It has been months since we heard anything on the attempt to turn Stephen King's The Dark Tower series into a movie trilogy and two season TV series. Comcast decided the cost and risk was to much for them and passed on it. Warner Bros said they might be depending on what a new more cost effective draft script could be written by Akiva Goldsman. Meanwhile, the lead role of Roland Deschain was Javier Bardem's to have. All this was more six plus months ago.
According to Deadline, the new script has been completed and WB has given itself a two week deadline to make a decision on whether they want to climb The Dark Tower or pass. It also seems that Bardem is no longer in the running with Dark Tower producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer turning to Russell Crowe for the role, who they worked with on A Beautiful Mind. No deals have been made with any actors but Crowe's proven box office record will be much more attractive to WB executives then Bardem will be.
WB is already footing a potentially $1 billion bill (once include marketing costs) for The Hobbit trilogy so while that money is almost guaranteed to be made back (probably by the first Hobbit film) I am betting WB executives are feeling gun shine about making spending that kind of money again. Unless they have a few guarantees like a known box office draw like Crowe. My very rough estimate is a trilogy will cost in the $350 million range with maybe another $50 million for two TV seasons.
I am betting the reservation is on the story and how to market it for a worldwide movie audience. The Dark Tower, from a movie studio perspective, is a western set in a sci-fi world. It is a series of character stories and relationships set in the backdrop of a quest across a devastated landscape with occasional action pieces usually involving people getting shot up. Story wise it is epic in scope but action wise not so much. The ending also presents a substantial obstacle as it would not be something most movie goers will find acceptable (many readers didn't either, King has always been weak on his book endings). I love the series but if I was a WB studio exec I would nix any movies and go for a 4 plus season big budget TV series on HBO along the lines of A Game of Thrones. If I were the producers and TV became the only option, I would want minimum number of episode and budget guarantees (around 40 or so, $3-4 million per) with a required advance notice if plan to cancel series so can tell a complete story. A movie option could be added just in case.
Really the series would probably do better in a TV only plan as it would allow for a more faithful adaptation (which ironically would probably be cheaper budget wise) and allow sticking to certain elements such as the characters. For example, one character called Susannah Dean is a legless black women from the civil rights era with dual personalities, one of which is a psychotic. The legless condition is unlikely to survive the transition no matter what (practically speaking filming someone as legless for months on end is just too costly) but the rest could as more suited for TV. Movies, in quest for PG-13 rating and mass market appeal, would likely either remove or smooth out those aspects to keep the story focused on Roland.
In around two weeks Howard, King and others will present their new vision for the series. From there WB execs will decide to green light it or not. If they don't, that will probably be it for any attempt to get the series on any screen.
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