Looks like that’s one less Stephen King adaptation on the giant pile.
Deadline reports that Amazon Studios has passed on The Dark Tower series, after the pilot allegedly failed to convince the streaming network’s executives that it could be on par with its other big-budget genre shows, namely Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time.
The pilot for The Dark Tower, a sci-fi western from The Walking Dead’s Glen Mazzara, was set to be a more faithful adaptation of King’s series. Coming after the disastrous 2017 Dark Tower movie, which starred Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, fans were eager to see an adaptation that could do the books justice. This series was set to star Sam Strike (Nightflyers) as Roland Deschain and Jasper Pääkkönen as an earlier incarnation of the Man in Black. Based on a later book in the series, it was a look-back at Roland as a young man, training to become a Gunslinger.
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However, it’s no secret that these books are dense and tough to adapt, and ultimately it just didn’t come together. Citing unnamed sources, Deadline says the production company behind The Dark Tower pitch is shopping the two scripts that formed the pilot to other networks.
Currently, Amazon Studios is developing a huge adaptation of Lord of the Rings (which has already been renewed for a second season), as well as the long-awaited series based on Robert Jordan’s fantasy series Wheel of Time. Neither series has been given a release date yet, but it seems possible that Wheel of Time could come later this year. However, Lord of the Rings probably won’t arrive until 2021 at the earliest.