I have to take a deep breath before talking about Ron Howard’s (‘Cowboys & Aliens‘) most recent evasive comments on ‘The Dark Tower’. Last heard about the film, Warner Brothers, who had acquired the project after Universal pulled out, had passed on the project.

‘The Dark Tower’, much like its main characters, just can’t catch a break.

So anytime I hear something new is going to be happening, I have to take it with a grain of salt. Clearly Howard understands that when he said the following:

“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 realized 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.”

I’m wondering if that lack of a timetable is due to the lack of a studio producing it right now? The ambitious project initially was to be 3 films and a television series bridging them. That has slowly whittled down to 3 films and now we’ll be lucky if a single one gets made.

If a film is going to happen, they’d better hurry as Stephen King isn’t getting any younger. Of course, Howard also talked about giving King a role in the movie:

“Yes. And I will admit Stephen has said, ‘I don’t have to be in this.’ But that’s not to say that he won’t be!”

So basically what he’s mentioned through all of this is that the movie has no financing and is up in the air indefinitely. I hope progress is actually being made. I also hope they find a production budget. (I hear Legendary Pictures is willing to bet on big budget films with horror aspects.) And I really hope it’s good.

Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ is one of the best series I’ve read to date. It interweaves in through all of his works and comes out the other side completely changed and yet in a way exactly the same.

Are you still hoping to see ‘The Dark Tower’ hit the big screen or have all of these delays robbed you of hope on how it will turn out?

Source: Empire Online