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Weed Road and Imagine Entertainment are seeking the rights to Stephen King’s seven-book series The Dark Tower.
An intermingling of spaghetti westerns and fantasies like Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower is set in an alternate world which resembles the Old West, but adds magic into the mix. The series focuses on a “gunslinger,” the last of his kind, a member of an ancient order. He is on a quest to find a tower which is a nexus to other universes. The series was published between 1982 and 2004.
Universal Pictures (who owns Imagine Entertainment) and Warner Brothers (who owns Weed Road) are currently competing for the project. Plans are to begin with a film trilogy and lead into a television series. Right now, both are in the process of development. However, no deals have been made just yet.
Original plans for the film trilogy include the same group of people who adapted Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons from novel to screen. Akiva Goldsman is set to write the script and Brian Grazer to produce, with Ron Howard sitting in the director’s chair.
The Dark Tower has also been published as a five-part series of graphic novels from Marvel Comics. Released from December 2009 through April 2010, there are plans to publish all five parts as a hardcover compilation sometime this year.
King is also involved in the creation of a pilot for the SyFy channel called “Haven.” Adam Kane (The Mentalist, Heroes) is set to direct. They are currently under production in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, which is being used to represent the fictional town of Haven, Maine. Cast members include Emily Rose (of ER fame) who plays an FBI agent trying to solve the murder of a local Maine ex-convict. Lucas Bryant, Eric Balrouf, Richard Donat, and John Dunsworth are also set to appear.
