Ron Howard talks about THE DARK TOWER, Javier Bardem not Locked Down
When I think of what Ron Howard has planned for this adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower I swell with excitement. Universal Pictures was on the verge of killing the project off before they decided to move forward with it with a smaller budget, and the start date had to be pushed back as well. I don't care what the budget is as long as it gets done right, and you don't need a ridiculously massive budget to turn this into a great movie.
Howard speaks out for the first time since Universal started getting cold feet, and it sounds like Javier Bardem isn't as locked in as we thought.
We had to pull back to our September start date due to budget delays and ongoing story development and logistical issues, but Dark Tower is moving forward. We’re thinking of starting in early spring now. I can’t really say who’ll be in it yet, but Javier Bardem has shown a great deal of interest. We’ll know by the end of the summer, when our flashing green light goes solid. There are elements of the Dark Tower saga that are more personal and can be best dealt with on television, TV allows you to roll out details of the characters in a more methodical way.
I sounds like that as soon as the epic project gets a greenlight Bardem will be ready to jump on board, if something better doesn't come along for him. There is a chance the movie could get delayed again, so maybe the actor is just waiting for that solid greenlight from the studio before he commits.
The plan is to start everything off with a feature film, from there they will create a bridge to the second feature with a full season of TV episodes! We will then see the second film hit the big screen, and after the sequel is released we will see another season of The Dark Tower on TV. This season will focus on Deschain as a young gunslinger. The storylines will be taken from the prequel comic book series that King was heavily involved with. Then we will get the third and final film which will pick up with a mature Deshain as he completes his journey. Howard and Brian Grazer are producing through Imagine, while Akiva Goldsman is writting the scripts.