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[LordOfLore]

Link.

After more than 10 years of turbulent development, the film adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower finally made its way to the big screen this weekend, earning a modest $19.5 million at the box office.

The project, directed by Danish helmer Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair), is based on King's eight-book fantasy series about the world's last gunslinger (Idris Elba) who is determined to hunt down the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey) in order to protect the Dark Tower. It moved from director to director over the years (J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard were both attached to direct at different points), and studio to studio (it was previously at Universal before landing at Sony, with backing from Media Rights Capital). By all accounts, it was a challenging story to crack because it's based on King's massive and complicated world that he created over eight books.

"It’s just an introduction to the world; it’s not the whole world or all the books," Sony Motion Picture Group chairman Tom Rothman told THR at the film's premiere. "The credit goes to MRC, [screenwriter] Akiva [Goldsman] and Nikolaj Arcel — I think they were the ones that cracked it creatively and realized that the way to do it is not to try to eat the entire feast all at once, but to maybe just start with the first course."

Before the first course was served, however, the filmmakers were already busy preparing the second — which would be served on a smaller screen. The film installment (with a budget of $60 million) is just the first step in what the producers hope can be a massive, cross-platform cinematic and TV universe.

The wheels are already in motion: MRC and Sony Pictures Television Studios recently tapped Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) as the showrunner for the potential TV series, as THR reported. Producers MRC and Sony are aiming for a 10- to 13-episode per season series as they search for a cable network or streaming service to call home. The plan, for now, is to begin production in 2018, though it is technically still in the early development stages.

The idea of a cross-platform universe was first hatched more than a decade ago when Howard came on to direct the film with Goldsman attached to write.

"It was Ron Howard's idea, and at the time it was pretty revolutionary," says Goldsman, who had been talking to Howard about the project as far back as 2001, when the two were working together on A Beautiful Mind(which Goldsman wrote and Howard directed). "What Ron came up with was this idea that the stories had different sizes, which is part of what's interesting in Dark Tower — it can be really epic but the stories can also be very small and personal. He said, 'What if we told the stories on platforms that were commensurate with the narrative?'"

More at the link.

 

[B33]

jerk_off_motion.jpg

 

[Noisepurge]

Give it to Netflix, will watch. The film was already very entertaining.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

I suppose it could happen. Mortal Instruments had an even worse opening weekend and they still made that Shadowhunters tv series.

The big risk is you might poison the well even more. If the movie is mediocre and then the show is too, you've really engrained that impression of The Dark Tower into people's minds.

 

[Discotheque]

some random swedish director for the movie and now Glen Mazarra to handle the show. man fuck the guys in charge of this property. its almost like they're intently shitting on it at this point.

really surprised it managed to land Elba and McConaughey together.

 

[groansey]

Retirement.

 

[jon bones]

fire rothman and / or sell sony pictures

have new studio start again

i want a dark tower cu and a dark cu but this & the mummy are fast ways for me to ignore them from day 1

 

[waveuponwave]

I loved Wizard and Glass and the other DT flashbacks, but from the reviews it sounds like Roland is just a side character in the film. Will people really be interested in his backstory if his present self hasn't been properly introduced?

 

[SpaceWolf]

Nothing. It's done.

Now we just have to wait for the television reboot.

 

[torre_avenue]

Don't count out the TV series yet, naysayers.

There was an unusual question in the exit survey for The Dark Tower this weekend, with moviegoers asked whether they were interested in a Dark Tower TV series. It was included in the survey by MRC, which is set to co-produce the series with Sony TV. The result was that 83% of The Dark Tower film audience indicated that they were definitely/probably interested in a TV series.