I guess three extremely expensive epic fantasy series was too much? Deadline reports that Amazon has passed on the pilot for The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Stephen King’s epic fantasy series.
The Dark Tower was always going to be tricky to adapt. The eight-book series follows Roland Deschain, a member of a knightly order of gunslingers sworn to uphold peace in a world increasingly torn apart by war. The series incorporates elements of fantasy, science fiction and horror, and has an overall western feel. Deschain’s quest is to find the Dark Tower, which is said to connect all dimensions. It’s heady stuff, and has been adapted unsuccessfully before, as in the 2017 movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. I mean, no one liked that movie.
Showrunner/producer Glen Mazzara did give it a go, though. He cast Sam Strike as Deschain and Jasper Pääkkönen as the villainous Man in Black. The show was going to start by telling the story of the Deschain’s early years, exploring how he became a gunslinger. Michael Rooker, Jerome Flynn and Joana Ribeiro were also rumored to be among the cast. In the end, Amazon executives reportedly didn’t feel The Dark Tower pilot equaled the other two fantasy series they were making: The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time, so they set it free.
Production company MRC is apparently shopping around the scripts that were the basis for the pilot pickup, but I dunno if they’re gonna go anywhere. There are a lot of shows competing right now to inherit Game of Thrones’ crown as TV’s top fantasy series, and we’re starting to see that not all of them can make it. Just a few weeks ago, Hulu passed on making a sprawling series based on Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles books, and Showtime opted not to make a show based on Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicle.
So The Dark Tower is out, for now. I suppose genre fans will have to be satisfied with The Witcher, The Mandalorian, The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time, His Dark Materials, Sandman, Shadow and Bone, Locke & Key, Gormenghast, Star Trek: Picard, Earthsea, and House of the Dragon. Fine, I guess.
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