Ron Howard’s proposed adaptation of the Stephen King’s Dark Tower novels has looked doomed ever since he announced his ambitious plan to shoot it as a trilogy of films with a TV series to fill in the gaps. However, despite a number of setbacks, the director is now saying that filming could begin next spring, all going well-
“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”
Howard also went on to say that Javier Bardem is in the frame to play Roland Deschain, the main character.
“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.”
The Dark Tower books have a fervent and loyal fan-base but at the moment Universal seem concerned that the films would not appeal to a large enough audience to warrant them having as big a budget as Howard feels would be necessary to do the story justice. If you read this description from the wikipedia page, you can see why they might be worried about how to market it-
“The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical.”
Nevertheless, as someone who hasn’t read the books, I can certainly say I would pay to see it- though probably not unless Ron Howard drops out and is replaced by a director who doesn’t make movies which doctors could use to treat insomniacs.
source-http://collider.com/dark-tower-ron-howard-delay-javier-bardem/92849/
November 02, 2008, 10:19:33 PM
