Producer Brian Grazer and his awesome hair, has been very chatty talking to press during rounds for next week’s “Tower Heist.” Over the weekend he shared with us that the three-film, two-television series mega-adaptation of Stephen King‘s “The Dark Tower” series — which was dropped by Universal over the summer — was still moving ahead thanks to a significant budget reduction between $40-50 million. And while there’s still no word if another studio will pick up the reins on the project, one of the best homes for adventurous programming on the small screen is apparently throwing their hat in the ring to be a part of super sized franchise.
“We’re going to do [‘The Dark Tower’] with HBO,” Grazer told MTV. “We’ll do the TV with HBO, and we’ll do the movie with…to be determined. We’ll do it right.”
It seems Grazer and company, which includes director Ron Howard and writer Akiva Goldsman, are sticking with their grand vision for the “The Dark Tower.” When it was announced last year the plan was to get the first film finished and then create a bridge to the second film via the television series. After the first series, you’d go into the second film before returning back to the small screen, where the story would focus on Roland Deschain as a young gunslinger, in storylines created by King in a prequel comic book series. Finally, the third film would pick up with the Deshain as he completes his journey. At the time it was said that by using the same sets, cast and crew for the entire series, it would allow for some major savings cost, but obviously, much much more was needed to be slashed to get it in shape.
Javier Bardem is still attached to lead in an undertaking that appears to have him stepping into at least the first TV series, and we’d guess there would be a new cast enlisted for the younger-era Roland for the second go around. Of course, whether or not any of this happens is dependent on a studio (or some big money) stepping in and financing the first picture which will still cost about $100 million, which is a pretty big chunk of change. But Grazer is keeping the hope alive and certainly with HBO throwing their hat in the ring, it will definitely add an another attractive element to “The Dark Tower” as it tries to lure the support of a studio.
