Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Akiva Goldsman to climb THE DARK TOWER
Way back when we heard that J.J. Abrams and his team had acquired the rights to Steven King's epic adventure series The Dark Tower, it didn't come as much of a surprise, as King's content fits almost perfectly into what we've come to expect out of Abrams.
Unfortunately, the team ultimately decided that they could not do the story justice and parted ways with it. Now sources say that the project may see light, but with a new creative team behind the picture: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Akiva Goldsman.
According to the source, Goldsman will write what Howard will eventually direct, which will be produced by both Goldsman and Grazer with King. The feature(s) will then become a TV series that will wrap up the story. There is a question as to whether there will be only one picture or a trilogy. Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, some of the earliest sources to scoop this story, have differing stories. Deadline says trilogy, The Hollywood Reporter says single feature.
Here's a brief synopsis of the material:
"In the story, Roland Deschain is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of 'Arthur Eld,' his world’s analogue of King Arthur. The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet it bears striking similarities to it. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. While the magical aspects are largely gone from Mid-World, some vestiges of them remain, along with the relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society. Roland’s quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland’s world is said to have 'moved on,' and indeed it appears to be coming apart at the seams - mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion."
Intense, right? As someone who has never read the books, I can still say this sounds tailor-made for the intricate creative minds of Abrams, Carlton Cuse, and Damon Lindelof, but alas, it's not in the cards this time. Instead, we have the mind behind THE DAVINCI CODE. Oh, joy (I was being sarcastic there - did you catch that?).
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