'The Dark Tower' TV Series Still "Very Much Alive" According to Amazon Exec

Last summer saw the debut of the highly-anticipated feature film adaptation of Stephen King's The [...]

Last summer saw the debut of the highly-anticipated feature film adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower, which failed to connect with audiences or critics. Despite the disappointment, Amazon Studios is still reportedly developing a TV series based on the project, though little word of the project moving forward has surfaced in recent months.

"Those are scripts that I haven't gotten yet. I'll be seeing those, that material, in the coming weeks," Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke promised to Deadline. "None of those things are dead. They're very much alive."

The original story spread across eight books, which made the concept of creating a single film that could appeal to devout fans and new viewers equally an incredibly difficult task. Sadly, the finished product didn't connect with any audiences, as review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes calculated 16 percent positive reviews for the film while its worldwide box office sits at $112 million.

King himself gave the filmmakers his blessing and encouraged changes to the source material, yet he also noted what he believed to be the reason for the film's downfall after it was released.

"The real problem, as far as I'm concerned is, they went in to this movie, and I think this was a studio edict pretty much: this is going to be a PG-13 movie. It's going to be a tentpole movie," King shared with Entertainment Weekly last year. "We want to make sure that we get people in there from the ages of, let's say, 12 right on up to whatever the target age is. Let's say 12 to 35. That's what we want."

"So it has to be PG-13, and when they did that I think that they lost a lot of the toughness of it and it became something where people went to it and said, 'Well yeah, but it's really not anything that we haven't seen before,'" he added.

The film starred Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, with plans prior to the film's release including Elba also being involved in the TV series. The development of the project, however, has seemingly left Elba in the dark.

"I don't know, actually, where it lies. I must figure this out, I don't know where it lies," Elba shared with ScreenCrush. "I'm unfortunately the last to know at this point."

Stay tuned for details on the potential future for The Dark Tower TV series.

Do you think this series should happen at all? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T Deadline]

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