Both big screen and small screen adaptations of Stephen King's The Dark Tower book series have been in the works for quite some time. Though the projects' news fronts have been relatively quiet for awhile, you don't have to worry about the tower's power vanishing, as it's been revealed that Sony and MRC are now moving forward on a film series adaptation of The Dark Tower books, with the first movie's creation now set as a top priority and a companion TV series still on the table.
According to /Film, the folks at Sony Pictures and MRC are searching for someone to helm the the first of multiple Dark Tower films from a reworked screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner that focuses on the series' first book, The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, following Roland of Gilead and Jake Chambers, the Kid from Earth.
Goldsman will produce, along with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Erica Huggins, and, quite possibly, Stephen King. No official casting announcements have been made at this time. A Dark Tower TV series that would act as a companion to the feature films is also in development at MRC.
Here's what King had to say about the recent push to get The Dark Tower series adapted:
“I’m excited that The Dark Tower is finally going to appear on the screen,” he said in a statement. “Those who have traveled with Roland and his friends in their search for the Dark Tower are going to have their long-held hopes fully realized. This is a brilliant and creative approach to my books.”
Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates. In the meantime, if you're not familiar with the seven-book (not including the spin-off novels) Dark Tower series, here's the synopsis for The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, the first installment of King's epic adventure:
"In the first book of this brilliant series, Stephen King introduces readers to one of his most enigmatic heroes, Roland of Gilead, The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter."
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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