The Dark Tower... movie, tv series, movie, tv series, final movie...

[Sledgstone 8,672]

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/18325.html

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118023885.html?categoryid=2560&cs=1

Universal and NBC have unveiled ambitious plans to adapt Stephen King’s seven-novel series The Dark Tower into a trilogy of movies that will be bridged by two TV series. Ron Howard (Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The DaVinci Code) is set to direct the first film from a script by Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind). Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment are behind the project, which certainly gives it some weight.

According to Variety, the first movie will be followed by a Dark Tower TV series that will air on NBC and function as a bridge to the second film. After the second film premieres, a second installment of the TV series will lead-in to the third and final movie in the series. This sort of interactivity between the big screen and the small screen is rare although Fox did use The X-Files Movie in the late 1990s to bridge two seasons of the TV series.

The Sex and the City TV series finished before the producers brought the property to the big screen, and the same is true of the Fox series 24. Now that the 24 series has finished its TV run, a 24 feature film is in production.

Variety reports that King was heavily involved in the discussions that led to the ambitious plan to adapt the seven novel series that began with The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger in 1982 and ended with The Dark Tower VII, which was published in 2004.

Marvel began adapting The Dark Tower novels into comics with The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born in 2007—more recent iterations of the Dark Tower comics have featured original content based on characters and situations taken from the novels. The Marvel adaptations should certainly benefit from the exposure that property gets if Universal’s ambitious plans come to fruition.

Ummm... I wonder how well this will actually work out...

[Ladywriter 7,783]

I think we need a :slit wrists: smiley

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I found one. X'D

[Kite 3,263]

thats just wrong

you never know

LOTR was done well, they might be able to pull a rabit and make this well

[Pchan 5,162]

This makes me want to take a dump in a box and FedEx it to them.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/20580.html

After initially approving it and then pushing back its start date to control costs,Universal Pictures has decided against proceeding on an ambitious adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, which would have encompassed three movies and two bridging TV series (see “Uni’s Ambitious Plans for The Dark Tower”).

The project would have been the most daring that Hollywood has attempted since New Line allowed Peter Jackson to shoot all three Lord of the Rings movies back-to-back-to-back—and it is somewhat ironic since King’s 7-novel Dark Tower saga is essentially the Maine author’s attempt to create his own epic fantasy on scale comparable to Tolkien’s masterful work. Evidently the multi-faceted Dark Tower project doesn’t fit Universal’s current business model (though a $200 million adaptation of a kid’s board game does).

According to Deadline, Javier Bardem was already attached to the project to play the series' protagonist, and the behind-the-camera talent was equally impressive. Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) was directing, and Akiva Goldsman has written the script for the first film and the first leg of the TV series with Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica, Falling Skies) on board to co-write and shepherd the TV series, which was going to be shot in conjunction with the production of the film, and was to have aired on Universal’s NBC TV network.

Studio sources deny that it was NBC (the “biggest loser” network, which passed on Wonder Woman and has demonstrated almost no ability to create TV dramas in recent years) that balked at carrying the TV series, which put the kibosh on the deal. Universal certainly could just be pulling in its horns. It is currently financing two very expensive (in the $200 million neighborhood according to Deadline) projects, an adaptation of the Hasbro board game Battleship and a Keanu Reeves-starring version of The 47 Ronin, which have to be defined as “risky,” if not "suicidal." The studio also recently demonstrated its uneasiness with the fantasy genre by passingon Guillermo del Toro’s $150 million adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness even though Tom Cruise was attached.

Where does this leave The Dark Tower project? Well, it’s in “turnaround,” which typically in Hollywood turns out to be a cul de sac, though occasionally projects like Watchmen do pass through several studios before they make it to the screen. Certainly the filmmakers associated with The Dark Tower have earned a lot respect in Tinseltown, but a project with the scope of The Dark Tower requires a lot of commitment on the part of a studio/financing partner, and the current climate in Hollywood, thanks to declining DVD revenues and an anemic box office so far in 2011, is decidedly risk averse.

Canceled.

[Eppy 3,446]

yeah they announced that like a month ago cause they are broke

[Ladywriter 7,783]

I have no faith whatsoever in a live action DT movie series

It should be cg and I've been saying that for years.