Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" seven-book series' adaption into a film and TV has been hit with two setbacks. Warner Bros who were in talks to take over the project after Universal dropped it announced they too are not interested in the project.
But there is breather. Reports from Deadline suggest that Media Rights Capital is now in talks to make the film.
MRC's co-founder, Mordecai Wiczyk is said to be a huge fan of the King's series. The company has the money to make such an ambitious film. Its latest was "Ted" starring Mark Wahlberg which was a summer hit. Their next project is "Elysium" staring Matt Damon.
The film was to be produced under the Imagine Entertainment banner by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, putting Howard in the director's chair and King as another producer. Warner Bros was the best chance the series had to get off the ground. But MRC will continue with the same setup of the director and producers.
Universal was deep into the planning stage for the movie when they pulled out in July 2011 due to high budget demanded by the film. Nobody took it up for eight months until Warner Bros began talks to make three movies and two limited series TV parts. HBO was the likely TV partner.
Russell Crowe had shown his interest to play the gunslinger Roland Deschain who roams in search of dark tower. He hopes reaching it will help his world from dying out.
"The Dark Tower, to me, and I'm not unbiased because I'm the writer on this thing, but to me it looks like gold on the ground waiting to be picked up," author King said after Warner Bros. passed on the film.
