Stephen King's seven-novel series, The Dark Tower, will not be spun off into a Lord of the Rings- or Harry Potter-esque megafranchise -- at least not at Universal.
The studio faced a deadline that forced it to either hop aboard and commence work in earnest on a massive movie-/TV-adaptation venture or pass altogether; alas, it chose the latter.
The decision, or lack thereof, leaves the ambitious project -- which had Ron Howard attached to direct, uber-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman attached to pen the script, and Javier Bardem attached to the lead role -- in limbo.
In May, there were rumors of both an early 2012 start date and a flat-out scrapping of the series. Looks like one of the rumors proved true, but some studio will (be f$&#ing insane not to) bite on this one at some point.
Source: Deadline