Sony’s big screen adaptation of The Dark Tower may have been a critical and commercial failure, but it seems that the planned TV series Wizard and Glass remains a possibility – although as author Stephen King has revealed to Vulture, should this move ahead, it will likely be a complete reboot with no ties to the feature film.
“The major challenge was to do a film based on a series of books that’s really long, about 3,000 pages,” said King. “The other part of it was the decision to do a PG-13 feature adaptation of books that are extremely violent and deal with violent behavior in a fairly graphic way. That was something that had to be overcome, although I’ve gotta say, I thought [screenwriter] Akiva Goldsman did a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie. The TV series they’re developing now…we’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see.”
Originally, the plan was for Idris Elba to reprise his role as The Gunslinger in the TV series, which is being developed by Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead). However, Elba stated last month that he was unsure as to what was happening with the project, and so it seems the decision may have been made to take things in a different direction.
There are other worlds than these. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, the ambitious and expansive story from one of the world’s most celebrated authors, makes its launch to the big screen. The last Knight Warrior, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter O’Dim, also known as the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.
The Dark Tower sees Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) directing a cast that includes Idris Elba (Luther) as Roland Deschain, Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar) as the Man in Black, Tom Taylor (Doctor Foster) as Jake Chambers, Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Tirana, Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods) as Pimli, Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) as Richard Sayre, Michael Barbieri (Little Men) as Timmy, Claudia Kim (Avengers: Age of Ultron) as Arra Champignon and Katheryn Winnick (Vikings) as Laurie Chambers.
Originally published October 22, 2017. Updated April 17, 2018.
