New Series In Development As THE DARK TOWER Looks To Stay Standing On The Small Screen
Take what you will from the current outlook of director Nikolaj Arcel’s new movie, The Dark Tower. It may not appear as optimistic as one would hope, as THR suggests, but that doesn’t appear to be hindering Sony Pictures TV any in its own advancement of a small screen carry-over.
The company, along with Media Rights Captial and Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) is reportedly eyeing a ten-to-thirteen episode first season with Mazzara serving as showrunner for a 2018 production launch. Aiming as a show seperate from the film save for some overlap, the series will focus on the origins of Roland the Gunslinger and The Man In Black by way of the fourth book in the series, Wizard Of Glass.
per StephenKing.com
Part IV of an epic quest. Roland the Gunslinger and his followers have to contend with a sentient monorail intent on killing itself and taking them with it. While seeking to return to the Path of the Beam that will lead them to the Dark Tower, Roland tells his friends a story about the tragic loss of his first love, Susan Delgado.
Said overlap could include appearances by three of the film’s cast: Idiris Elba as Roland, Dennis Haysbert who plays Roland’s father, and actor Tom Taylor as Roland’s son-like figure, Jake Chambers. Executive producing are Weed Road Pictures’s own Akiva Goldsman and president of production Gregory Lessans along with Imagine TV’s Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are also on board as executive producers while Mazzara scripts and oversees day-to-day operations.
“I’ve been a Stephen King fan for decades and the opportunity to adapt The Dark Tower as a TV series is a great honor,” Mazzara tells THR. “The events of The Gunslinger, Wizard & Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole, and other tales need a long format to capture the complexity of Roland’s coming of age — how he became the Gunslinger, how Walter became the Man in Black, and how their rivalry cost Roland everything and everyone he ever loved. I could not be more excited to tell this story. It feels like being given the key to a treasure chest. And oh yeah, we’ll have billy-bumblers!”