News
Former “The Walking Dead” Showrunner Joins “The Dark Tower” TV Series
Maybe this will actually happen. We’re not convinced.
The plan all along was for this year’s The Dark Tower (read our review) to spawn both a film franchise and a TV series, but the future of the property is of course all dependent on how well the first movie does at the box office this weekend. And, well, it doesn’t look like it’s going to do so well, either critically or financially.
Nevertheless, THR reports today that the TV series spinoff is still very much going forward. Glen Mazzara, who ran “The Walking Dead” between 2011 and 2013, has come aboard “The Dark Tower” as showrunner. He will take the lead writing the series, set to be something of an origin story.
“I’ve been a Stephen King fan for decades and the opportunity to adapt The Dark Tower as a TV series is a great honor,” Mazzara told THR. “The events of The Gunslinger, Wizard & Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole, and other tales need a long format to capture the complexity of Roland’s coming of age — how he became the Gunslinger, how Walter became the Man in Black, and how their rivalry cost Roland everything and everyone he ever loved. I could not be more excited to tell this story. It feels like being given the key to a treasure chest. And oh yeah, we’ll have billy-bumblers!”
The series, in development through Media Rights Capital and Sony Pictures Television, is currently in its early stages. A network is not yet attached. The site notes that “it is being eyed for a short-order (between 10 and 13 episodes) and a home on cable or streaming outlets.”
If all goes according to plan, production will begin next year.
In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war, but it was a cheerful illustrator from England who helped to define the terrifying war-torn imagery that inspired what we now know as Grimdark (a hybrid genre combining horror with sci-fi/fantasy).
Unfortunately for fans of Warhammer 40,000, Trench Crusade and countless other sources of Grimdark thrills, veteran artist John Blanche passed away this week after struggling with health issues for the past few years.
While the artist retired back in 2023, he leaves us with an enormous legacy of iconic artwork that continues to inspire gamers and storytellers around the world to this very day.
The news is especially gloomy as it was only last year that Daniel Lowman and Napoleon Dynamite himself Jon Heder released The Grim & the Dark: The Search for John Blanche, a documentary following Heder’s exploration of the Grimdark genre culminating in a heartwarming encounter with Blanche in his own home.
Below is one of my favorite pieces by Blanche, his highly influential depiction of Warhammer 40k’s God-Emperor of Mankind on his Golden Throne.
We send our deepest condolences to John Blanche’s family, friends, and fans.
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