I say this without an ounce of fanboy hyperbole or exaggeration. Stephen King's inventive sci-fi westerner
The Gunslinger is my absolute favourite novel of all time - a book that led me to seek out the Sergio Leone movies (subsequently The Dollars trilogy now my favorite of all time) simply by it's introductory notes, and I fell in love with the wider works of the great author himself. A book that etched itself into my creative soul when I first read it during my university days (where I actually skipped a few days of classes just to finish the series off, I was so addicted!), and I've literally been dreaming and playing fantasy casting ever since - debating with myself as to whether an epic LOTR style film trilogy or HBO/NBC series would be the best way to adapt the seven book magnum opus. But one thing that never entered my mind was a blending of the two... a film trilogy AND an NBC series!! And that's exactly the cross-platform epic that awaits us... First announced
back in April, and now confirmed with more details by
Mike Fleming at Deadline -- The Dark Tower has called director
Ron Howard who will officially helm the first of Universal's ambitious Churchill-like war strategy for unleashing this universe onto the masses. Howard will helm the first feature film, an adaptation of The Gunslinger - before directing the whole closely followed first season of a t.v. adaptation (which will be The Drawing of the Three, with it's lobster monsters and the coolest ever written scene on an aeroplane) and then followed by ANOTHER film (The Wolves of the Calla) - with more t.v. seasons and a final film to cap it off. WOW. An unprecedented and ambitious under-taking from Universal!
The future directors have yet to be announced, but I'm glad Howard (who is creatively spearheading this whole venture) has decided to kick it off via his own hand. Howard is a director I've always enjoyed for his matter-of-fact, almost 1940's style honest direction that always looks for the emotionality behind the scenes, usually in the form of his performing actors. It's no surprise the likes of Russell Crowe, Tom Hanks and Frank Langella have all enjoyed some of their finest hours in front of his hands. There's no doubt his filmography suits the Western part of the genre more than the insane fantasy latter segments. However, as Quint points out in
his passionate piece at AICN - it's important that Howard thinks of this series as "this is going to be my legacy" because if he doesn't put his blood, sweat and tears into this series - like Peter Jackson and George Lucas have before him with their signature series - and indeed King himself when he wrote the novels over the decades - then it wouldn't live up to it's potential. And for someone who hates missed opportunities, and with a venture that's only going to get one stab at a live screen adaptation - don't we want it to be perfect?
Sure, in my fantasy bubble I would have maybe looked at magic to try and resurrect Sergio Leone to direct and for Clint Eastwood circa 1966 to star (HEY - this is fantasy casting!!) but given the hundreds of hacks and creative wackoo's that could have got their hands on this property - give me Ron Howard over them any day of the week. Sam Raimi/Guillermo del Toro or Jean-Pierre Jeunet might have been more awe-inspiring names but I'm not troubled at all by the man who we did get. But as I say... he has to believe this is what his career has been building towards. What I am troubled by is the choice of writer -
Akiva Goldsman. He has already botched two of my beloved franchises (Batman & Robin, Lost in Space) - and maybe more worryingly for the mean time, he was a producer on Jonah Hex and allowed star Josh Brolin (who by the way, would be awesome for this series) to run a mock and make all the critical casting/creative decisions. With Howard here, Goldsman's off-screen weaknesses will be less prominent and if you look at the screenplays they have worked together on over the years (A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man) then Howard sure knows how to get the best out of him (and maybe vice-versa).
Logistics wise, this whole venture is going to ask a great deal of any major actor - with an extraordinary amount of time commitment for whomever is chosen to portray Roland Deschain - the lead, so you can rule out most film stars. Though unlike Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter movies, this will of course be filmed in much quicker succession - I'm guessing it'll be back-to-back for an almost non-stop production. The Dark Tower then blends two of my favourite genres, sci-fi and western - and it's the Tolkien book for my generation. I've been dreaming of an adaptation for nearly a decade - so it goes without saying I'm a very happy man this morning.