The Dark Tower might still be coming, but it will be smaller

Last week, it looked like Blaine the Mono left the station for good when Universal cut the power on its ambitious adaptation of Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER books.

The studio may have put the brakes on pre-production, but that doesn’t mean they’re scrapping the epic project entirely.

The original intent was to begin this summer, aiming for a May 17, 2013 release date for the first film (to be followed by two sequels each bridged by TV miniseries). Now the start has been pushed back to February, while director Ron Howard and his producing partners face the formidable task of significantly decreasing the budget, despite the immense scale of the story and all it entails.

What those cuts will encompass is still in question — the TV plan could be excised, they may try to make the movies back-to-back, or they could start with just one and see how it performs before making more.

That said, Universal is still in the sights of the Gunslinger’s pistol — they only have until July to officially greenlight the movie, or the rights go back to the author (and the filmmakers could then try again at another studio). Javier Bardem is still attached to star… for the time being.

The vast “Dark Tower” tale follows knightly gunslinger Roland and his companions traveling through a crumbling magical realm seeking the Man in Black and the structure of the title.