I've known about this for a while, but I didn't realize until today there wasn't a thread (a quick search for Dark Tower turned up nothing):
Here's how things shook out.
Some time in 2007, King confirmed that he had sold the rights to a Dark Tower film series to JJ Abrams.
Abrams and Lindelof confirmed they were working on it and filming was likely to begin after LOST.
Towards the end of 2009, Lindelof announced he would in fact NOT be working on the project due to a "fear" of screwing it up.
Concurrent with that, Stephen King announced that he will essentially be compiling three short stories from the Dark Tower universe into a novel that will take place between books 4 and 5.
Then nothing happened for a while.
THEN:
http://www.darktowermovies.com/20100909 ... confirmed/
Ron Howard/Universal/NBC confirmed that they are working on a film to be followed by a TV show to be followed by a film to be followed by more TV to be followed by a final film.
It's being said that this will NOT be a direct adaptation of the books, that King will be writing some new material for the movies himself.
Akiva Goldsman (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akiva_Goldsman ) is working on the script, and Ron Howard has cleared his schedule to begin working on this right away.
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings.
I like the idea of finally getting Dark Tower films but I'm not sure how I feel about the notion that they won't be book-to-screen adaptations...
the Gunslinger comics have been pretty good thus far (i've read the first four series of them) but I just would really like to see stuff like Blaine and the wolves of the Calla on screen...
this has the potential to be really good (Ron Howard and Stephen King working together sounds promising, and you know King will want input considering how strongly he feels about these books so odds are they won't 'ruin' anything) but at the same time I cant help but feel that no matter how good, i wil be disappointed by things that get omitted.
EDIT:
Also, release date for the first film: May 17, 2013 (tentatively of course)