Dark Tower Film & TV Series announced

[therockbox]

http://www.stephenking.com/promo/dark_tower_film_and_tv/news_tracker/

Fucking yes.

[GhostMachine]

More like fucking no. Because most King adaptations done for tv have sucked. (The Stand and The Langoliers being the standout exceptions)

The Dark Tower would work better as a series of theatrical movies or direct to dvd but with a bigger budget than usual direct to dvd productions.

[Rocky]

God, DON'T take me now!!

I've always wanted this to be watchable... And I always pictured Clint Eastwood being the Gunslinger, but it may be too late for that

[LittleDaniel]

More like fucking no. Because most King adaptations done for tv have sucked. (The Stand and The Langoliers being the standout exceptions)

The Dark Tower would work better as a series of theatrical movies or direct to dvd but with a bigger budget than usual direct to dvd productions.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown says otherwise.

[Pleatherface]

In fairness that was ALL Tim Curry.

He rocked ass and saved it.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I have faith due to Ron Howard being involved.

Also, there was a recent adaptation of one of his books of short stories that aired on TNT and wasn't bad.

[GhostMachine]

More like fucking no. Because most King adaptations done for tv have sucked. (The Stand and The Langoliers being the standout exceptions)

The Dark Tower would work better as a series of theatrical movies or direct to dvd but with a bigger budget than usual direct to dvd productions.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown says otherwise.

Tim Curry was the ONLY thing good about that. Seriously. So you've just added to my argument, not taken away from it. Thanks.

[LittleDaniel]

It was split into two parts. One part was while Tim Curry was on screen, which was excellent. The other part was when you were waiting in anticipation for Tim Curry to come back on screen, which built tension (not particularly for the plot, but just because you want to see Tim Curry again). Part two made part one seem even better than it was. The formula is flawless. Thanks.

[TGC]

The writer on this worries me. Also, of modern day actors I would lean towards Timothy Olyphant, but he is rather busy with Justified so damn. Still, intriguing way to do this. Still, an HBO or Showtime series would work so much better.

[Herr Matzat]

I wonder how they will do the first book

with the kid dieing and the demon being defeated by fucking her.

Otherwise, i love the books... i hope they do something good with em. With Harry Potter in the Bag there should be space for a new multipart Epic. Jeff Smiths Bone should be getting a Mainstream Fantasy Movie treatment aswell (warner bought it 2008 and is planing a multipart animation flick) so there defenetly will be a good enviorment for this kind of story.

[TGC]

With news that Stephen King’s enormously popular book series The Dark Tower will be coming to a big and small screen near you, we here at EW.com could not stop ourselves from reaching out to the bestselling author (and EW columnist) via email to get a few more answers about the highly-anticipated project. Here’s what he had to say:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Dark Tower is such a dense series — did you always think it needed more than a single movie or TV show treatment?

STEPHEN KING: I always thought it would take more than a single movie, but I didn’t see this solution coming — i.e., several movies and TV series. It was Ron [Howard] and Akiva [Goldsman]‘s idea. Once it was raised, I thought at once it was the solution.

What about Ron Howard and NBC makes them a good fit for the franchise?

When working as a director, Ron is very similar to the way I work as a writer. We both tell honest stories that have (I flatter myself) style and substance but not a lot of show-offy frills.

In a perfect world, who would play Roland? Eddie? Susannah? Jake?

The Twilight cast, of course! Just kidding. I haven’t got as far as casting in my thoughts, but when I write about Susannah Dean, I always kind of see Angela Bassett in my mind’s eye. Mostly I just want good people in those parts. Ron Howard will find them, I’m sure.

And who would you want to play?

I’d love to be the voice of Blaine the Mono.

There’s a lot of blood in the series — how much is the TV series going to be censored? It likely would have been easier to join forces with a network without restrictions, à la HBO, no?

I don’t see that as a problem at all! We’ll have just enough latitude to make a great series. I’ve worked in network TV before, and every time I was squeezed a little, it just made me look for creative solutions. Besides, I always like to play in the biggest auditorium available!

[TGC]

DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE:

Javier Bardem Wanted For 'The Dark Tower'

Originally Posted by MIKE FLEMING

After Javier Bardem's terrifying Oscar-winning turn as the assassin in No Country For Old Men, is there any doubt he'd fit as the gunslinger Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, the mammoth adaptation of the Stephen King 7-novel series that’ll span three movies and a limited run TV series in between?

I'm told that Bardem has officially been offered the lead role by director Ron Howard and Universal Pictures. While formal negotiations haven't yet begun, there's a high level of enthusiasm internally that they've got their cowboy. Akiva Goldsman has scripted the first movie, and will write the TV component as well. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer is producing with Goldsman and the author. Universal is financing and distributing the films, and NBC Universal Television Entertainment is backing the TV component, which will either be a limited run series or a miniseries.

It has been a heady week for Bardem. He received a Best Actor nomination for his performance as a terminally ill street hustler in the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed Biutiful, and Bardem and Penelope Cruz just welcomed their first son into the world. Since Deadline first revealed that King, Goldsman, Howard and Grazer were joining forces on the ambitious project that would tell the story on multiple platforms, speculation has been rampant over who'd play the lead role. Bardem has been mentioned, as has Viggo Mortensen and Christian Bale. Deschain is the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers, and humanity’s last hope to save a civilization that will fall unless he finds the Dark Tower. At the time, Howard and Goldsman told me they saw the trilogy as their answer to the Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ring. Instead of Middle Earth, the venue has an old West feel, which Goldsman described at the time as “an alternate Americana, one part post-apocalyptic, one part Sergio Leone.”

Bardem just wrapped the untitled next feature by Terrence Malick.

Howard plans at this point to direct the initial film as well as the TV component that will create a bridge to the second feature. The plan calls for the original actors to headline the TV version as well. The second film will pick up where the first left off. That would be followed by a TV installment that would be a prequel that introduces Deschain as a young man. The third film brings back the original cast once again return and complete the screen trilogy. So if Bardem closes a deal, he’ll likely appear in all three films and that first TV stint. Imagine's Erica Huggins will be executive producer with Kerry Foster of Weed Road. Bardem's repped by WME