After countless false starts over the years, we learned last month that Sony was eying Nikolaj Arcel to direct a big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, and now it seems the director has been officially hired. Read on for the latest.
Deadline reports out of Comic-Con that Sony Pictures and Media Rights Capital just closed the deal with Arcel to direct The Dark Tower, Stephen King’s long-gestating novel series set in a world woven with magic and revolving around the gunslinger Roland Deschain.
Arcel, the Danish helmer of the Oscar-nominated film A Royal Affair, and also the co-writer of the Swedish version of the Stieg Larsson novel The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, has enlisted fellow Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen to work together on a rewrite of the script, the last draft of which was written by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner.
Sony will distribute what is planned to be the first in a series of movies. A complementary TV series is also being developed by MRC. Producing are Weed Road’s Goldsman and Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Erica Huggins. King is also a producer.
First installment of The Dark Tower focuses on the first book in the series, The Gunslinger, establishing the relationship between Roland and young protege Jake Chambers.
After a quick pass at the script, they will start casting the gunslinger, and the young protege.