At times it seems as if director Ron Howard and producer Brian Glazer’s planned adaption of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series of books to star Javier Bardem may be a little too ambitious for its own good. The pair has plans for three films that would be bridged by two television limited series, but they have been having a hard time selling the project. This past summer Universal Studios, where the project was originally set up, passed citing concerns of the price tag of the venture.
And while Howard and Grazer are still looking for a studio to back the theatrical film component of the adaption, they might have found a home for the television portions.
In an interview with MTV News, Grazer stated “We’ll do the TV with HBO and the movie with … to be determined.” Grazer also stated that Bardem is still attached to the project to play gunslinger Roland Deschain and that they have managed to shave some $45 million off of the projected budget for the films, which should hopefully make them more attractive to a studio.
But Grazer may be stretching things a bit here. Deadline is reporting from their anonymous sources that while Imagine has indeed pitched the pay cable channel the Dark Tower series, HBO has yet to make a deal for the show.
Out of all the pay cable channels, HBO is probably the best fit for the Dark Tower project. Historically, they have always been much more prone to take a chance on risky and groundbreaking original programming as far back as the 1980s and early 90s with such series as Tanner `88 and Dream On to the recent shows like The Sopranos and its current breakout hit Game Of Thrones.
Of course, all this is still rather nebulous and it remains to be seen if HBO will indeed sign on. If it does, will that make the project an even easier pitch to prospective studios?
