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While I had Ron Howard on the phone yesterday to discuss the Imagine/Reliance Writers Lab that Karen Kehela Sherwood will supervise, I wasn’t going to let him get away without providing some update on The Dark Tower, the adaptation of Stephen King’s novel series which Akiva Goldsman is writing and which Brian Grazer will produce with Goldsman and King. They plan to turn King’s masterwork into a film trilogy with a network TV series programmed between films. Howard will direct the first film and the limited run series that will create a bridge to the second feature. “It is going well, and it has been incredibly stimulating to work on,” Howard said. “It’s dense, a great author’s life work is not to be taken lightly. It has been utterly fascinating to explore it, and we are having great creative conversations. I’ve begun tossing and turning at 3 in the morning over it, so that’s a good sign.” Considering the level of success Howard and Grazer have experienced together, it is encouraging that they still want to try new models and occasionally shake up the status quo, both with the writer’s lab and the unprecedented film/TV plan for The Dark Tower. Universal recently set a May 17, 2013 release date for the first feature.
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If this format is successful, I’d love to see Warner Bros./HBO do a similar treatment of the Vertigo ‘Preacher’ comic.
this looks awesome, i wonder who they’ll cast
I hope Viggio Mortensen for Roland, Norman Reedus as Eddie, Thandie Newton as Susannah
And Nathan Gamble (the boy from The Mist, and Commissioner Gordon’s son in The Dark Knight) should play Jake. Seriously, he’s a very good actor and one of the few kids in Hollywood that’s actually not annoying at all. He’s the perfect age too.
There are a lot of great literary properties that could benefit from this kind of treatment. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
I remember having to wait for the next book for since I first met Roland of Gilead in the early 80s today was the first i had heard about a motion picture,now I won’t be able to sleep and I couldn’t be happier than to find out Opie’s in control Woo Woo
Innovative.
If ever there was one property to drool over, it would be The Dark Tower series.
I dont believe it will be possible to adequately or accurately convert such an extensive, deeply populated web of literary imagination into something you can “pop in your Blu Ray” or “click on the telly”. Peter Jackson BARELY made the LOTR trilogy passable vs the written and overlooked many intricacies to make a condensation, such as Tom Bombadil. The problem here is not in the individuals who would undertaker this unique and energetic project, but the material itself, which is such a written tapestry of such a length that 5 movies and two series’ couldnt cover it adequately.
I’m trying to be optimistic for this one to work. Love The Dark Tower. But have to say, whenever I see the name Akiva Goldsman on something, I tend to feel a bit of a sinking feeling, somewhat.
Rarely do attempts at movies or mini-series’ accurately reproduce all the detail and imagination that goes into a Stephen King novel. This series, more than any other King work, would be close to impossible to do justice to without spending a fortune (and not a small one) and needing way more viewing time necessary than movie theaters or limited run TV series could provide. The quest to reproduce The Dark Tower series visually is very admirable, but may very well disappoint long-time King fans.
Shawshank, Dolores”, and Green Mile are the few King made to movies I can think of that remotely did justice to the intricacies of King’s stories, mind and characters. Most of the other movie attempts seemed so trite. The Dark Tower is monumental! People either read it and got it or they didn’t. Let’s try to relax and see where the film takes us. I’d rather they attempt something worthy and blow it than feed us with more dribble don’t ya think? most dont’ even know that King wrote anything but “horror”! I am sure that after we watch Tower, we will at least remember the face of our father!
What’s the hit-and-miss ratio for Steven King projects?
Anybody got a pie chart, or a spreadsheet, by decade?
That’s exactly what I was thinking. This format could truly do Preacher justice!
THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU.Its about time! The Dark Tower series is one of the most fascinating and enjoyable books that I have ever had the pleasure of reading and always hoped it would become a movie one day. Movie Masterpiece to follow the Literary Masterpiece, what a treat! So thankyou Ron Howard and thankyou Stephen King!!
It’s not that I don’t think this project can be done.
It’s that I don’t think Ron Howard or Brian Grazer are capable of doing it properly.
These are two of the most vanilla filmmakers in the world. Safe, safe, safe, bland, and simple. Sums up their work perfectly.
And I’m not knocking ‘em. They do what they do well. But anyone who’s read a single page of this series should know this has no place on network TV, not unless some serious changes are made to the content. Which means they’ll have to make Dark Tower safe, safe, safe, bland, and simple.
And I’m aware King’s given them his blessing. This actually makes sense. Uncle Stevie likes money.
What a bummer it had to happen like this.
I was going to post the same thing, but you beat me to it.
Much of what makes the Dark Tower series amazing isn’t necessarily the summer movie spectacle part, it’s the negative space, the moments of banality between the horror, the interior lives of the characters themselves, and the weird, off-kilter melding of pop culture, decay and medieval/western iconology.
I don’t think Howard and Grazer have a clue as to what this even is, let alone have the ability to visually represent this on any screen, big or small.
I always look forward to Ron Howard’s films. He’s one of my favorite directors that I would love to how to master film making from.
It seems nearly impossible to reach him, even while living in Los Angeles.
looking forward to see not only how they pull off the thing as both a film and tv show together. but also who will step into the shoes of Roland and crew. not to mention how they will get them to committ to both the movie and tv show. and if successful no doubt other studioe’s will follow suit. can see preacher and Neil gainman’s sand man working like that .
Daniel Craig would be perfect for Roland, better than Viggo IMHO.
the dark tower series is a violent series of books. the gore is much too great for network television, hell in the first book the gunslinger literally kills an entire town. the back story is immense and much too deep to show.I can see them making these into movies but the television thing is what bothers me.