'Dark Tower' to Stay at Universal with Lower Budget

1:06 PM PDT 5/13/2011 by Borys Kit

Comments

'Dark Tower'

The massive Universal-Imagine-NBC adaptation of Stephen King¹s mystical Western opus hit snags last week with some reports claiming that project was in turnaround.

Dark Tower is staying at Universal.

At least for now.

The massive Universal-Imagine-NBC adaptation of Stephen King's mystical Western opus hit snags last week with some reports claiming that project was in turnaround.

The project did hit budgetary snags and the fall start date was shelved. But Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman have regrouped to try to bring the budget down.

Insiders say the end result is that Goldsman is now rewriting the script to reflect a lower price point. No start date has been given although it will certainly not be the fall.

What that does to the involvement of Javier Bardem, who was attached to star in the first movie and the first TV arc, is unclear.

Dark Tower is to be a film trilogy with a TV component in between the movies. Howard has committed to direct the movie and the first episode of the show, with Goldsman writing all three movies.