Ahoy, squirts! Quint here, currently seated for a documentary about a serial killer at SXSW, but I saw this news come in and had to comment on it.
When Universal and Ron Howard parted ways on the Dark Tower adaptation I kind of breathed a sigh of relief to be honest. The concept of splitting storytelling duties between films and TV is a good idea, but I love this series so much and the thought of the man who wrote Batman and Robin adapting it terrifies me. And I think Javier Bardem is horribly miscast as Roland.
Howard and Co swore that leaving Universal wasn’t the end and now, according to Deadline, it seems that they weren’t kidding.
Warner Bros is apparently close to locking in a deal to handle the films, with HBO likely to take the TV portion of the story. That’s awesome, a much better home for the property, I think, but it’s still written by Goldsman and the first film will be directed by Ron Howard. It’s unknown if Bardem is going to still play the titular Gunslinger.
Howard has the passion, that much is evident, so call me cautiously optimistic. I really want to read Goldsman’s draft. Like badly. If that works on the page, then I’ll calm down.
How would you want it to break down? Me, I’d love to see the series handled like an R-rated Harry Potter on the big screen following Roland on the path of the beam with the TV section focused on all the adventures of Young Roland. I think that’d be pretty awesome.
I’m in the final 100 pages of Stephen King’s newest Dark Tower book, which takes place between books 4 and 5, and it’s pretty damn good. I’ll review that probably after SXSW.
So that’s the news. What do you think?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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