Bad Robot, the company owned by J.J. Abrams (the creator of the immensely successful, small-screen hit, ‘Lost’), recently relinquished the rights to produce an adaptation of Stephen Kings much loved fantasy novel, Dark Tower, after holding diligently onto said rights, for a number of years.
The plan over at Bad Robot, was to produce a TV series based on the seven book series (which is actually referenced in a number of Kings other, seemingly unrelated, novels, and now has an upcoming eighth book, as well as a series of graphic novels), which would have been made by Lost producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cruise, who were planning on waiting until work on Lost was complete, so that they could give Dark Tower the comprehensive attention it would need. However, having realized that they would have been unable to do justice to an adaptation of a series as well loved as Dark Tower, they gave the rights back to the author; Stephen King; who has once again sold them on.
The latest team that fancy themselves as the people to adapt King’s work are probably the most likely so far to actually pull it off, and includes director Ron Howard (Angels & Demons, Frost/Nixon, Apollo 13), Brian Grazer (producer of this year’s Robin Hood, Angels & Demons, and Frost/Nixon), and Akiva Goldsman (who has previously adapted works such as A Time To Kill, Angels & Demons, and been involved in a number of remakes; such as 2006’s Poseidon, and 1998’s Lost In Space).
Nothing is officially sorted yet, but the three are supposedly in discussions that would see the franchise kicking off with a fairly big movie (that would be written by Goldsman, produced by Grazer, and directed by Howard), and eventually flowing into a TV series that would be produced by by the TV division of Imagine Entertainment (the production company founded by Howard and Grazer); with insiders apparently stating that Imagine’s parent company, Universal, would be the studio to release the film.
When it does eventually materialize (be it in this planned incarnation or not), Dark Tower has a huge amount of potential to become a real money making marvel; as King himself has stated that the Tower is his “magnum opus”, and as it’s a mix of spaghetti westerns and Lord of the Rings, with an element of sci-fi and horror thrown in for good measure, there is really no end to the potential audience that it can generate. A film, and series, that is really worth keeping an eye out for in the future.
