A few weeks ago Ron Howard, who had been developing The Dark Tower movie for a very long time, confirmed that a Dark Tower TV series based on the Stephen King books was still in development. Today, in honor of Stephen King’s birthday, the producers have confirmed that the show is indeed happening and that it will be based off of the fourth novel in the series, Wizard and Glass.
Entertainment Weekly got word from production company MRC and The Dark Tower movie producer and co-screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman that the series is definitely happening, even though they have yet to find a home for it. MRC and Sony Pictures have already committed to 10 to 13 episodes of the show, depending on how the scripts shake out. The story of Wizard and Glass is very dark, so network television is out of the question. It will have to find a home on a cable network or a streaming service. MRC does have a good relationship with Netflix thanks to House of Cards, so that could be an option.
While The Dark Tower show will have to do a lot of casting, the central cast members of the movie are expected to reprise their roles for the show as well. Idris Elba, who plays The Gunslinger in the movie, has already signed on for the series alongside Tom Taylor, who plays Jack Chamber in the movie. Matthew McConaughey, who plays the semi-immortal bad guy Walter in the movie, has not signed on for the show yet, but it is still a possibility he could join up. The Dark Tower is a sprawling series, but here is what Wizard and Glass is specifically about, via the description of the book on Amazon.
“Roland and his band of followers have narrowly escaped one world and slipped into the next. There Roland tells them a tale of long-ago love and adventure involving a beautiful and quixotic woman named Susan Delgado. And there they will be drawn into an ancient mystery of spellbinding magic and supreme menace…”
The Dark Tower movie has been confirmed to serve as a sequel to the novels by Stephen King, so this series will be anything but filler. There is a lot of story to tell within The Dark Tower series, which consists of eight books and a novella. So the interesting strategy to do a movie with a companion series will leave plenty of room for more movies and future season of the show, should consumers make it clear this is something they want to see more of.
Akiva Goldsman will serve as one of the executive producers, along with Jeff Pinkner, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The movie’s director, Nikolaj Arcel, and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen, are working on the script for the show and will also be executive producers. They are currently seeking a showrunner. The Dark Tower TV series will shoot next year with a plan for it to air in 2018, ideally around the time that the movie makes its way to cable and streaming services. The Dark Tower movie is set to hit theaters on February 17, 2017.