Getting a movie studio to commit to three films and two TV series based on a book series that many have considered to be essentially unfilmable was always going to be a tough ask, but for the last few months, that’s just what’s been brewing over at Universal. However there’s been trouble brewing for quite a while over quite how epic the plans for Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman’s take on Stephen King The Dark Tower have become.
Back in May, there was a report that Universal was considering putting The Dark Tower in turnaround because the budget had grown so huge. A week later, it was reported that Universal pushed production back from a summer 2011 start to February 2012, with hopes to try and bring the price down. Now Deadline reports that the studio will only commit to the first movie, and not the TV series. In most circumstances filmmakers would feel lucky to get that – especially for an adaptation that has defeated endless writers, directors and producers over the years – but the filmmakers decided they couldn’t agree, and that a commitment to the TV show was essential.
Now they’ll need to find new financial backers if they’re to go forward with one of the most ambitious movie plans in history. It’s difficult to see who would commit to the entire trilogy and TV series, but they may get someone brave enough to do the first film and the first run on television, which seems to be what Howard and co are asking. The story centers around Roland Deschain, the last in a nomadic line of gunslingers who sets off on a quest to find The Dark Tower in a last-ditch effort to save humanity.
A February 2013 release date had already been pencilled in, but that’s unlikely to happen now. Indeed it’s tough to know if we’ll see anything from this attempt to adapt The Dark Tower, or if it’ll go the way of so many others efforts to bring this story to the screen.