The Dark Tower movie rears its head again

At this point I don’t care if the project gets killed. I’d rather have no movie than a bad movie.

Yeah, this a thousand times over. If this puts the project into hibernation until someone more suited to it comes along, it can only be a good thing.

According to this article, the start of production has been pushed from this summer to next year and the whole thing still hasn’t been greenlighted. But they say we’ll know by July if Universal is going to go forward.

The ambitious movie trilogy/TV series Project is dead officially: http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/universal-wont-scale-stephen-kings-the-dark-tower-studio-declines-to-make-ambitious-trilogy-and-tv-series/

It’s not really “dead,” it’s in turnaround which means that in theory another studio could jump in and finance the thing.

It’s likely dead, though, at least in the proposed form.

With Walking Dead and Game of Thrones being such hits, there’s clearly an audience for brutally violent sci-fi/fantasy if it’s done right. I think they should just shop it around as a TV series on one of the cable channels and skip the movies. That would allow them to do the story justice.

The movie/TV show thing was always a risky strategy anyway. Only the hard-core fans would have seen both.

Fine by me. Make it a TV series a few years from now and keep Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman the hell away from it.

I wouldn’t mind an HBO Dark Tower series. I’m just happy that the current plans have fallen through. I guess it’s possible that they could have met or exceeded my expectations, I just strongly doubt it.

Javier Bardem was the best thing it had going for it but I never liked the idea of telling the story through three movies and two TV series.

On the other hand, while a long TV series on HBO or something would in some ways be ideal, you aren’t likely going to get a big name to play Roland. Doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be good, of course.

Depends on the talent involved and how willing they are to schedule the seasons to work around the talent’s other commitments, and how much money the network can actually spend on the show. Sean Bean ain’t nobody, after all. They won’t be able to afford a Tom Cruise, but I would think somebody on Javier Bardem’s level would be in the realm of possibility.

HBO makes stars, it doesn’t need stars. Their quality is so high I would prefer they do The Dark Tower over anyone, especially if they Deadwood it and quit after the fourth book.

H.

It would be hard to get a major name to commit to multiple seasons without offering them a large pile of money, and HBO’s history for these projects is that they don’t go that route anyway. Bean is hardly a comparison (for reasons that may be spoilerish) as well as the fact that he isn’t getting major film lead offers anyway. Bardem is.

Like I said, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done and end up being very good. Just that if you want a big name it isn’t going to happen unless you find someone who is willing to sacrifice money and/or other projects because they love the material that much.

I recently watch out lovely Bones and found it on average.not better than this one.

Is there an elf that keeps updating this thread and then deleting it? (I’m assuming there’s some sort of spam thing going on.)

H.

So this three film, two TV series project is still under consideration but at Warner’s with a deadline coming up. According to this article, the script is being written by Akiva Goldsman and that Russell Crowe is now being considered to play Roland.

Good choice, I can see that if he drops some weight.

Warners said no.

Not totally dead, but unless they can get HBO or Showtime to commit to long series and do it all that way, I don’t see how they can expect a long-term committment. Maybe they should just make the first few and see how they do first.

I think they should drop it entirely so that someone who will do it well and properly can pick it up a few years from now.

Give it five years, Christian Bale should be the right age to play Roland with a little makeup to help with the flashbacks and grizzle.

Please no gravelly Batman voice, though. Please.