Has there ever been a better example of a good news/bad news situation?
Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is for many people perhaps the greatest thing he’s ever written. Regardless of where you sit on its quality, the series is definitely one of the largest and most detailed works of fantasy that has yet to be adapted for the screen. It currently sits at seven novels long (plus a short story) and King is working on an eighth book now. For the past few years J.J. Abrams has been attached in a loose capacity and was reportedly struggling to turn the series into workable scripts with his Lost partners, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof. For whatever reason that arrangement has fallen by the wayside and has been replaced with some far less encouraging names.
Per Deadline, the Dark Tower series is on the cusp of being optioned by Imagine Entertainment for a three film deal plus the possibility of a television series. Ron Howard will direct the films, and they’ll be co-produced and written by… Akiva Goldsman.
The Dark Tower follows the last gunslinger, Roland Deschain, in his search for the titular tower across worlds and time beyond his own. His quest is for nothing less than the salvation of all living things, and along the way he meets characters both good and evil, some who join his cause and others who work to stop him. The world he knows best is one that Clint Eastwood would feel familiar in with its Western motifs but it’s also infused with magical happenings, creatures, and a wicked train. (Why hasn’t Eastwood ever played a wizard?) One of the most interesting things about the series is the way King has intertwined characters and events from his other work with the world of the Dark Tower. Books like Insomnia, Eyes of the Dragon, ‘Salem’s Lot, and others feature character crossovers that help to flesh out King’s epic universe even more.
Let’s close this news post with a few of Goldsman’s greatest screenplay hits… Angels & Demons, Batman & Robin, Batman Forever, The DaVinci Code, I Am Legend, I Robot, Lost In Space, Silent Fall. To be fair, he also adapted John Grisham’s The Client. And that was pretty good.
What do you think of the news? Is your desire to see The Dark Tower on the big screen strong enough to weather Goldsman’s involvement?
