The Dark Tower TV Series Slowly Movies Forward

Been a few years since posted here mostly because been a few years since any news on The Dark Tower front. That has changed just a little bit as Deadline reports that scripts for the TV show have been completed. The news from potential TV series showrunner Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck) who says "It’s moving. We’ve got a lot of scripts done for it. It’s the first priority." 

Flanagan also said "We can’t let [the 2017 movie] be the final word. We really can’t." The production rights are with Flanagan's Intrepid Pictures production company so right now this looks to be prep for shopping the show around to various studios to gather funding. In short, looking at several more years before the TV show might become a reality.

The Dark Tower Series Cast Young Roland, Man in Black

Been a minute since had any news on The Dark Tower front. It seems the pace of the TV show is starting to slowly speed up as Amazon has announced they have cast two of the leads for the show. Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings, BlacKkKlansman) has probably been cast as Marten, aka Walter O'Dim aka Randall Flagg aka the Man in Black that was played by Matthew McConaughey in the movie. Sam Strike (Nightflyers) has been cast as young Roland Deschain. The TV series is a "prequel" of sorts that will explore the character of Roland as a teenager and the events that led to the downfall of his home and his rise as "The Gunslinger." A lot of it was explored in the Marvel comic books and of course the Dark Tower books but the series isn't bound by those. Since they cast Roland is a white dude, its pretty clear the movie starring Idris Elba and McConaughey is being completely ignored.

The Dark Tower TV Series Based on Wizard and Glass

For the many years that The Dark Tower was in development hell, one or more TV series was always part of the plan. When The Dark Tower movie finally moved forward with a budget, it was assumed that part of the plan was dropped. It turns out that is not the case. Current plans are to release a 10 to 13 episode limited series that would begin filming in 2017 for release in 2018 with Sony financing the show "depending on how the scripts and story arcs develop." In short, all this really depends on how The Dark Tower performs at the box office. The movie fails then obviously the TV series and any subsequent movies are done. Assuming it goes forward, the series would include Idris Elba (Roland) and Tom Taylor (Jake) who would each reprise their roles from the movie. However, since the stories will be heavily lifted from The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, their involvement will likely simply be used to set up the flashbacks as the book told a significant chunk of back story about the Gunslinger from his childhood and key moments that influenced his decision to hunt down the Man in Black, Walter O'Dim (aka big bad of the series). Its the same book the Marvel comics stories realized on when first telling the Dark Tower saga. Speaking of, Matthew McConaughey has not signed on to play Walter in the series but that doesn't matter much as the character often changes his entire identity to match his goals and in this case that means being Marten Broadcloak, right hand man to Roland's father and eventual destroyer of his family and kingdom. There is a lot to mine there which hopefully means a fast paced story that will delve deep into the Roland Deschain character.

WB Dark Tower Deadline, Russell Crowe As Roland

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.

Dark Tower Gets a Writer

The Dark Tower production has signed Mark Verheiden to co-write The Dark Tower TV series with Akiva Goldsman. Verheiden's previous writing experience includes writer/co-executive producer of Battlestar Galactica and Falling Skies along with writing comics such as Superman, Aliens and Predator. He adds the sci-fi/fantasy experience that the team of producers does not have a whole lot of but is a necessary ingredient to add to The Dark Tower films. The series while epic in scope, is really a combination of little character moments that will translate well to the television screen but not so well to the movie screen. It will be interesting to see what is shunted to TV, kept for the movie or left unused.

More Details on Dark Tower TV Series

In an interview with Howard Stern to promote his latest movie The Dilemma, the producer of The Dark Tower adaptation for movie and TV revealed a little bit more about his plans for the TV series. The known plan is three movies and two TV series. Howard revealed the plan would at least the first TV program is a six hour mini-series. Chances are if that is successful then the second TV series would be the same. He also verified the recent rumor that Viggo Mortensen and Javier Bardem are his frontrunners for the role of Roland Deschain.

Exactly how the seven book Dark Tower series and the comic book series that fills out more of the back story and youth of Roland will be broken up remains unknown. I wouldn't be surprised if story points, flashbacks and details that flesh out the epic (like Roland's youth and fall of Gilead) but not needed to understand the trilogy will be relegated to the TV series. Despite its length, there is plenty that could be cut from the epic that non-Dark Tower fans wouldn't miss and something like a TV series is a good way to service those stories. Besides, I just don't see either frontrunner agreeing to a TV series outside of a cameo appearance and the producers probably are not going to push it as paying the salary would be very expensive.