The Dark Tower series a Warner Brothers trilogy?!

After many months of being swallowed by oblivion, at last, we have a studio revealing interest in adapting The Dark Tower series, Stephen King's science fiction-fantasy-post apocalyptic-horror-western-epic-saga. Mike Flemming reports from Deadline.com that none other than Warner Brothers are, for a fact, in negotiations and are very close to making a deal -with Ron Howard and partners, to bankroll their interpretation of King's magnum opus.




You might recall that Universal Pictures had originally taken up the option of backing Ron Howard in his wildly ambitious adaptation with Akiva Goldsman penning the script featuring an entire feature length trilogy, as well as showcasing at least two seasons of a TV series to be released in tandem. But, Universal put the entire project on hold last spring, requesting Goldman to drastically slash the budget, until finally in July, 2011, Universal Pictures backed out completely after deciding they couldn't manage the cost of producing such a project.



As you may remember, Brian Grazer was interviewed on TV News going on the record that the television portion of the project would be handled by critically acclaimed studio HBO (Game of Thrones, Carnivale). This is good news for Dark Tower fans as HBO is a Warner Brothers sister studio.



Not only is it good news for fans, but it is good news for Warner Brothers because they have made their fortune in the last fifteen years on science fiction and fantasy epics such as The Matrix and The Harry Potter series. Warner Brothers and HBO are definitely in a position to have the willingness and resources to financially and creatively engineer something on he magnitude of The Dark Tower.



As of today, everything that was in place, still is: Javier Bardem as The Gunslinger, Howard, Grazer, Goldsman and Mark Verheiden (Battlestar Galactica) co-writing the television HBO TV series. A possible production start date is Quarter 1 2013.



Personally I am incredibly excited to see Warner Brother’s interest in The Dark Tower with the track record of HBO backing it up with a TV series. Nothing I have seen or read has been as big in scope or ambition. This has been going around in circles for a long time, JJ Abrahms being the original man of the hour when he famously bought the movie rights for $19, only to be disappointed yet again, each time. But, this is, by far, the best news yet.



For those of you not familiar with the Dark Tower series, I cant recommend the 7 books and fantastic Marvel comic book series with art by Jae Lee, enough. It has it all. A pinch of LotR, a dash of The Good the Bad and the Ugly, a slight hint of Lovecraft, a kiss of Wizard of Oz, a sprinkle of Star Wars, a drop of King Arthur, a smidgeon of Philip K Dick, a squirt of 2001 A Space Oddity, a touch of Nosferatu, a lick of Odysseus, a tinge of Yojimbo, with a zest of Conan. Combine that with all of the interconnections with King's other works such as: Salem's Lot, The Stand, The Talisman, The Mist, It, Eyes of the Dragon, Insomnia, Rose Madder, Desperation, Bag of Bones, Hearts in Atlantis, The Shining, Cujo...among many others, and you have one of the most ambitious epics ever created by a single person. The imagery and mood created by King is nothing I’ve ever experienced before in literature, film or comic books. The artwork in Marvel's comic book series primarily by Jae Lee is spot on. The eerie mysticism radiates with decay in the atmosphere of red skies and freakishly mutated animals. In a world that has moved on thousands of years in the future, the ghosts of machines lie dormant underneath the cities of ruin while endless deserts, diseased forests and toxic wastelands dominate the landscape. I would suggest reading the original Gunslinger book instead of the revised edition that King published in 2004, as the original is quaint while the revised edition is erroneous. I am not going to lie, much of King's writing is meandering. His characterization is second to none, but he is also a very long winded writer. But The Dark tower series is something special, something beyond the sum of its parts or the roots of its creation and totally worht the read. It is almost as if Stephen King is a tool for an otherworldly being's diaries.



Roland Deschain Is the soul surviving member of an order of the knight-esque Gunslingers and is the last line of Arthur Eld, a gun-slinging King Arthur figure. The feudal society that the last Gunslinger lives in shares technological and social characteristics of the American Old West but also has magical and futuristic elements as well as many horrors. Relics of a technologically advanced society, as well as the magical aspects remain in Mid-World, a world that has "moved on" and coming apart at the seams. Roland's quest is to find The Dark Tower, a mythological building said to be the nexus of all universes. 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. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland's motives, goals and age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries.