THE DARK TOWER TV Series Finds Support
As audiences were preparing for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower to arrive in theaters this past weekend, it was announced that The Walking Dead’s Glen Mazzara has been tapped to be the showrunner for The Dark Tower television series. This news comes just after San Diego Comic-Con when it was revealed Idris Elba was committed to participating as well.
The show would be a filler between the movies, independent of their stories and taking place many years before them. The series will be based off Wizard and Glass, the fourth book of The Dark Tower series, as well as flashbacks from the first book, The Gunslinger, focusing on young Roland Deshcain’s (Elba) origin story.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mazzara states:
I’ve been a Stephen King fan for decades, and the opportunity to adapt The Dark Tower as a TV series is a great honor. The events of The Gunslinger, Wizard and Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole and other tales needs a long format to capture the complexity of Roland’s coming of age – how he became the Gunslinger, how Walter became the Man in Black, and how their rivalry cost Roland Everything and everyone he ever loved. I could not be more excited to tell this story. It feels like being given the key to a treasure chest. And oh yeah, we’ll have billy-bumbers!
The series was announced in 2015 as a package deal between Sony Pictures Television and Media Rights Capital. The TV adaptation is in its early stages and no network has been attached yet. It is rumored to that the seasons will be between 10-13 episodes each and that the companies would like to partner with a cable or streaming network for a 2018 production start. It has also been noted that the first episode has been written.
Nikolaj Arcel, who directed the movie is also penning the TV script with Anders Thomas Jensen. Imagine TV’s Ron Howard and Brian Grazer will executive produce with Akiva Goldsman and Gregory Lessans from Weed Road Pictures. Other stars from the film that are slated to appear in the series with Elba are Dennis Haysbert (as Roland’s father, Steven Deschain) and Tom Taylor (Jake Chambers, the son-like figure to the Gunslinger).
Other projects Mazzara has been attached to include Damien, Crash, The Shield, and Life.
