
Just a couple days ago we got word from producer Brian Grazer that $45-50 million had been cut from the budget for the adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower to make it more appealing to studios. While Grazer and director Ron Howard are still looking for a place to set up the film portion of the adaptation, we can’t forget that the ambitious project also calls for a couple seasons of television between three planned films. Thankfully, it doesn’t sound like that side of the deal has been hard to set up as Grazer recently spoke with MTV and said, “We’re going to do [The Dark Tower] with HBO. We’ll do the TV with HBO, and we’ll do the movie with… to be determined. We’ll do it right.” Seems like the best home for material like this, that way there aren’t any restrictions as to the violence, language, etc. No details as were offered as to just how long each season will be or anything like that, but it sounds like we might get some solid information sooner than later so stay tuned.
If you’re unfamiliar with The Dark Tower, hit the jump for a synopsis.
Here’s the synopsis for The Dark Tower:
In the story, Roland Deschain is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of “Arthur Eld”, his world’s analogue of King Arthur. The world he lives in is quite different from our own, yet it bears striking similarities to it. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. While the magical aspects are largely gone from Mid-World, some vestiges of them remain, along with the relics of a highly advanced, but long vanished, society.
Roland’s quest is to find the Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Roland’s world is said to have “moved on”, and indeed it appears to be coming apart at the seams as mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Even the Sun sometimes rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Roland’s motives, goals and age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries. [Wikipedia]
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This. Is. Gonna. Be. Awesome.
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
THANK YOU!
great news hbo.
Screw the whole studio/film thing. Just make it into an epic series on HBO, like Game of Thrones.
UM…HBO FILMS anyone??? Let them do the whole damn thing. Oh, and shoot the thing in 3d from the start.
FANTASTIC!!!! HBO ROX!!!
Absolutely no better place on Television.
NOW we’re talking! Pay cable is the ONLY venue for this story.
With all of the material they have (7 going on 8 books) it makes sense to have a series – why even bother plugging in the movies? I wonder if they are still settled on Javier Bardem as Roland. Even though he has his own series going on – Timothy Olyphant might be a better fit.
Hey check out an interesting video interview with Producer/Director Ron Howard at: http://culturecatch.com/vidcast/ron_howard