[Update] 06/03/11 – Various reports are suggesting that production on the Dark Tower adaptations have been delayed, but not put on hold. In fact, it looks like the series of films and television shows are to move ahead more or less as planned, but with a reduced budget.
According to Hollywood Reporter:
The project did hit budgetary snags and the fall start date was shelved. But Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman have regrouped to try to bring the budget down.
Insiders say the end result is that Goldsman is now rewriting the script to reflect a lower price point. No start date has been given although it will certainly not be the fall.
-Editor
According to Deadline, there are serious problems brewing with the Ron Howard directed movies and television mini-series of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.
from the article:
Universal Pictures has put pre-production staff on hiatus as they discuss ways to bring down the budget of the ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King novel series The Dark Tower. Talks are ongoing between studio brass, director Ron Howard and his Imagine Entertainment, and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman about how they will proceed…
One thing for sure, even though staffers have been told there’s a chance they will return, the plan to start production in September is scratched…
Word that Universal would put the project in turnaround began circulating last night, but both the studio and Imagine denied it.
Be sure to check out the full article here.
This is certainly bad news for what is an almost unbelievably ambitious project. Response was generally favorable for both the format of the installments as well as the news that Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is set to star as the Gunslinger Roland.
What do you think? Is this a likely death knell for the books to film adaption which has been plagued with resets? Or did you expect some budget concerns and are unsurprised that there are delays?
Haven’t really been keeping up with this because I stopped enjoying King’s material years ago and never liked the Dark Tower series. This whole “three big screen movies with miniseries in between” plan sounds positively ludicrous. Did they seriously think they could carry off something like that? Well, obviously they did, but I’m not the least surprised it’s getting held up due to “budget concerns.”
Is the Dark Tower series really so popular that this seemed remotely feasible? I know King has legions of fans and all, but I wouldn’t have thought DT had that much of a following compared to some of the other stuff. One movie, maybe, or even better a miniseries, but THREE movies and two miniseries? Really?
Easily. IMO, you’re really missing out. It is the rosetta stone to King’s work. Don’t get me wrong, other than the DT series, I have read maybe two of King’s books since MISERY, but DT is one of the best fantasies out there. It is completely non-derivative while incorporating a fantastical pop zeitgeist narrative that becomes ever the more impressive in its scope as it continues.
I read the first three or four books and then I lost interest. *shrug* I’m beginning to think I’m too lazy to follow any super-thready narratives that weave in a million different things. Either that or I’m just too picky. I did like Lord of the Rings, but I think it helped to know that there were only three books and that it was all definitely leading somewhere. I think I’m too lazy AND too cynical. As soon as things start getting complicated I suspect the author (or scriptwriter) of throwing crap in just for the sake of having crap thrown in.