Sony to Bring Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER to the Big Screen and Television

The newest screen adaptation of Stephen King's work is years in the making, and now it will get a double-release.

After Warner Bros. dropped the ball on their plans from 2012 to release THE DARK TOWER, Sony has picked up the books to create not only a film trilogy, but a mini-series on television.

"I'm excited that The Dark Tower is finally going to appear on the screen," said THE SHINING author of the adaptations of the eight-book series. "Those who have traveled with Roland and his friends in their search for the Dark Tower are going to have their long-held hopes fully realized. This is a brilliant and creative approach to my books."

This newest version has an entirely new screenplay by Akiva Goldsman (CINDERELLA MAN) and Jeff Pinker (LOST), which takes a look more specifically at the relationship between Roland and Jake.

Sony chairman Tom Rothman said, "There are few projects out there that compare with the scope, vision, complex characters and fully drawn world that Stephen King has created with The Dark Tower."

Russell Crowe and Javier Bardem are rumored to be interested in the lead role in the project, though no official casting has been announced as of yet.

"I am a giant fan," Rothman continued. "And, as Stephen himself does, we love the direction that Akiva and Jeff have taken. This is a great opportunity for a director to put his or her stamp on a cool global franchise."

The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, Science fantasy, horror, and Western. It describes a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King has described the series as his magnum opus. In addition to the eight novels of the series proper that comprise 4,250 pages, many of King's other books relate to the story, introducing concepts and characters that come into play as the series progresses. A series of prequel comics followed the completion of the novels.

The series was chiefly inspired by the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning, whose full text was included in the final volume's appendix. In the preface to the revised 2003 edition of The Gunslinger, King also identifies The Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as inspirations. He identifies Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character as one of the major inspirations for the protagonist, Roland Deschain. King's style of location names in the series, such as Mid-World, and his development of a unique language abstract to our own (High Speech), are also influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien's work.

In 2009, King announced an eighth book, The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole. December 7, 2009 saw the release of a spin-off online game titled Discordia. As of 2010 more than 30 million copies of the series have been sold in 40 countries. A live-action adaptation was announced in September 2010, consisting of alternating feature films and television series. The project was reportedly cancelled in July 2011, but in October 2011, it was announced that the film was still on track, and that the television series was slated to air on HBO.

On March 13, 2012, it was reported that Warner Bros. was interested in making at least the first film, and would be in prime position to green-light the TV element through its sister company, HBO. Javier Bardem was originally set to play Roland, but the role was subsequently offered to Russell Crowe. Initial reports indicated filming was going to commence as early as the first quarter of 2013. Warner Bros. has since passed on the project, but Media Rights Capital has entered talks to distribute it.

Stephen King saw the Dark Tower series as a first draft. He planned to rewrite it to eliminate continuity errors and possibly remove himself from the later books, but after revising The Gunslinger, he decided a rewrite for the entire series was no longer necessary.

Source: Daily Mail