“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”
This is an epic set up for an epic tale.
Stephen King’s The Dark Tower is a huge series of books. It covers different lands, dimensions and has a whole host of characters and plot lines. Roland Deschain is the main character, The Gunslinger, who is on a quest to find the Man in Black.
It is a Western, a fantasy, horror, science fiction and more set in a fantastical post-apocalyptic type world full of slow mutants, curses and strangeness.
There has been talk of turning it into a movie for a long time, but many people say it is to big for a movie and would work better as a TV show.
It looks as if we could be getting the best of both worlds. Deadline have the following news:
Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment have closed a deal to turn Stephen King’s mammoth novel series The Dark Tower into a feature film trilogy and a network TV series, both of which will be creatively steered by the Oscar-winning team behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code.
Ron Howard has committed to direct the initial feature film, as well as the first season of the TV series that will follow in close proximity. Akiva Goldsman will write the film, and the first season of the TV series. Howard’s Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer will produce, with Goldsman and the author.
Ron Howard wouldn’t have been my first choice for this, but he does have a succesful track record (I wonder how he will get his brother, Clint Howard and Tom Hanks involved).
It sounds as if Peter Jackson’s work on The Lord of the Rings has inspired Howard.
“What Peter did was a feat, cinematic history,” Howard said. “The approach we’re taking also stands on its own, but it’s driven by the material. I love both, and like what’s going on in TV. With this story, if you dedicated to one medium or another, there’s the horrible risk of cheating material. The scope and scale call for a big screen budget. But if you committed only to films, you’d deny the audience the intimacy and nuance of some of these characters and a lot of cool twists and turns that make for jaw-dropping, compelling television. We’ve put some real time and deep thought into this, and a lot of conversations and analysis from a business standpoint, to get people to believe in this and take this leap with us. I hope audiences respond to it in a way that compels us to keep going after the first year or two of work. It’s fresh territory for me, as a filmmaker.”
Here is how it will work. There will be a feature film to start it all followed by a TV show. Then another movie, another series and all wrapped up in the last film. The second series would follow the storyline of the comic book prequel where we follow the young Roland Deschain growing up.
It is a huge undertaking, but if it works it could be amazing. It is also going to be a huge commitment by the actor who plays Roland. The question is what if the film has a poor box office performance or the series gets low ratings?
Definitely going to be interesting to see how it all pans out and could make it possible for other huge comic and book series to finally be seen on screen.
Do you think it will work? Is Ron Howard the right choice? Who should play Roland?
Source: Bleeding Cool
