Amazon Passes on ‘The Dark Tower’ Series, Will Be Shopped Elsewhere

Jan 15, 2020

After months of waiting, Amazon (expectedly) passed on the pilot of ‘The Dark Tower.’ According to Deadline, executives at Amazon felt like the pilot was not on the level of other large-scope elevated genre series the streamer has in the works like ‘The Wheel of Time’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings.’

But, there is still some hope for you Stephen King fans. The production company MRC is shopping the series elsewhere, using the two original scripts that were the basis for the pilot pick-up at Amazon. Maybe the show can find a new home at Netflix, Hulu, or HBO/HBO Max?

Meanwhile, here are the cast members of the pilot, that we know of:

  • Jerome Flynn (‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’)
  • Ivan Kaye (‘Dark Shadows,’ ‘The Borgias’)
  • Jasper Pääkkönen (‘Vikings,’ ‘BlacKkKlansman’)
  • Ana Padrão (‘Três Mulhere,’ ‘Vidas Opostas’)
  • Abraham Popoola (‘Electric Dreams,’ ‘Les Misérables’)
  • Joana Ribeiro (‘The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,’ ‘The Black Book’)
  • Michael Rooker (‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,’ ‘True Detective’)
  • Sam Strike (‘Timeless,’ ‘Mindhunter’)

The series was originally going to tie in to the 2017 film of the same name, starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. But, plans shifted after the film’s releases, and the show was then made to be a more faithful adaptation of the book series.

Meanwhile, Glen Mazzara (‘The Walking Dead,’ ‘Damien’) was going to serve as executive producer and showrunner. Stephen Hopkins (’24,’ ‘Predator 2’) directed the pilot, while Bear McCreary (‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,’ ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’) composed the score of the first episode. Mazzara and McCreary collaborated on ‘The Walking Dead’ as well.

If you’re curious, some plot details of Mazzara’s adaptation of the Stephen King novels are below:

“The story of how Roland (Strike) became a gunslinger and his first encounter with Marten Broadcloak aka the villainous Man in Black (Pääkkönen). The Man in Black will serve as the series antagonist, while his affair with Gabrielle, the mother of Roland, will factor heavily into the plot. Her affair incites Roland to pick up his guns in a search for Broadcloak and sets his father, Steven, on a mission to find him.”

However, if the show does end up finding a home, the first season will comprise of 13 episodes.

Source: Deadline