You may have recently heard that Universal bailed on Akiva Goldsman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Erica Huggins by cancelling their ‘The Dark Tower‘ movie plans, but hope is not lost! Sony and MRC are willing to gamble that the project is worth investing in and are giving the film a chance to make it to the big screen. Their plan is to produce and co-finance the original route of both a film trilogy as well as a related television series!
Yes, the original plan of Howard and company to bring Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’ series to life suffered budget cuts, delays, and then was finally cancelled. After a brief hope that it would continue on track with Warner Brothers behind the project, things finally fell apart. Now it seems that the movie could end up happening after all.
However, it sounds as if things may have drastically changed when it was delivered to Sony. A new script which was written by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkne and based off of the ‘Gunslinger,’ the first in the series, has been completely re-written. One has to wonder what other changes from the previous version were made and if these changes were suggested by Sony to allow the franchise to happen.
So with progress happening, it looks as if they are now hunting for a new director with a big push to make this fantasy a reality. Howard himself was originally set to direct the first film, however that was two studios and multiple iterations ago.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman has said that: “There are few projects out there that compare with the scope, vision, complex characters and fully drawn world that Stephen King has created with The Dark Tower. I am a giant fan. And, as Stephen himself does, we love the direction that Akiva and Jeff have taken. This is a great opportunity for a director to put his or her stamp on a cool global franchise.”
Stephen King himself weighed in on the change by saying that: “I’m excited that The Dark Tower is finally going to appear on the screen. Those who have traveled with Roland and his friends in their search for the Dark Tower are going to have their long-held hopes fully realized. This is a brilliant and creative approach to my books.”
While this still seems too good to be true, I am excited that we may finally be seeing ‘The Dark Tower’ find its way to the big screen.
Are you happy to hear that Sony might be making this actually happen? Share your thoughts below!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
