Ron Howard to Take On Stephen King’s The Dark Tower Series
Not too long ago, it was looking like J.J. Abrams and and Damon Lindelof were going to be bringing Stephen King’s epic The Dark Tower series to the big screen once Lost had finally wrapped up, but for some reason last year they changed their mind and decided that it was simply too difficult to adapt. They have since relinquished the rights back to Stephen King, which is clearly the noble thing to do when you don’t believe you can do a particular work justice. The only problem with deciding that something is too difficult to adapt and bowing out gracefully is that there is always some other jobber out there who doesn’t give a shit and thinks it can make a ton of money anyway. Someone like… Ron Howard.
Heat Vision reports that Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman are in talks to pick up the rights to the 7-book series, with the hopes of turning it into a movie that would then lead into a television series. The plan is that Howard will direct, Grazer will produce, and Goldsman will write the screenplay. Now although I don’t hate Ron Howard quite as much as some other people around these parts, there’s no question that when it comes to popular book adaptations, the guy simply just churns them out. Replacing Abrams with Howard is a major creative step down in my opinion, and I’m sure many fans of The Dark Tower will agree. I have yet to read any of the books myself, but I know they are generally held in pretty high regard (right up until the end, anyway). So what do you think… is this good news? Is it possible to turn The Dark Tower into a movie/TV franchise, and if so, will Ron Howard be able to do it justice?
Comments (7)
This is a horrible idea. I think if done as a HBO or Showtime series you could easily do a season per book. But again it would have to be a really good creative team behind it. All in all I would rather no one touch the Dark Tower at all.
Posted by Bryan (Drunken Zombie) on April 30th, 2010I hate Ron Howard right now, but he will be on my shit list if he adapts this franchise and turns into some sappy, bland Oscar bait. Quite possibly the worst man for the job. If Abrams isn’t gonna do it, Darabont should.
Posted by Nate on April 30th, 2010i agree that if anyone should be directing this, it should be Darabont, his track record for adapting King’s work speaks for itself. i also think that they should leave this alone and not make it into anything, but if they are going to they should do it on HBO because there is just so much going on in these novels that a movie wouldnt do it justice.
ROLAND!
Posted by Mike H on April 30th, 2010I think Howard’s best work of the decade was “The Missing”–a gritty, violent Western. I think he’s smart enough to understand the material and not turn it in to “Oscar bait”
Posted by projectgenesis on April 30th, 2010I actually kinda like The Missing, too. That doesn’t mean that Howard can pull this off. I would have liked to see Abrams attempt it. Darabont would be great too but I’m happy with seeing him do the Walking Dead series.
Personally, I think this is pretty much as close to unfilmable as it gets. A lot of people claimed that Lord of the Rings was also unfilmable but I’d say this is a far crazier series to attempt. It’s too big! The visuals are insane and the scope is absolutely MASSIVE. Plus, a lot of the story weaves in and out of other King works and at one point even takes characters from his older books. Would you leave that in? Would you gloss over the more referential material?
I don’t know. This seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
The biggest question of all: Who’s Roland?
I vote for Stephen McHattie.
Or maybe someone might finally discover the tree of life and put Eastwood back to the age he was in Unforgiven…problem solved!
Posted by Fatbologna on April 30th, 2010Ron Howard… now ruining the next book series near you
Posted by Steve on April 30th, 2010The first thing that sprang to mind for me was the scene when the protagonists enter the world in which The Stand took place. If noone has been able to adequately adapt that piece yet, how could they even hope to evoke it’s entirety simply as set dressing for a few scenes?
Posted by Shini on July 20th, 2010I’ve been a fan of the Dark Tower for a long time, but I have no delusions about the overall results. The Gunslinger could make a great film, but trying to do them all would take at least 7 x 4 hour films and would probably end up looking like the Golden Compass despite any good intentions.
Of course, having said all that, I would love to see any failed attempt! Especially the vampire bar & grill in New York.
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