Movies
Lights Officially Go Out on Uni’s ‘Dark Tower’
Universal has officially placed the ambitious multiplatform franchise The Dark Tower in turnaround, a very black and cold place in Hollywood terminology.
Variety first reported that the studio had second thoughts about the film and TV project from Akiva Goldsman and helmer Ron Howard on May 5, when the studio began mulling a turnaround.
Tower involved a television show that would have continued the narrative in between three movies, all based on Steven King’s seven-novel series (King has completed an eighth, “The Wind Through the Keyhole,” set for publication in 2012).
Howard unveiled plans for “The Dark Tower” adaptation last September. Universal soon came on as a distributor, thanks to Imagine’s production deal with the studio; NBC (or an affiliated cable net) was expected carry the TV component.
By April, scribe Mark Verheiden was brought on board to write the TV show along with Goldsman.
No financier has officially signed on to the project, but Warner Bros. could be a likely option since the studio is home to Goldsman’s Weed Road Pictures shingle.
Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Goldsman were set to produce while Javier Bardem was attached to star.
Howard is expected to still helm the project if the studio shops it elsewhere and it finds a new home.
Though U declined to comment on the reasons behind the pass, sources said the franchise simply came at too high a price. The unprecedented package would have taken the franchise model to a new level, and sources said U’s issues were financial, not creative.
Movies
’28 Years Later’ – Ralph Fiennes, Jodie Comer, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Join Long Awaited Sequel
Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (Annihilation, Men), the director and writer behind 2002’s hit horror film 28 Days Later, are reteaming for the long-awaited sequel, 28 Years Later. THR reports that the sequel has cast Jodie Comer (Alone in the Dark, “Killing Eve”), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kraven the Hunter), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu).
The plan is for Garland to write 28 Years Later and Boyle to direct, with Garland also planning on writing at least one more sequel to the franchise – director Nia DaCosta is currently in talks to helm the second installment.
No word on plot details as of this time, or who Comer, Taylor-Johnson, and Fiennes may play.
28 Days Later received a follow up in 2007 with 28 Weeks Later, which was executive produced by Boyle and Garland but directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Now, the pair hope to launch a new trilogy with 28 Years Later. The plan is for Garland to write all three entries, with Boyle helming the first installment.
Boyle and Garland will also produce alongside original producer Andrew Macdonald and Peter Rice, the former head of Fox Searchlight Pictures, the division of one-time studio Twentieth Century Fox that originally backed the British-made movie and its sequel.
The original film starred Cillian Murphy “as a man who wakes up from a coma after a bicycle accident to find England now a desolate, post-apocalyptic collapse, thanks to a virus that turned its victims into raging killers. The man then navigates the landscape, meeting a survivor played by Naomie Harris and a maniacal army major, played by Christopher Eccleston.”
Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) is on board as executive producer, though the actor isn’t set to appear in the film…yet.
Talks of a third installment in the franchise have been coming and going for the last several years now – at one point, it was going to be titled 28 Months Later – but it looks like this one is finally getting off the ground here in 2024 thanks to this casting news. Stay tuned for more updates soon!
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