In March we heard that Warner Bros. was close to taking on The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Stephen King’s epic book series with Ron Howard directing. The project is an ambitious one, and has long been intended as a trilogy of films with a TV miniseries in-between each film.
Well according to Deadline Warner Bros. has passed on the property after receiving the latest script from Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind). This comes after Universal also passed out of budget fears last July, but it may not be the end for The Dark Tower.
With Warner Bros. out, Media Rights Capital has now entered “serious talks” to finance the movie. MRC had commercial success recently with Seth MacFarlane’s Ted which just crossed $350 million worldwide. The company also has Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium starring Matt Damon out next year. If they come onboard to finance The Dark Tower it’ll mean Ron Howard will finally be able to shoot the movie he’s been trying to make for years.
The Dark Tower follows a gunslinger called Roland Deschain who 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. Javier Bardem has long been attached to play the lead, but the actor is no longer involved and Ron Howard and producers Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman have been talking with Russell Crowe about potentially taking on the lead role.
