In a surprise to absolutely no-one, producer, director and just all-round visionary, JJ Abrams has stepped away from adapting Stephen King’s seven-volume, epic fantasy series The Dark Tower.
The Dark Tower, for those who aren’t familiar with the series, is seven books written by American author Stephen King between 1970 and 2004. The series incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fiction, horror and western elements. They chart a gunslinger’s quest toward a tower whose nature the books call both physical and metaphorical. Think Don Quixote meets The Wheel of Time meets sheer insanity.
In a chat with MTV, the producer confirmed that “After working six years on Lost, the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favourite books of all time. I’m such a massive Stephen King fan that I’m terrified of screwing it up. I’d do anything to see those movies written by someone else. ”
Asked whether he’d ever reconsider Abrams went on to say “My guess is The Dark Tower will get made because its so incredible,but not by me.” So that’s it then. Is no-one brave enough to bring the story of Roland Deschain to the big screen? Peter Jackson would seem like the logical choice but he probably won’t want anything to do with it.