Bale, Bardem offered lead role in "Dark Tower"

[Truth.]

Christian Bale And Javier Bardem Reportedly In Contention For 'Dark Tower' Lead

Posted 2 hrs ago by Terri Schwartz in Casting Call, News

So much for the actor playing Roland Deschain in "The Dark Tower" adaptation being released last week. When MTV caught up with producer Brian Grazer after the Golden Globes, he said we would hear some casting announcements "within a week." But "within a week" has come and gone, and we still only have rumors.

Today, two different movie news sites announced two different actors being in the lead for the role, and interestingly enough, neither of them is fan-favorite Viggo Mortensen. Deadline got the exclusive that Javier Bardem, who was already rumored for the role, is the front-runner for the Gunslinger, while New York Post says the role is Christian Bale's to lose.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact both of these actors are current Oscar nominees, but it sounds like whichever man is chosen for the role will be a good selection.

Deadline heard that Bardem has officially been offered the lead role by director Ron Howard, though formal negotiations have not yet begun. The way Deadline is talking, this is almost a done deal, but we'll have to wait for an official confirmation.

NY Post, by contrast, could only say that Bale had "pulled ahead" of Bardem and Mortensen as Howard's first choice for the project. Slightly less convincing and official than Deadline's report, and slightly more unlikely.

But the Post is also saying that "Dexter" star Jennifer Carpenter and French/Moroccan star Ghita Tazi are rising on the short list for the role of Susannah, which is news we haven't heard yet. The last rumor we heard for Susannah was that Naomi Harris was in the lead. Sounds like now that Universal is (seemingly) zeroing in on its Roland, the studio is reading to start casting the film's other major roles.

[Mindbender Futurama]

fuck Bale

[Combo7]

Nice. Bale was my first choice.

[drizzle]

bardem is a better actor but he doesn't fit the character at all

[Combo7]

A fan created this and posted it on King's message board a while back. Some great choices here:

[Harry Hater]

actually....

[Truth.]

[quote]Javier Bardem Closing 'Dark Tower' Deal
BY MIKE FLEMING | Wednesday April 6, 2011 @ 8:45pm EDT

EXCLUSIVE: Javier Bardem is close to sealing his deal with Universal Pictures to play gunslinger Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, the mammoth adaptation of the Stephen King 7-novel series thatג€™ll span three movies and a limited run TV series in between each film. Director Ron Howard begins production on the first film in September, and heג€™ll also direct the first TV segment. Akiva Goldsman has scripted the film and the initial TV component. Imagine Entertainment chief Brian Grazer is producing the films with Goldsman and King. Goldsman will produce the TV part through his Weed Road banner.

Bardem, who won the Oscar for his ferocious portrayal of a hit man in

[drizzle]

shit, syked for this and him being a bond villain

[Combo7]

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2011/05/06/th ... on-howard/

Ron Howard's 'The Dark Tower' Trilogy Put On Hiatus, According To Reports

After several years and different versions of the project, it looked as if Ron Howard and his team at Imagine Entertainment were finally going to bring us to "The Dark Tower."

Now, not so sure. Several news outlets, including Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter, are hearing that Howard's ambitious plan to team with Universal for three film and two television adaptations of Stephen King's masterwork has been put on hold. Staff members working on the project have reportedly been put on "hiatus" as Universal contemplates ways to bring down the budget on the massive "Dark Tower" endeavor.

THR adds that Universal's current thinking regarding "Dark Tower" centers not just on budgetary concerns, but also a "creatively lacking" final portion of the project. The outlet indicates that the final call on whether or not to move forward is "expected soon." But Deadline reports that no matter what happens next, plans to start shooting in September have been scrapped.


Representatives at Universal have declined to comment on the report while Imagine president Michael Rosenberg has denied that the project has been shelved.

"'The Dark Tower' is not in turnaround," he tells THR. "There are issues and on-going budget discussions with almost every film in development."

My take, for whatever it's worth: there's no question that "The Dark Tower" is a monumental undertaking, as those familiar with the series well know. Howard's vision in particular is huge in scope and, most like, immensely expensive. Given the subject matter at the core of King's novels ג€” which, if you're at all familiar with the author and his work, is as gruesome and exhausting as it is fantastic and exhilarating ג€” it was always a long shot that the tale of Roland Deschain would ever successfully transition to the screen.

But with writers, directors, showrunners and, hell, Javier Bardem already attached, it seems a real shame to put "Dark Tower" back in the drawer. If Universal decides they can't see the project through ג€” a decision that, while disappointing, would be perfectly understandable given the big risks involved ג€” then I sincerely hope that another studio is ready, willing and eager to join Roland's ka-tet as he rides on towards the Tower. If not, well... we'll always have the books. For some fans, that's more than enough.

[Truth.]

Warner Bros. may pick up The Dark Tower by Sean O'Neal March 13, 2012

Ron Howardג€™s sprawling, mega-budget, multiplatform adaptation of Stephen Kingג€™s The Dark Tower proved too rich for Universalג€™s blood over the summer, but it may have found a new home at Warner Bros., where it can have a way bigger room and swim in a pool filled with Harry Potter and Batman money. Deadline reports that the studio has already hired Akiva Goldsman to put a second coat of polish on his script, and itג€™s currently working to secure a deal with Ron Howard to direct at least the first of the planned three feature films by 2013, with the two TV miniseries that will run in between presumed to land at Warner Bros.ג€™ sister studio HBO. Javier Bardem, previously a lock for the lead when the project was at Universal, is ostensibly also still attached, depending on how the timing works out. Itג€™s something of a surprise turnaround for the ambitious, expensive undertaking (particularly one with Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman as its undertakers), but probably not too surprising that the franchise-hungry, franchise-wealthy Warner Bros. would pick it upג€”especially given that it thinks Ben Affleck can even turn Kingג€™s The Stand into a franchise. At least Howardג€™s The Dark Tower already has its sequels and spinoffs mapped out.

[citizen]

wtf ron howard is going to direct this? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[Truth.]

Oscar winner Russell Crowe may replace Javier Bardem as gunslinger Roland Deschain in the long awaited adaptation of ג€œThe Dark Tower.ג€ Universal Pictures has dropped out. Now, Warner Bros. is apparently examining the idea. Itג€™s not a done deal by any means. First, Warner Bros. has solicited a script rewrite from Academy Award winning writer Akiva Goldsman (ג€œA Beautiful Mind,ג€ ג€œLost in Spaceג€) on the first installment in the series.

That plan would incorporate three movies and two limited series. The first television series would air between the first and second movies, with the second television series airing after the third movie.

The studio is expected to make a decision within the next two weeks on whether to green-light the first entry in this ambitious adaptation of the Stephen King fantasy/western literature series.

The plot of the eight book Stephen King series is described as follows:

ג€œIn the story, Roland Deschain is the last living member of a knightly order known as gunslingers and the last of the line of ג€˜Arthur Eld,ג€™ his worldג€™s analogue of King Arthur. Politically organized along the lines of a feudal society, it shares technological and social characteristics with the American Old West but is also magical. Many of the magical aspects have vanished from Mid-World, but traces remain as do relics from a technologically advanced society.

ג€œRolandג€™s quest is to find The Dark Tower, a fabled building said to be the nexus of all universes. Rolandג€™s world is said to have ג€œmoved onג€, and it appears to be coming apart at the seams. Mighty nations have been torn apart by war, entire cities and regions vanish without a trace and time does not flow in an orderly fashion. Sometimes, even the sun rises in the north and sets in the east. As the series opens, Rolandג€™s motives, goals and age are unclear, though later installments shed light on these mysteries.ג€

Sources: Examiner.com, IGN

[alpha]

Six months ago, EW wrote a very different headline: “‘The Dark Tower’ lives.“
That’s when Warner Bros. executives began considering filmmaker Ron Howard’s proposal for a multi-movie adaptation of Stephen King’s six-gun-and-sorcery fantasy epic. (The movie — and an accompanying TV series — had already been dropped as too expensive and too risky by Howard’s home studio of Universal Pictures.)
Sadly, for those hoping to see Roland the gunslinger’s quest on the big screen, Warner Bros. has come to the same conclusion, sources close to the project confirm.
The decision, first reported by Variety, is not a total death blow to Howard and his production company Imagine Entertainment’s efforts to bring the eight-novel series to life on the big and small screens — but it is a serious and potentially mortal wound.
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Few studios have the resources for such a massive undertaking, and reluctance on the part of Universal and Warner Bros. signals that those who do also see danger in the prospect.
King’s Dark Tower novels have a savage edge that, done faithfully, would assure an R-rating — cutting out a huge swath of audience that helped make The Lord of the Rings a global blockbuster. Meanwhile, watering down the violence in the stories might guarantee a more commercial-friendly PG-13 rating, but would surely rankle devotees of the books, who would be the films’ core audience.
HBO’s Game of Thrones has tackled the same genre while retaining the blood and sex that give George R.R. Martin’s books their bite, and many fans have said a cable series could prove to be the last — and perhaps best — hope for Imagine’s plans.
The screenplay for the multi-platform project was being developed by Akiva Goldsman (who won an Oscar for Howard’s A Beautiful Mind), and Javier Bardem was proposed for the lead role of Roland, a cowboy-knight seeking the mystical tower that binds the entire universe.
Unfortunately, at this point, that may be a more realistic goal than finding a production deal.
Howard remains somewhat optimistic, invoking The Dark Tower‘s term for “destiny” and its philosophy that fate keeps leading one in similar directions until a lesson is learned.
As fans expressed sorrow that his project seemed to be coming to an end, the director tweeted: “Don’t give up on us yet. Ka is a wheel.”

[drizzle]

opie is a grief pedigree fan?

[Larry2times]

Man, anyone other Richie fucking Cunningham ffs and Richard Belzer is a better fit than Bardem, Bale or Crowe.

I like the 3 films and 2 seasons idea though - the magnificent 7 village & teenage Roland love story flashback for the tv show, Im guessing?

[drizzle]

Belzer? i didn't realize Roland was supposed to be that old, I only read a few of the books though

[Larry2times]

Well not specifying the age is part of the thing, hes upwards of a few hundred years old. People being spooked by his ancient appearance is a reoccurring theme.

Looking weathered/weird is key imo - no one under 50 and no pretty motherfuckers. Whoever they cast for Eddies what will put pum pum in seats.

[drizzle]

interesting, from what i remember of the first book i imagined him being around 35-40 tops, somebody like Clint in his main western stretch. although i can see him as an older Clint in Pale Rider too

[Larry2times]

TGTBATU is King's favourite movie and Dark Tower was him attempting his own epic inspired by it and Lord Of The Rings iirc. He abandoned the man with no name shit after the first book(which isnt representative of the series at all, as King admits himself in all the newer edition's forewords) but yeah 80s era Clint wouldve been perfect. I recommend sticking the books out, theres definitely a few prolonged lulls but its singular af and mostly pretty great

I think itd be cool if it was played by multiple actors or was animated but thats not a very realistic hope. Its hard to imagine it working any other way though.

[drizzle]

TGTBATU is King's favourite movie and Dark Tower was him attempting his own epic inspired by it and Lord Of The Rings iirc.

never thought of it like that but it makes a bunch of sense now that you mention it. and yeah, i do remember the first book being different from the next 2 I read, the series got progressively stranger and further way from the western model.

[djjeffresh]

in other stephen king news

Warner Bros. takes a gamble, splits 'The Stand' into 4 films

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/nati ... lms/njDhJ/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[alpha]

isn't the mini series not bad?

[Combo7]

It's BAD. Or maybe it just hasn't aged well. I watched it a couple years ago and it was painful.

[illuminati_guy]

first episode is pretty good, but after second it gets worse every minute

but ending of the langoliers is worst

it ending wasn't that good either

tommyknockers could've been better and lets not talk about shining

golden years is pretty cool

[Combo7]

Golden Years was passable until it got canceled and was given a nonsensical rushed ending.

The Shining miniseries >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the wack Kubrick film.

Storm of the Century is the best King on TV.

[drizzle]

I actually just re-watched the Stand mini earlier this year. It's def very very aged but has some good 90s kitsch value going for it until the last episode, which is just inexcusably laughably bad. The hand of god thing looks like a joke from an adult swim parody.

[alpha]

Wow, the Kubrick one is wack? Wtf

[Combo7]

It's one of a small handful of movies that are beloved by everyone that I personally can't stand. Everyone's got their own list of movies like that.

[djjeffresh]

i like the kubrick shining and the miniseries as well

[gallax]

Looks like even King himself doesn't like The Shining
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/fea ... w-20141031" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/ap ... adaptation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;