David Farnor | On 25, Jan 2020

Amazon Studios has abandoned its plans to adapt The Dark Tower for the screen.

Stephen King’s book series of books, first published in 1982, are a sprawling fantasy epic, which follow Roland of Gilead, the Last Gunslinger. Roland is a haunting figure, a loner, on a spellbinding journey toward the mysterious Dark Tower, in a desolate world which frighteningly echoes our own. On his quest, Roland begins a friendship with a kid from New York named Jake, encounters an alluring woman and faces an agonising choice between damnation and salvation as he pursues “the Man in Black”.

With an inbuilt audience of fans and a lengthy IP for source material, the books were ideal for Amazon’s increasing push into bigger, buzz-building series, as it looks to both compete with Netflix’s brand power and fill the hole left behind by HBO’s Game of Thrones. Amazon had ordered a pilot for the show, which was intended to be independent from the 2017 film also based on the first book (pictured).

Now, Deadline reports that Amazon Studios has passed on the pilot, which was adapted by executive producer/showrunner Glen Mazzara and MRC and focused on the origins of the Last Gunslinger. The reason is reportedly because the pilot wasn’t considered on the same scale and level of Amazon’s other notable fantasy series in the pipeline, The Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Time.

The production company is reportedly shopping around the two scripts penned for the pilot pickup.

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