The Dark Tower Adaptation Nixed by Warner Brothers

Posted 08/21/2012 by alicemarvels in Behind the scenes

An adaptation for Stephen King’s epic horror/western/fantasy The Dark Tower series has been in the works for many years, and has struggled to get the green light.

The latest news that Warner Brothers officially passed on the project, conceived as three feature films and two TV mini-series, is another in a series of setbacks for this adaptation.

The project was adapted by Akiva Goldsman, with Ron Howard slated to direct, and Brian Grazer, Goldsman and Stephen King set to produce. Russell Crowe was attached to play the gunman Roland Deschain.

Last summer Universal similarly passed on the project, which at the time had Javier Bardem attached as the lead.

Stephen King’s site posted this in response to the news:

Online news sources including Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter have posted that Warner Brothers has officially passed on Imagine Entertainment’s long troubled adaptation of The Dark Tower series.

While no single reason was given for the studios withdrawal, it appears that most insiders believe that series would require a strong R rating that would greatly cut into the profitability of creating such an expensive mega-franchise.

Additionally, the constant reader will learn, no final version of the script was ever agreed upon by all team members regardless of the studios official decline.

When asked about the status of the project, Stephen commented that there is still much interest in the project and that news regarding the series should be announced this fall.

We’ll post more updates as they become available. (Ron Howard and Brian Grazer have yet to comment on Warner’s decision.)

But never fear—one studio’s loss is another’s gain. A potential light at the end of the tunnel is Deadline’s report that an investment firm, Media Rights Capital, may step in to fund the project. Fingers crossed!