Ron Howard Picks Up Stephen King's 'Dark Tower'

J.J. Abrams backed away from adapting The Dark Tower recently, saying in not so many words that it would be extremely hard to do right. As much as I'd like to see Abrams try, he has a point, and as always, not everything is cut out to be a movie. But try telling that to Ron Howard, who along with right-hand-man Brian Grazer and frequent collaborator Akiva Goldsman, has secured the rights to Stephen King's exhaustive series of books. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Goldsman would write the script, Howard would direct, and eventually, the movie would lead into a TV series for Imagine. I'm not crazy about Howard directing it, not that he isn't a very competent filmmaker, I hate the thought of Akiva Goldsman adapting the book, but I love the movie-to-TV idea. TV's really the best way to go with The Dark Tower, at least in terms of spitting out that lengthy narrative. But I don't think anyone believes a network, broadcast or cable, would fork over that much cash to start at the beginning of the novel with the promise of drawing it out three or four years. Of course, it was the property of the guy who gave us Lost, which is about as confounding as modern pop culture gets, so maybe there's a precedent here. In truth, a movie and a 13-week episodic series should do the trick, and it would reduce the commitment from a network, too. In fact, it's probably easier to sell to audiences as a half-year series than something like Flash Forward or V, which has Lost-like designs without the ability to draw a consistently large crowd. But we'll see how it plays out. Universal is presumed to have the inside track for distribution, although there isn't a deal in place. It is where Imagine calls home, though, so that's a good guess. That would probably mean the show would be on NBC. Pity.

Comments

[Will]

This is the worst news I've heard in a long time.