King's 'Dark Tower' to be film, TV series

Stephen King's epic Dark Tower saga will be turned into a movie and TV series by Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment.

The cross-platform deal, which took months to complete, will see A Beautiful Mind director Ron Howard helm the first movie and the first season of the TV series. Howard's Imagine Entertainment team are spearheading the venture with Brian Grazer and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman producing alongside King.

The TV series will arrive soon after the first movie, a second feature will then be produced followed by another season on TV, focusing on central character Roland Deschain as a younger man.

Speaking to Deadline, Howard likened his ambitious undertaking to Peter Jackson filming the Lord Of The Rings trilogy back-to-back.

He said: “What Peter did was a feat, cinematic history. The approach we’re taking also stands on its own, but it’s driven by the material. I love both, and like what’s going on in TV. With this story, if you dedicated to one medium or another, there’s the horrible risk of cheating material.

"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.

"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.”

The team behind Lost - J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse - picked up the Dark Tower rights from King in 2007 for $19 but returned them when they were unable to condense the dense plot into something workable for film.