Corona | Coming Attractions

Fianancier company Media Rights Capital is talking with the producing team for The Dark Tower about stepping up to fund the production of the three movies and two television series. If a deal can be reached, it might go a long way to bridge the divide between Hollywood studios' trepadation to come onboard and be a partner in making the show.

Media Rights Capital is coming off a huge success. The company funded Ted, the $30 million dollar Seth Macfarlane comedy that grossed more than $200 million at theaters.

If a movie based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower is to be made one day, it will not happen at Warner Bros. The studio has decided to pass on making the proposed movies/television series, leaving the project still without a studio.

What this may mean for the future of the project is unclear, and whether Russell Crowe will remain attached to it if Imagine pursues other possible partners.

The Dark Tower project refuses to lay down and die. In an update about the status of the project, we learn that a new draft is about to be turned in to Warner Bros. by Akiva Goldsman. However, what's bigger news is that Javier Bardem has dropped out of wanting to play Roland the gunslinger. The Dark Tower producers have found a new leading man and it's someone that they have worked with before: Russell Crowe.

Crowe starred in A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man, both projects that The Dark Tower creative team members made. At this point it's important to remember that Crowe is merely attached to the project and not officially signed just yet.

Even with Universal Pictures dismissing The Dark Tower from its consideration, director Ron Howard and producing partner Brian Grazer aren't giving up on their plans to make the three movies and two television series.

Grazer tells The New York Post that they are looking to independent partners to raise the funding to make the Dark Tower movie, and are also shopping the two sister TV series to other networks -- including the possibility of the series appearing on Netflix.

Still, the Universal rejection has put a time delay into the production plans. Howard is now going to move ahead and make a movie about Formula One racing superstar Niki Lauda this year, which means the earliest that The Dark Tower could move into filming now would be in June 2012.

Crippling news about this project broke today when the Deadline website reported that Universal has passed on making the project. According to reporter Mike Fleming, the studio would only commit to making the first movie and then see what the audience response would be to it before greenlighting the first companion television series. Fleming said that the studio brass liked the project, the creators, the script and the casting of Javier Bardem as Roland, but they still wouldn't commit to anything more than the first film.

Deadline reports that the Dark Tower movie/TV project could find a new home at Warner Bros. where Akiva Goldsman has his production company and where its sister company New Line Cinema is presently making The Hobbit duology of films. Still, this news is a major blow to the project and one that it might not recover from, at least for the current Ron Howard-led incarnation of it.

Deadline is reporting that Javier Bardem is very close to signing and is virtually a lock to play King's gunslinger. Bardem's deal is for three movies and appearances in the two TV series (which we learn are prequels to the main action) that will run between feature installments. Word is that the deal is so close to being done that director Ron Howard is already looking at actors who would fit well with Bardem as Roland.

Filming on The Gunslinger, the first of The Dark Tower films, is scheduled to commence in September.

Remember yeswterday when we reported that Christian Bale was supposedly the frontrunner to play Roland the Gunslinger in the movie? According to Deadline, that's not right and the part has been offered to Javier Bardem, not Bale.

"While formal negotiations haven't yet begun, there's a high level of enthusiasm internally that they've got their cowboy," writes Deadline's Mike Fleming.

Nothing official has been announced yet since Bardem is now supposed to be in contract negotiations with Universal.

Casting rumors have surfaced from a well-known NYC newspaper that peg Christian Bale (The Dark Knight, The Fighter) as the favored choice of director Ron Howard to play Roland. The paper states that Bale has now passed Javier Bardem and Viggo Mortensen as the best candidate to play the Gunslinger, and that Dexter actress Jennifer Morrison and Morrocan actress Ghita Tazi are also being considered to play the role of Susannah, one of the ka-tet in Roland's group.

What makes the casting rumors unusual is that both Morrison and Tazi aren't black, and the part of Susannah in Stephen King's novels is very specifically that of a black woman.

While there's still been no casting announcements, Universal has slotted a tentative release date for the first Dark Tower film: May 17, 2013.

Dark Tower creator Stephen King weighs in on the new plan to turn his septology of fantasy novels into three movies and two seasons of television episodes. "I always thought it would take more than a single movie, but I didn't see this solution coming," said the author.

Does it bother him that we won't get to see The Dark Tower made into seven feature length films? "I don't see that as a problem at all! We’ll have just enough latitude to make a great series," the author told Entertainment Weekly. "I've worked in network TV before, and every time I was squeezed a little, it just made me look for creative solutions. Besides, I always like to play in the biggest auditorium available!"

As for who he thinks would make the best candidates to play the ka-tet, King only had solid ideas about two of them. "I haven't got as far as casting in my thoughts, but when I write about Susannah Dean, I always kind of see Angela Bassett in my mind's eye," he said.

As for the other character King has an idea of, it's for Blaine the Mono -- and King wants to provide his own voice for that crazy train.

It's a creative deal like no other: Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television have agreed to work with director Ron Howard, producer Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman on a complete telling of Stephen King's seven volume book series The Dark Tower. The plan is for Howard to direct the first movie in the adaptation, which will be followed by a season's worth of television episodes that continue the story. That in turn will be followed by a second movie (again continuing the Dark Tower story) and a second season's worth of TV episodes, except this time the story will move back in time and feature a younger actor playing the main character, gunslinger Roland Deschain. Finally, all will be revealed and wrapped up in a third and final theatrical movie.

"The scope and scale call for a big screen budget. But if you committed only to films, you'd deny the audience the intimacy and nuance of some of these characters and a lot of cool twists and turns that make for jaw-dropping, compelling television," Howard said to Deadline's Mike Fleming, who broke the story. "We've put some real time and deep thought into this, and a lot of conversations and analysis from a business standpoint, to get people to believe in this and take this leap with us. I hope audiences respond to it in a way that compels us to keep going after the first year or two of work. It's fresh territory for me, as a filmmaker."

Howard plans on directing the first movie and the first season's worth of episodes...wait, he wants to direct an entire season of The Dark Tower TV show? That's what Deadline reports, albeit it would be hard to imagine any director committing to that sort of grueling schedule. Goldsman is writing the script for the first movie. "We will certainly be looking to maximize both creative and fiscal opportunities by creating one enterprise that encompasses TV and movies," Goldsman told the online outlet. "Some of the shooting will likely encompass both platforms, and that has never been done before. It's thrilling, we feel like kids in a candy story." [Full story]