Stephen Hopkins to direct the pilot for Amazon’s Dark Tower show

Amazon Studios has ordered a pilot episode of The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Stephen King’s massive fantasy series. The story follows Roland Deschain, a Gunslinger — the last Gunslinger, in fact — on a quest to find the Dark Tower, a place said to be the center of all universes. Along the way, he faces the villainous Man in Black in a classic good versus evil plot.

News about the show has been scarce at best. We know that Sam Strike (Nightflyers) will play Roland Deschain, and Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings) will play the Man in Black. We’ve even seen some behind-the-scenes photos from the set, which seems to suggest the pilot episode will deal with Roland’s past as detailed in the fourth book, Wizard and Glass.

Now, thanks to a minor mention from Deadline, we know who is directing the pilot episode: Stephen Hopkins, who cut his teeth directing episodes of 24 and movies like The Ghost and the Darkness.

That’s it, that’s the news. I told you it was scarce.

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King’s Dark Tower series is eight books strong, and ties in many of his other books — the Man in Black may be Randall Flagg, the villain in The Stand, who will be played by Alexander Skarsgard in an upcoming CBS All Access series. The Dark Tower is basically an exploration of the King multiverse. Sony crapped out a movie version in 2017, but the less said about that the better.

If Hopkins offers up a great pilot episode, then Amazon may snap it up and add The Dark Tower to its growing catalog of ambitious fantasy shows like Carnival Row, The Wheel of Time, and The Lord of the Rings. They’re gonna find the next Game of Thrones if it bankrupts them, dagnabbit.

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