Ron Howard's Epic DARK TOWER Film Plans Shut Down by Universal

Come on Universal! How could you pass on such a brilliantly epic idea!? As you know Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman have been hard at work developing an incredible adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower book series. The plan was to turn the series into a series of three films and two TV seasons. Javier Bardem was also set to play Roland Deschain in the films and series. I knew this was going to happen, especially after Universal cut back on the budget. 

For some reason this studio lacks the balls to actually move forward with awesome high profile properties. They have a track record for killing off potentially epic film properties. In the past they've passed on both Halo, At the Mountain of Madness and Bioshock. I'm honestly pretty upset about this because the way they have planned out this film series was perfect, and there's no doubt the studio would have made a ton of money off of it. 

According to Deadline " the studio reviewed Goldsman's script for the first film and the first leg of the TV series, and would only commit to the single film. That wasn't good enough for the filmmakers, who had already hired comic book and Heroes and Battlestar Galactica writer/producer Mark Verheiden to co-write the TV component with Goldsman, which was to be made for NBC Universal Television (studio insiders deny that the studio was only willing to make the movie and not the series)." There's no word on why Universal ultimately decided not to move forward. 

So what is Howard and the gang going to do? Production will shut down, and they will shop it around to other film studios of course. Hopefully they will find other financial backing. Studios should be jumping at the chance to take on a project like this, it would be huge, and I'd love for Universal Pictures to kick themselves in the ass for passing on it because of all the money that it will end up making. There is a possibility that the project will end up over at Warner Bros. who is currently financing the Two Hobbit films for Peter Jackson. This is were Goldman's production company Weed Road is located. 

I just hope someone is willing to take on The Dark Tower soon now that Universal has washed their hands of it. The movie has got a ton of great talent behind it, it has a great story, so I don't see what anyone would back it. What do you all think about Universal's decision?