Media Rights Capital Is Ready To Finance Ron Howard’s ‘The Dark Tower’
Media Rights Capital has turned into a financing powerhouse — the company has a deal with David Fincher, and is making the new version of the seriesHouse of Cardsthat he is producing and partially directing. The company also financed some ofCloud Atlas; Neill Blomkamp’s second film,Elysium;and this summer’s hitTed. MRC has cash to throw around, in other words, and because one of the key players there is a big fan ofStephen KingandThe Dark Tower, it looks like some of that cash is going to go into Imagine Entertainment’s multi-film and TV series adaptation of the novels.
Deadlinesays that MRC is “in serious talks” to financeThe Dark Tower, and it sounds like the “three films and two limited TV series” structure remains in play. Mike Fleming at Deadline says he expects the deal to happen quickly.
With the project financed through MRC, questions remain: what will the budget and resulting scope look like? Who will distribute the films, and what will be the TV home? MRC has a distro deal with Universal (seeTed) but not an exclusive one (seeElysium, which Sony will put into theaters) so we could end up seeing one of the studios that passed on financingThe Dark Towertaking in some money for distributing it. And we still don’t know where HBO stands on the TV portion.
So that’s good news for those who simply want to seeThe Dark Towerhit screens under any circumstance, but not so much for those who don’t think that directorRon Howardand writerAkiva Goldsmanare the ones to make it happen.Russell Croweis still being considered for the lead, but any casting remains to be confirmed.
