NBC and Universal Pass on The Dark Tower

The joint venture of NBC and Universal Studios to bring Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to life with Ron Howard producing a combination of feature films and TV Series have fallen to the wayside.

The project is officially dead.

Fused Film shares:

The project was scheduled to start shooting in Spring 2012, but Deadline is reporting that the tower has crumbled and Universal has decided to abandon the project entirely.
This news comes after script changes and the project itself was modified when The Dark Tower was threatened with a suspected turnaround; a turnaround that both parties deny ever happening.

So while both parties involved are not saying, it is looking like it was just too big of a project to make happen.

Considering its narrow market appeal and undeniably massive udertaking this would have required is it really any surprise that they backed down.

Despite the popularity of Stephen King’s works, even this would have a hard time finding a broad audience. The whole series is a tough swallow and treads on some strange grounds. A testament to King’s creativity, however not the easiest story to market as a feature film or TV series.

Earlier this year Mountains of Madness (the HP Lovecraft horror) was axed purely because of its limited market and big budget. Speculation says the same of Dark Tower. TV series’ that are just getting modest reviews are canceled on a whim. Studios are not willing to take these kinds of chances without a homerun.

Sad that Dark Tower never got a chance at bat.

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4 thoughts on “NBC and Universal Pass on The Dark Tower

  1. I just watched Ron Howard’s excellent film Frost/Nixon last night, and in the story David Frost was rejected by all major networks for his interview with the former President. Taking a page from one of his own films, and with so many networks available, I see this as only a setback for The Dark Tower series!

  2. I am actually kind of relieved. I started reading A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones a year and a half ago and now I am constantly annoyed when people ask me if I have watched the first HBO season.

    NO! Go read the damn book!

    I am starting the Dark Tower series next year and don’t want the same shit.

  3. While Im dissappointed, its probably for the best. This is a terribly difficult series of stories to put on film without losing the breadth and depth that make it so good. I like the idea of 3 films tied together by a tv series, but I agree the saga is better suited overall for HBO or Cinemax doing the whole story over a period of 5+ seasons…

  4. Yeah, I could only really see this as an major cable television series or them doing each book to film the harry potter way, releasing a movie once a year.

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