The ambitious journey of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" book series to the bigscreen and TV has hit another setback, as Warner Bros., which had been in talks to take it on after Universal let it go, has also decided to not move forward.
Ron Howard would direct and produce along with Brian Grazer and King through Grazer and Howard's Imagine Entertainment banner. Warner Bros. had no comment.
Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman had recently delivered his latest draft for the film's first installment and Russell Crowe had shown interest in playing the lead if Warners gave the film a greenlight.
Series revolves around gunslinger Roland Deschain who roams an Old West-like landscape in search of a dark tower, in hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world.
Grazer and Howard's idea for taking on the series would involve three films and two limited run TV series. HBO would possibly handle the TV series component since both it and WB are owned by TimeWarner.
Imagine is still able to take the project back out to other studios, but this latest news is a blow to the film's future -- when Universal first let go of the film, most insiders around town believed WB was its best chance of getting made.