If you're as big a fan of Stephen King's
The Dark Tower series as I am, the idea that we could just be days away from
Javier Bardem signing a contract that ties him to THREE feature films and TWO t.v. mini-series' over the next few years as Roland Deschain, The Gunslinger, well I'm sure it fills you with unbridled excitement. If Universal and producer/director Ron Howard manage to pull off what they are attempting here it will surely go down as one of the greatest casting coups in the history of franchise cinema. Aside from de-aging Clint Eastwood by nearly five decades, and perhaps maybe casting Viggo Mortensen, I can't imagine anyone more perfect for Roland - his electrifying screen presence, his ability to play a world-weary and troubled loner and his sheer physical size and that Anton Chigurh beady-eyed death stare... all sound like a great fit for this Man With No Name-esque anti-hero.
OWF's Dan Balvin spoke about Bardem's possible casting a little earlier and I'm not here to repeat but a source at
AICN has heard interesting talk of Universal trying to nail down a May 13th, 2013 release date for the first film in the saga - The Gunslinger.
There are genuine plans for a May 13th, 2013, release theatrical, with T.V. hours to follow. there is no green light in place yet, as the scripts are not done, which means the budgets are not done, but Universal is giving very strong support. There's also a very ambitious Game component being planned that will further utilize elements from the books. , it looks like things are coming together for a late-summer or early-September start.
What that 'Game component' is exactly, is anyone's guess. Earlier yesterday there was much chatter about Viggo Mortensen being eyed for Roland but it now looks like
he's off to play The Huntsman in a new Snow White live-action film, starring alongside the Twilight girl. OK! One casting suggestion I liked a lot came from OWF reader Dan's earlier post yesterday;
I think Viggo, Bardem, and Bale are the right 3 guys, but its a matter of the roles they should be playing. Viggo should be Roland, Bardem should be the Man in Black, Bale as Eddie.
Can you imagine Viggo, Bardem & Bale as the three principal characters in such an epic-sized Dark Tower? Would I ever need to see a film again after that? The journey to The Dark Tower is proving to be exciting so far...