That’s right, Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment have finally closed the deal with Ron Howard to tell the story of Stephen King’s, The Dark Tower, putting to rest all previous rumors. The adaptation is going to be filmed in a completely unique way by utilizing both feature length movies and a network TV series.

We’ve had many comments on other posts, with some people in favor of a TV series and some for the films. It seems everyone would have preferred 7 (or more) high budget films to tell Roland’s tale, but what Ron Howard said on this decision has made me think that perhaps this Film/TV approach would actually work better;

“…it’s driven by the material. I love both, and like what’s going on in TV. With this story, if you dedicated to one medium or another, there’s the horrible risk of cheating material….if you committed only to films, you’d deny the audience the intimacy and nuance of some of these characters and a lot of cool twists and turns that make for jaw-dropping, compelling television.”

If Howard manages to give us jaw-dropping and compelling television, then I’m all for him trying this new approach to get to the screen what many people agree to be Stephen King’s greatest work.

It was certainly disappointing when Lindelof announced he and Abrams were dropping out of the Dark Tower movie scene last November, so it is welcome news (if the rumor is to be believed) that director Ron Howard is stepping up to the challenge of adapting Stephen King’s epic to the big screen.

This latest development in the DT saga is being reported by the Heat Vision Blog, who tells us that Howard is teaming up with Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman to produce an initial Big Screen movie that would then lead on to a TV series. We could hazard a guess that if the television run became a huge successthen they’d wrap the whole thing up with another movie release.

We’ve had a lot of comments here on the DT Movie Blog that a TV series is the only way to do justice to the story. For any studio to attempt [potentially] seven big screen movies would be a phenomenal challenge, both logistically and financially, so this is certainly an interesting approach and one that could in the long run turn out to be the best option for an adaptation.

We’ve already had one director drop away from this project, so before we get too excited let’s wait for a more official statement.

A lack of news regarding the DT movie production has given time for some thoughts to ferment in my mind, which I figured would be fun to share with you here.

First though, the story so far.

Stephen King announces the filming rights to the Dark Tower have been bought by J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof. They both seemed excited, though a little apprehensive, and were looking ready to go full-steam into production once they’d finished with LOST and perhaps after one other film from Abrams. All of a sudden, Lindelof announces they were calling the whole thing off.

Does this sudden change of heart strike you as rather strange? It does me. Well, here are my thoughts…

While we’re waiting for someone to start shooting The Dark Tower movies, there’s been a bit of a development from Stephen King, who has just announced that he will be writing The Dark Tower VIII. Actually it would be more accurate to call this The Dark Tower 4.5 as the new book will be set between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla.

The working title is, The Wind Through The Keyhole and it will be a full length novel, though its origins are based on three short stories that focus on a number of supporting characters and important events between the fourth and fifth DT books.

King has stated that he’ll likely not start writing until next summer, so at the rate things are going, this will be released well before filming on the movies even begins!

Since King’s announcement that he’d sold The Dark Tower film rights to J.J. Abram’s for $19, we’ve all been keeping our ears peeled for any news on when filming would begin.

We all heard how Abram and Lindelof we’re excited at the prospect of making the movie and how before they can start work on it they needed to finish the final season of LOST.

So what’s been happening?

Well, in what seems to be a 180° U-turn, Damon Lindelof has announced that he will not be involved in the making of The Dark Tower!

USA Today ran an interview with Damon and the reply on the status of his involvement was;

You’ll be hard-pressed to find a huger fan of The Dark Tower than me, but that’s probably the reason that I shouldn’t be the one to adapt it. After working six years on Lost, the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favorite books of all time. I’m such a massive Stephen King fan that I’m terrified of screwing it up.

I’d do anything to see those movies written by someone else. My guess is they will get made because they’re so incredible. But not by me.

That’s a pretty definitive statement, “But not by me”.

So the movie is dead?

Perhaps we shouldn’t give up hope just yet.

Regardless of what all the other websites are saying, it was Damon and not Jeff who said “not by me”. So until we hear from Abrams directly and until he says “not by me” then there’s still a chance he will make the movies.

Whether these two guys are involved or not, Lindelof is right when he says, “…they will get made because they’re so incredible.”

Joining J.J. Abrams latest comments regarding The Dark Tower, Damon Lindelof confirms that until Season 6 of LOST concludes, they will not seriously give a great deal of thought to King’s epic series.

In an interview on the MTV Movies Blog, Lindelof talks of his concerns in adapting the books and how it gives him “headaches thinking about changing anything.” He goes on to say that his “reverence for Stephen King is now getting in the way of what any good writer would do first when they’re adapting a book, which is take creative license in changing stuff”.

Two other interesting points to come from the MTV News interview was Lindelof’s mention that the studio behind the movie is to be Paramount Pictures, who are looking to franchise the movie; meaning sequels are assured — not that they really have much choice!

Slowly but surely the picture is coming in to focus; J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof are adapting Stephen King’s, The Dark Tower, for Paramount Pictures and filming is likely to begin in 2011.

J.J. Abrams has just given us the tiniest snippet of an update regarding the Dark Tower movies. This is from a recent Star Trek interview where Abrams was asked the current situation regarding DT. Here’s the transcription;

Damon Lindelof and I talked with Mr King, we got the rights for that as a film. Damon is obviously still on LOST – we’ve been working on Star Trek together – as soon as LOST is done, hopefully we’ll get to begin tackling that.

The full, although somewhat short, Dark Tower Update interview with J.J.Abrams;

Back in early 2007, Stephen King announced that the creators of the TV series LOST had bought the movie option to King’s The Dark Tower. We’ve had little news since then but now the signs are starting to look more positive

In a recent interview with AMC, LOST co-creator Damon Lindelof spoke about their progress on the Dark Tower adaptation.

The Dark Tower is to me every bit as daunting an adaptation as the Lord of the Rings trilogy must have been for Peter Jackson, except we’ve got seven books we’re looking at. And the idea of doing that at the same time Carlton and I are bringing Lost to a close is simply not viable. There are always Dark Tower conversations, but the figuring out of what this will look like as a movie has not begun. If The Dark Tower were in the right hands, I would love to see seven movies executed just right. But you have to get people to see the first one to get them to come and see the second one.

This is very positive for several reasons…

BBC News has just released a story that Universal Studios has struck a deal with director J.J. Abrams to produce a new disaster movie for them. Is this an indication that Abrams’ film adaptation of The Dark Tower will be put on the back burner?

Hmm. I guess we should take heart in that the BBC article only indicates that Abrams will produce a new disaster film – there are no other details and certainly no time-frame has been set.

That said, our personal feelings here on darktowermovies.com is that if J.J. Abrams does adapt the Dark Tower movies he will take a similiar approach to what Peter Jackson took when he made the Lord of The Rings trilogy, in that he will make the whole seven book epic in one go. If that is the case then Abrams will probably make this Universal Studios picture first.

During the US-Ireland Alliance party in February, Reezl Channel picked up an interview with J.J. Abrams talking about the upcoming Star Trek movie. The great thing for us DT fans is that he also made a few comments regarding his involvement with the Dark Tower movie.

Abrams mentioned that he and Damon Lindelof are, “just in the in very early stages of doing an adaptation of the ‘Dark Tower’ series” which he thinks would be amazing…and so do we!

The new Star Trek movie is currently being finished and set for a May 2009 released date, with the possibility of him doing a Cloverfield sequel, we may have to wait a few more years before our movie is made. Thankfully, J.J. Abrams is a huge Dark Tower fan so my hopes are that he will push to make this his next project.

Here is the full interview;

I know this isn’t such new news, but I wanted to add this for continuity.