouds had been circling this one for a while, but now the Universal executives have decided that they don’t want to be involved in Ron Howard’s ambitious plan to adapt Stephen King’s Dark Tower series into a batch of films and TV seasons.

Yes, even with power producer Brian Grazer and regular cohort Akiva Goldsman on scripting duty, Howard was unable to convince the studio to take the risky financial gamble to make a proposed three films linked by a couple of TV runs to fill in the hefty plot.

According to Deadline, the studio bods read Goldsman’s script and the plan that the trio – along with Battlestar Galactica veteran Mark Verheiden – had come up with for the first stretch of the TV series and were only willing to give the thumbs up to one movie as a way to test the waters for more. But Howard and co didn’t go for that.

This isn’t necessarily the end for the story of gunslinger Roland Deschain and his quest to help save civilisation – given those involved, it’s possible that they’ll get the project set up elsewhere…


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Your Comments

RE: Yay!
Agreed with pete, this would be better off in an HBO miniseries format than a cinematic release. More

Posted by Spaldron at 18:00 on 19 July 2011 | Report This Post

RE: Yay!
Well right now, Ron Howard is still involved. They'll probaby try and bring the script to another studio, but hopefully someone else produces and directs it. I'd almost like to see them change the ending. Well, not the final total ending, but a lot of the latter part of the final book. It just felt so rushed. More

Posted by cormac_c at 16:25 on 19 July 2011 | Report This Post

RE: Good News
I'm glad this has fallen through. I never liekd Ron Howard as director or Javier Bardem as Roland. The Dark Tower needs to be a HBO series. It's got so much going on, even the three films and two series wouldn't have been enough. Game of Thrones shows that big book series can be transported to the small screen successfully. More

Posted by cormac_c at 11:21 on 19 July 2011 | Report This Post

RE: Good News
Ditto. I like the bit about them giving up completely after reading Goldsman's script. Nice to know even they realised he couldn't write it unless he's had some seriously good remedial lessons. Fingers crossed the Howard walks away and lets a proper director do it too. More

Posted by elab49 at 10:40 on 19 July 2011 | Report This Post

RE: CA$H
L: Kingseany I think that this decision shows how careful the studios are being at the moment. d of seeing The Dark Tower as a potential Harry Potter cash cowre backing off. Even with Ron Howard driecting. Oh well lets all look forward to Transformers 4, Cars 3 and a 3D rerelease of all the Harry Potter films instead his wouldn’t have entered into any thinking regarding the commercial viability of The Dark Tower. These films would fundamentally have to be R rated and at least 15 in More

Posted by pete_traynor at 09:53 on 19 July 2011 | Report This Post


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