Ron Howard's THE DARK TOWER Project Is Still Alive!
It's been awhile since we've heard anything on that epic big screen adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower being developed by Ron Howard. Even though almost ever major studio has passed on the project, Howard isn't giving up hope, and the project isn't dead yet. Here is the update that the direct gave to Empire in a recent interview,
"The Dark Tower is something that we’re still working on. We’ve all taken a vow of silence about the progress, the headway, what we think our timetable is, because I don’t think I realised how much media interest there was in the title and how much excitement there was.
"It’s a fascinating, powerful possibility and even Stephen King acknowledges it’s a tricky adaptation, but to be honest, from a financing side, it’s not a straightforward, four-quadrant, sunny superhero story – it’s dark, it’s horror. That edge is what appeals to me, the complexities of those characters is what appeals to all of us. And I think Stephen King really respects that, with [regular screenwriting collaborator] Akiva Goldsman and myself, that that’s what we love about it, and that’s what we want to try to get to the screen.
"So my answer is: it got delayed, it’s never gone away. We’re working on it, and Stephen is very patient with us, and Akiva’s just gone off and directed a movie [an adaptation of Mark Helprin’s novel, Winter’s Tale, starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly and Will Smith], I’m continuing to work, but the Dark Tower dreams – fever dreams, rather – are still there, but we’re not going to give it a timetable."
This is one of my favorite book series of all time, and I hope that one day that the movie actually happens. I love Howard's plan for it, and if it happens I'm sure it's going to be epic! The plan is to turn it into a trilogy of films with a tie-in television series featuring the same cast. Last we heard, Russell Crowe was interested in the role of Roland the Gunslinger.