Fans of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, myself included, will surely react one way or another to the news being reported by Deadline tonight saying Imagine Entertainment and Weed Road are in discussions to make a screen trilogy and TV series out of the fantasy series centered on Roland Deschain of Gilead and his search for The Dark Tower.
One of the most popular articles on the site was news Damon Lindeloff and J.J. Abrams were looking to turn the franchise into a seven film series, though that doesn’t look to be the goal. Instead Roland will get a three film trilogy with Ron Howard directing and Akiva Goldsman writing the script, which is where I am sure fans will surely raise their eyebrows.
Goldsman penned the scripts for Batman and Robin, Batman Forever, I, Robot, Cinderella Man, A Beautiful Mind and recently I Am Legend and Angels and Demons. Depending on your taste I assume you can find a couple of films you like out of that bunch, but there are many that make me wonder if this is seriously the best team to bring this franchise to the big screen.
The news also comes saying there will be a TV series, which is where I am assuming the decision to go with a filmed trilogy comes in as opposed to adapting all seven books, though I think condensing it is a very good idea, and also much safer for a studio to consider rather than hoping the films will all do well enough for a seven film franchise. “The Dark Tower” is a well known franchise, but I would never say it has Harry Potter juice.
So obviously Abrams and Lindeloff weren’t able to get things working and Goldsman will be starting from scratch. What’s left is to wonder who should play Roland? Michael Fassbender? Guy Pearce? Viggo Mortensen? Those are a couple off the top of my head. Any other suggestions out there?
