It appears that Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Akiva Goldsman’s massive adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower western fantasy novels, which Universal had developed and then dropped (see “Universal Abandons Dark Tower”), is back on with Warner Bros. close to deal to produce the first Dark Tower film.  The massive project originally involved a trilogy of movies with two bridging TV series. With Warner’s sister company HBO airing the Dark Tower TV series (see “Dark Tower on HBO”), it makes all the sense in the world to have the Dark Tower movies at Warners.

 

According to Deadline, Javier Bardem is still attached to star as Roland Deschain, and Ron Howard is planning to direct the Dark Tower feature.  Warners is basically buying Goldsman’s script for the first of three planned Dark Tower movies.  Deadline reports that production on the first Dark Tower feature could begin in the first quarter of 2013.