Stephen King’s The Dark Tower film has been floating around development hell for quite some time, but it seems there might actually be light at the end of the tunnel. It has been announced that Sony and MRC are teaming up to bring the much loved fantasy series to not just film, but television as well. The plans include bringing the books to the silver screen in a film series as well as a complimentary TV show to accompany the movies.
The Dark Tower series is a series of book by famous horror writer Stephen King, the book blends multiple genres in what King himself describes as his finest work. It combines fantasy, science fiction, horror and Western in a series that follows a ‘gunslinger’ on his quest towards a tower. The series comprises of eight novels focussing on the protagonist Roland Deschain, a character King has revealed to be majorly influenced by Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” from Sergio Leone’s acclaimed Western ‘Dollar’ trilogy. Other inspirations for the series have come from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings’ vast fictional world, as well as Arthurian legend.
Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Erica Huggins and Akiva Goldsman are set to produce, who have collectively tried to get the project up and running for almost 10 years. The first film will be based on the very first novel, The Gunslinger, which was written back in 1982. Akiva Goldsman has been joined by Jeff Pinkner to co-write the script, and will be a completely different version to what has previously been written. Now all that is left is for a director to be bought onboard and production can begin.
The Dark Tower adaptations have been in the works for quite some time, but due to the sheer scope and size of the world in which the Gunslinger exists, potential budgets have been far too big for studios to take a risk on. Even though the books themselves have received critical acclaim, studios are reluctant in taking on a project of this scale without assurances that it will succeed. The project went through two major studios before landing with MRC and Sony. Universal Studios picked up the property back in 2007 and initially announced JJ Abrams was connected to direct a trilogy but soon removed himself from the project. Universal eventually pulled the plug after budget issues and a contract breakdown with director Ron Howard. Dark Tower then jumped ship over to Warner Bros. but again due to financial concerns, they also passed.
Stephen King himself is excited that his series has finally been given the greenlight as he recently stated that having Akiva Goldsman Jeff Pinkner onboard to write the adaptations is a brilliant and creative approach to his books. The Dark Tower will be the latest Stephen King novel to receive the silver screen treatment, which comes after countless critically acclaimed and successful film versions of his books have been released over the years. Such films include The Shawshank Redemption, It, The Green Mile, The Shining, Stand By Me and Carrie have all been hugely successful.
The Dark Tower has no release date for now, but after a decade of sitting in development hell, there finally seems to be some hope for the Gunslinger to make his way to television and the big screen.
