Universal Dropping The Dark Tower? (Updated)

After years of hope, fan of The Dark Tower were very happy when Universal announced their intention to release a trilogy of films and two TV shows about the epic novel. According to Variety, now it seems the studio executives reconsidering the idea due to "budgetary complications" (aka too expensive). The studio is meeting soon to make and decision and in the meantime pre-production will continue. Reading between the lines it seems that Universal is willing to make the film, they just don't want to take on the financial risk by themselves and are hoping another studio will step up to share the burden. This isn't new as many films have had their cost (and profits) shared by studio with The Hobbit being a recent example with MGM and Warner Bros sharing those costs.

Update: Outlook for the Dark Tower movies is starting to look grim. Deadline is reporting that "Universal Pictures has put pre-production staff on hiatus" indicating that they do not want to spend any more money on a production they are no longer committed to. The Hollywood Reporter provided a little more information but it does little to offer hope.

Imagine President Michael Rosenberg, however, vehemently denies that the project has been shelved. "Dark Tower is not in turnaround," Rosenberg tells THR, adding "there are issues and on-going budget discussions with almost every film in development." A Universal spokesperson declined to comment. Two sources close to the project say that Comcast executives have heavily scrutinized the plan, mainly due to budgetary concerns. The sources also say that the final portion of the project has been found creatively lacking.

To be blunt, I think the Dark Tower project is in deep trouble. The recent acquisition of Universal by Comcast is the likely cause. As anyone that uses Comcast's services or watched their pre-Universal purchase channels like G4 and Versus knows the corporation likes to run things as lean and cheap as possible even if that means sacrificing quality in the process. Committing $500 million or more to at least a five year project goes against Comcast's very core of how they operate. This doesn't even take in account the risk and The Dark Tower series is very risky as it is mostly a character story with very little action.

Imagine Entertainment is probably in overdrive trying to shore up the financing to either move the project to another studio or provide Comcast a partner so they will stick with the production. THR indicates that Sony and Warner Bros are at somewhat interested. If another studio doesn't bite, then the Dark Tower is dead. Between this and the ending of "Mountains of Madness from Guillermo del Toro, it seems that if you are seeking to make big $100 million plus movie or really anything that sniffs of risk, Universal is at the bottom of the list on the studio to bring it to.