We're really excited about the possibility of The Dark Tower adaptation getting the green light, but similar to Guillermo Del Toro's problems with At the Mountains of Madness, Universal is understandably worried about getting behind a big budget horror production. That's why it is good to hear Deadline reporting that Javier Bardem is close to being officially signed on to play the gunslinger Roland Deschain.
For those that need to catch up, Ron Howard has been working on an adaptation of The Dark Tower series that would include 3 films, with a TV series that would run between the film's releases to tell the whole story. This is obviously a very ambitious plan, and something that has never been done at this kind of scale, so locking the right cast has been important.
Once Javier Bardem has officially signed on, we should start hearing about other casting announcements, and Universal should officially give the green light on the first movie. Some may be skeptical of Ron Howard or casting choices, but I think all fans of The Dark Tower series can agree that they are excited about the possibility of seeing this on the big screen and are hoping for the best.