Warner Bros. Moving Ahead With THE DARK TOWER. Javier Bardem Out; Russell Crowe In

Warner Bros. Moving Ahead With THE DARK TOWER. Javier Bardem Out; Russell Crowe In

There has been talk of a big screen adaptation of Stephen King's epic The Dark Tower trilogy for a while, but Warner Bros. is now in the process of getting a new script from Akiva Goldsman, while Russell Crowe is in talks to replace Javier Bardem as Roland Deschain.

By JoshWilding - Aug 02, 2012 05:08 PM EST
Filed Under: Action
Source: Deadline


Deadline reports that Warner Bros. have tasked with Akiva Goldsman with turning in a new script for them for the first instalment in the big screen adaptation of Stephen King's epic The Dark Tower series. The studio will apparently make a final decision as to whether or not they will give the film the green light within the next two weeks, despite it reportedly being, "the first leg of one of the most daring and ambitious projects to come along since The Lord of the Rings". And that's not all. Despite Javier Bardem previously being pegged for the leading role of gunslinger Roland Deschain, director Ron Howard and producers Brian Grazer and Goldsman are now in talks with Man of Steel's Russell Crowe. There is currently no deal in place, while the plan to tell the nine-volume story through three films and two limited run TV series remains.

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LoudNoises
LoudNoises - 8/2/2012, 5:46 PM
Sweet. I need to read these books.
BlazinTexan
BlazinTexan - 8/2/2012, 6:01 PM
EXCELLENT NEWS!!!!!
SmellofDuty
SmellofDuty - 8/2/2012, 6:10 PM
He doesn't look what I imagined the main character. But I've not read a whole book.
JDUKE25
JDUKE25 - 8/2/2012, 6:11 PM
I can't say I've ever heard of these books.
ModernAvenger89
ModernAvenger89 - 8/2/2012, 6:12 PM
I think the three films and two seasons of tv sounds great. but I dont think it will work financially. Just do a trilogy.
spearman19
spearman19 - 8/2/2012, 6:14 PM
Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't there eight books in the series?
1. The Gunslinger
2. The Three Doors
3. The Wastelands
4. Wizards and Glass
5. Wolves of Calhalla
6. Susannah's Song
7. The Dark Tower
8. Wind Through the Keyhold (set between 4 and 5)
Ranger14
Ranger14 - 8/2/2012, 6:15 PM
Well, that's disappointing for me. I prefer Bardem. Not a big Crowe fan. He's alright...I guess.
Screwger
Screwger - 8/2/2012, 6:29 PM
@Ranger14 do you read books??? I guess you not if you think that Bardem is good choice to play Roland. The better choice is Christian Bale or Vigo Mortensen but the best choice is Clint Eastwood( he kinda old for it now). Russel Crowe is much better choice and only thing he should do is to lose weight( I guess he's doing it right now for Noah).
spearman19
spearman19 - 8/2/2012, 6:30 PM
ckal-
I'll admit I forgot that one but its a short story, should it really count as a volume?
Stephen King's Dark Tower comic series is what pulled me into the comic world to begin with 5 years ago
Ronin75
Ronin75 - 8/2/2012, 6:31 PM
Excellent. But Crowe is not who I would have picked, some one scruffier, Eastwood-esque. Maybe they should go with an unknown or up and coming actor...
spearman19
spearman19 - 8/2/2012, 6:36 PM
As much as I like Javier, I much prefer Crowe over him. And everytime I keep thinking about him its scenes from Gladiator. But yes, I would have loved with Vigo Mortensen was cast
CrimsonReign
CrimsonReign - 8/2/2012, 6:47 PM
Crowe will be great, but Roland is described as looking something like a mix between Clint Eastwood and Stephen King...I think Hugh Jackman physically has that look in his face. But, who cares. I just want to see these movies because the books are great and grandiose.
Shadak
Shadak - 8/2/2012, 6:51 PM
definitely needs to be someone along the lines of Eastwood in appearance. Reading through the series its who I always pictured as Roland.... Angela Basset as Suze, and for some reason Steve Buscemi as Eddie lol..
ScarSpeedster
ScarSpeedster - 8/2/2012, 6:59 PM
Way better choice. Crowe was great along side Bale in 3:10 to Yuma
xfan320
xfan320 - 8/2/2012, 7:33 PM
I think crowe's a good choice, they need to make the role for someone older of course, but I always thought it would have been cool if they tried to tie in 'the mist' and have. Thomas Janes' character end up being the 'gunslinger'...

Just what I thought would be interesting given the 'gunslinger' artwork he's workin on in the beginning of 'the mist' and the fact he ends up pretty tragic and alone in a world being overrun.
CaptainAmerica31
CaptainAmerica31 - 8/2/2012, 7:45 PM
Russel Crowe is everywhere lol
gibbyblaylock
gibbyblaylock - 8/2/2012, 8:55 PM
Liam Neeson is THE choice for Roland in my book

eyesore
eyesore - 8/2/2012, 9:18 PM
Viggo Mortenson would be my first option for Roland, i also like Timmothy Olyphant.
The Wind Through the Keyhole is only set within the within The Dark Tower, its not part of the series,its just Roland telling a story within a story.
kenny38606
kenny38606 - 8/2/2012, 9:25 PM
@ModernAvenger89, a trilogy ain't gonna cut it. Look at Lord of the Rings. That's a series that contains 4 books with a total of 1881 pages. And they needed three 4 hour films, with 3 more on the way to adequately tell that story.

The Dark Tower consists of 7 main novels with a total of 3,964 pages, another novel with 336 pages and about 6 comic book prequel miniseries with a lot of vital backstory.

There is no way this story could be adequately told in a trilogy.

Hell, I don't even think the 3 films plus the 2 TV seasons could even do it justice. Look at Game of Thrones. They need 4 seasons to cover the events of the first 3 books. And people say they still cut some stuff out. The Game of Throne novel has about 672 pages and they needed ten 55-minute episodes to tell that story. That's almost 9½ hours.

The 4th Dark Tower novel, Wizard and Glass, has 787 pages, over 100 more than Game of Thrones? How do you adequately adapt that novel for either film or television without completely gutting it?

Why can't they just make movies or just make a TV show? True Blood goes into it's 6th season next year and probably will continue on past that. Game of Thrones will probably be around until they get to the last book. That could be 10 seasons. In terms of films, they adapted 8 Harry Potter movies over a decade, 6 LOTR movies over a decade and 5 Twilight films.

There are precedents for long adaptations. Why are they trying to squeeze this huge story into 3 films and a short TV series?
astromerc
astromerc - 8/2/2012, 9:53 PM
@ spearman19

The 2nd book is called The Drawing of Three.
AnungUnRama
AnungUnRama - 8/2/2012, 10:10 PM
They haven't said each of the two limited tv series would only last one season, did they? They could "limit" the serieses to 3 seasons each, covering the story and time gap between the 1st and the 2nd as well as the 2nd and the 3rd movie respectively. each season one volume + each movie one volume = 9 volumes.
SFCamerica
SFCamerica - 8/2/2012, 10:15 PM
@Kenny, that will be plenty, King tells his story using 100 words when 10 will do. I loved these books, Wolves being my favorite, but I just can't imagine this working as a movie/TV adaptation.
spearman19
spearman19 - 8/2/2012, 10:26 PM
@astromerc
ah thank you. That was the only name i was iffy on. ironically i have it on my bookshelf...just too lazy to look
tazmaniak
tazmaniak - 8/2/2012, 11:23 PM
@AnungUnRama, limited run specifically refers to a series that runs for one season. If it ran for more than one season, it wouldn't have a limited run.
AnungUnRama
AnungUnRama - 8/2/2012, 11:30 PM
@tazmaniak: Thanks for that information. I wasn't aware of that.
SwingsetKnight
SwingsetKnight - 8/2/2012, 11:33 PM
Wait, Akiva Goldsman is writing this? As in "screenwriter for Batman & Robin" Akiva Goldsman?

...oh no. I mean yeah, sure, he wrote A Beautiful Mind as well, but his record in genre fiction is...not encouraging.
Keldor
Keldor - 8/2/2012, 11:38 PM
TheNameIsBetty
TheNameIsBetty - 8/3/2012, 2:01 AM
Roland is going to be a difficult character to cast. I don't like Bardem as an actor, he's....odd.

Crowe is always a good choice.
AlexDeLarge87
AlexDeLarge87 - 8/3/2012, 2:23 AM
Crowe will do but i would have prefered Viggo Mortensen or James Caviezel.
AlexDeLarge87
AlexDeLarge87 - 8/3/2012, 2:25 AM
SwingsetKnight@ Thats the only thing right know in this project which worries me alot.
WarnerBrother
WarnerBrother - 8/3/2012, 2:41 AM
Its interesting that WB are going to make a decision about green lighting this film in the next two weeks. That seems to match up with the release of the future DC film slate.

2014 is already a crowded CBM spring/summer Captain America/GOTG
/X-Men/Spider-Man/Antman? Streach Armstrong,so I don't expect WB to cram a major CBM into the fray.Maybe LOBO,but I think the WB slate will be something like this.

May 2014: Godzilla
June 2014: Mad Max Fury Road
July 2014 : Third Hobbit film

May 2015: Dark Tower
June 2015: Justice League (Cavill returns in DC cinematic universe springboard film)
July 2015: Inception 2 (Nolan returns to his film school passion project to build a franchise for WB)
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