This is probably the most ambitious movie project since Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of The Rings” Trilogy. Universal is looking to develop Stephen King’s widely popular book series “The Dark Tower” into a movie trilogy AND two seasons of TV, in-between each movie . This project will take a lot of commitment from production crews, actors, filmmakers and studios.

Ron Howard is developing these projects and is looking to direct, at least, the first movie in the series. On the TV production side, it looks like most likely, the TV series will head to NBC (or its cable network) since it’s part of Universal. My guess would be NBC, I would think they would want more eyeballs paying attention to this TV show.

Variety is reporting that Universal is looking to put “The Dark Tower” series into turnaround. What is turnaround? It’s when one studio will sell the rights of a property to another studio to gain additional funding for said property. In other words, more money and help for large projects like “The Dark Tower”. An example of a movie in turnaround is James Cameron’s “Titanic”. James Cameron needed help getting its $200 million budget, so 20th Century FOX and Paramount flipped the bill. Warner Bros and SONY are looking to get a piece of “The Dark Tower”. There’s no word on how much “The Dark Tower” will cost but you can imagine it being very high, if two or more studios are getting in on the action.

The first movie of “The Dark Tower” series is due in theaters on May 17th 2013 and the first season of the TV series will follow in the Fall of 2013. Javier Bardem is also set to star.

Source: Variety.com

by Rudie Obias