Say it ain’t so! Like any ambitious and large undertaking in film, The Dark Tower may be getting put on hold because Universal is getting a little gun-shy. (Get it? The Gunslinger? Gun shy?) Javier Bardem is set to star in the trilogy of the popular series as Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger.
According to Deadline, Universal is not liking how big the budget for the future endeavour is at the moment. They have since put all pre-production on a hiatus until they can figure out a way to get the budget down to something acceptable. So much for a 2013 release, I guess. The staffers are saying plans to move into production by September are not very feasible at this point, so we may see this whole project not even started until 2012. Here’s a quick excerpt from Deadline:
Universal Pictures has put pre-production staff on hiatus as they discuss ways to bring down the budget of the ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King novel series The Dark Tower. Talks are ongoing between studio brass, director Ron Howard and his Imagine Entertainment, and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman about how they will proceed. The plan was to make three movies that would star Javier Bardem, with TV miniseries in between each film. The plan was as ambitious as New Line’s gamble on The Lord of the Rings years ago.
It’s unfortunate that Universal lost its balls on this one, but I suppose no one wants to lose money on a huge gamble. New Line was pretty successful with the Lord of the Rings trilogy but the Dark Tower project eclipses even that undertaking. After reading so many of the books and graphic novels set in the Dark Tower universe I was looking forward to this project, so hopefully Universal gets their asses in gear and makes something happen.
What do all of you Stephen King diehards think of this news? I know you’re out there! Comment below!
Images: Marvel Comics
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