Warner Bros Moving Ahead With ‘The Dark Tower’? Russell Crowe Eyed To Play Roland Deschain

When Universal Pictures dropped out of funding a multi-platform presentation of Stephen King eight-volume post-apocalyptic epic ‘The Dark Tower’ last year, Warner Bros were mentioned as a possible home for the project. Deadline now reveal that Warner Bros is getting a new script from Akiva Goldsman for the first installment of Stephen King’s mammoth Western, and that within two weeks, the studio will be making a decision on whether to green light the first leg of one of the most daring and ambitious projects to come along since ‘The Lord Of The Rings.’ Ron Howard has been long-attached to direct the film, with Javier Bardem originally lined up to star as gunslinger Roland Deschain. Deadline are now reporting that Bardem is no longer in the mix as Deschain, with director Ron Howard and producers Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman looking into their ‘A Beautiful Mind’ star Russell Crowe to play Deschain.

‘The Dark Tower’ is planned to be told through three films and two limited run TV series. The story follows Roland Deschain as he travels through an Old West-like landscape in search of the mythical Dark Tower to save civilization. Along the way, he encounters characters, good and bad, in a world that has an old West feel.  The movie has been searching for new backing since Universal let it go last July. Fingers crossed we get some solid information regarding the project sooner rather than later. Russell Crowe will next be seen on the big screen in RZA’s ‘The Man with the Iron Fists,’ Allen Hughes’ crime-thriller ‘Broken City,’ as Javert in Tom Hooper’s ‘Les Misérables,’ and as Jor-El in Zack Snyder’s Superman movie, ‘Man of Steel.’ The actor is currently filming Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Noah’ as the titular character. Check out the synopsis for ‘The Dark Tower’ below.

The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it. 

In Roland’s where and when, the world has already begun to move on. Time and direction are in drift, and the fabric of reality is fraying. However, things are about to get much worse. The six invisible magnetic Beams, which maintain the alignment of time, space, size, and dimension, are weakening. Because of this, the Tower itself is foundering. Unless Roland can find a way to save the Beams and stabilize the Tower, all of reality will blink out of existence. 

Inspired in equal parts by Robert Browning’s poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western classics, The Dark Tower series is an epic of Arthurian proportions. It is Stephen King’s magnum opus, and is the center of his amazing creative universe.