The Dark Tower Trilogy Is Dead as WB Passes

It looks like Ron Howard and Brian Grazer last gasp to save The Dark Tower failed. Variety is reporting that Warner Bros has decided to pass on the movie trilogy. No reason has been given. Stephen King commented on the rejection saying "The Dark Tower, to me, and I’m not unbiased because I’m the writer on this thing, but to me it looks like gold on the ground waiting to be picked up." More than likely the costs (my guess is $500 million+ range) and little confidence that The Dark Tower has mass market appeal was the reason behind the decision.

The decision really isn't surprising as the studios rarely want to commit that kind of capital without the deck being stacked in their favor of getting the money back. While The Lord of the Rings and (later) the Hobbit all sold as a trilogy from day one, they are also the only two examples of that ever happening. All other film trilogies were after the fact, only when the first film proved to be successful. Those involved might have had a trilogy in mind but having all three contractually guaranteed to be made just doesn't happen outside of the Tolkien films. The Lord of the Rings almost wasn't made except that New Line's Bob Shaye saw something then that all the other studios didn't (who based on the now billions of dollar franchise). The only reason The Dark Tower had a reach chance of getting green lit was because studios are just as terrified of missing the next Lord of the Rings scale money maker as they are paying for it.

I am a fan of The Dark Tower books but it is a pure character story. There is no big action beats (by today's standards) or really any big character moments. It’s just a lot of talk, a lot of little events, little interactions, and hints of the history and larger world as Roland Deschain and his ka-tet move to the Dark Tower that gives it a feel of epic scope. Ron Howard doesn't do TV and that decision pretty much doomed this adaptation from day one. The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones really show how the book series could be adapted right to critical acclaim. HBO or Showtime would have been a perfect home with about two books being adapted per season.

At least we still have the books and the excellent comics produced by Marvel to enjoy. Sadly the Dark Tower film or television series is done for the foreseeable future as there are no other studios with the finances to pull it off under the current plan. Too bad, at the very least I would have loved to know how they would have conquered the King problem of poor book endings. The Dark Tower had a whopper of one that sort of fit in a literary sense but would have been completely unacceptable for a movie trilogy.