Personally speaking, I will be flabbergasted if the
NY Post 'source' that is today leaking the rumour that
Javier Bardem is 'leading the pack' to star in
The Dark Tower, with
Viggo Mortensen running a 'close' second, is anything other than a re-tread of
Ron Howard's public name-dropping of the fanboy wishlist to
The L.A. Times two weeks ago. More probable, I suggest, than Bardem & Mortensen circling the lead role is The NY Post publishing a story they themselves probably don't herald much faith in because they need to fill movie news column inches during the holiday down time. Personally, I think we are months away from Howard, Universal and NBC getting serious about the casting decisions for this grand universe whose introduction film we won't see until 2013. To recap then, The Dark Tower is Universal and NBC's ambitious and totally unprecedented multi-platform adaptation of
Stephen King's expansive fantasy/western/sci-fi seven novel series and will be comprised of three full-length feature films and two full t.v. seasons of considerable running time. Kicking off in 2013 will be a film adaptation of King's first novel "The Gunslinger "and some time later a t.v. series covering book 2, "The Drawing of the Three", and possibly book 3, "The Wastelands". Howard's screenwriter on the Robert Langdon movies (and once upon a time Batman & Robin scribe)
Akiva Goldsman is adapting The Gunslinger and t.v. season 1 for Howard to direct both... but it's unclear yet as to whether the two men will continue filling those roles for the second feature, the second t.v. season and then ultimately film three, the finale. A fortnight ago Howard announced that the online world was crying out for Mortensen,
Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman and
Jon Hamm as their top choices for Roland Deschain, a determined gunslinger on a desperate search for the titular macguffin which he believes holds the key to the meaning of the universe, or at least his universe. The sheer amount of work needed for whomever will eventually play Roland is one hell of a commitment for an actor, almost like shooting two
LOTR trilogies back-to-back and I don't think Viggo Mortensen is going to be interesting in going there again, as perfect as he is for the role. And Bardem ain't going to do it either. Too many art movies to make, too many varying characters he could play in that time. Both actors in recent years have graced us with two memorable world-weary, gun-wielding, deadly loners in Anton Chiggurh from
No Country For Old Men (Bardem) and appropriately 'The Man' from
The Road (Mortensen), appropriate because the lead character is a 90% based on Clint Eastwood's similarly anonymous 'Man With No Name' from Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy. If we had no other roles to go off from either actor... we would still think they were perfect for this.
But, sadly, I don't believe a word of this so called scoop today. However, I CAN BELIEVE that both actors top the Universal/NBC's wishlist but nothing more, for now. Howard and his team I'm guessing are more concerned right now with mapping out the epic tale they are going to deliver us this decade and at this point aren't overly concerned by what their cast will look like. At least not for a little while yet. However there won't be a happier person on the planet if early in the New Year I need to write up a story declaring how wrong I was and one of these two greats is chosen as Roland. Though bare in mind given the huge budget this project is going to cost Universal, the fact that it's going to take YEARS to make, don't hope too much for an A-lister. A steady, B-list actor like
Thomas Jane, who memorably painted Roland in the opening of
The Mist (The Stephen King adaptation where he played a movie poster artist like Drew Sturzan) is more likely the kind of name that will ultimately play Roland, I feel.
