The Dark Tower TV Series Moves Ahead With Former Walking Dead Showrunner

The long-awaited movie adaptation of Stephen King's fantasy saga The Dark Tower opens this weekend, to mediocre box office predictions and largely negative reviews. However, the plan to expand the property to television remains in place--at least for now.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, former Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara will oversee the development of a Dark Tower TV show. The series will be a joint-production between Sony Television and the independent studio MRC. However, as THR notes, the show is in its early stages and no network is attached as yet. It is expected that a first season would be 10-13 episodes long.

In a statement to THR, Mazzara said, "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. The events of The Gunslinger, Wizard and 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."

The Dark Tower TV show was first reported in 2016. Although it was originally suggested that the show would shoot in 2017, subsequent comments from producer Ron Howard revealed that it was far from definite "[There's] not a commitment on the television side," he told TV Guide in April. "But creatively, it could work very well, hand in hand with what we'd like the movies to be."

The Dark Tower is on course to make around $20 million at the US box office this weekend. Although it is expected to take the No.1 slot on the charts, there is little competition elsewhere, with most of the summer's big movies having already been released.

In GameSpot's Dark Tower review, reviewer Michael Rougeau said the film was "not the adaptation hardcore fans were hoping for, but it's also not a terrible movie."

"It takes plenty of liberties with the source material, some for the better, and others the worse," he continued. "But for every cringey line of dialogue, there's another that might make you laugh or give you chills, and for all the cheesy action, there's some really impressive stuff, too."