Between this and the Arrested Development movie Ron Howard seems to baiting eternal harassment from the fans of projects that are never really going to happen.

Universal Pictures pulled the plug on The Dark Tower last month but producer Brian Grazer is claiming that their (INSANELY HUGE) project will still go forward.
Speaking to The New York Post’s Page Six Grazer insisted that he and Howard are “trying to get outside financing to make it, and distribute it through a major [studio].”

According to Grazer, the current plan is for Howard to shoot the epic three-part tale of Roland Deschain (Javier Bardem is apparently still attached) after shooting the racing movie Rush. This timetable would prime him to return to The Dark Tower sometime around June of next year.

Or, most probably, never.

Even though Grazer suggests that Uni dropping the property has opened them up to other distribution options for the TV Spin-Offs, the likelihood that the Theatrical Features that need to happen first will find the appropriate financing is pretty grim.

And before you cry out, “but what about Lord Of The Rings?” please realize that “The Dark Tower” series of books doesn’t carry the same cultural heft. Also, it’s been 13 years since LOTR was greenlit and A LOT has changed and The Hobbit is only getting made by the skin of its teeth. Blockbusters are more expensive to produce than ever and the scale of The Dark Tower just makes the whole damn thing too prohibitive.

You could pile 10 cash-rich investors on top of each other and still not be able to cover all the bases needed to make it happen.

These days we just don’t have enough crazy people like Bob Shaye around willing to light their money on fire.