The circuitous odyssey of Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series has seen it spend years in development, almost get made with Javier Bardem, fall apart, almost come together again with Russell Crowe, then get relegated to the scrap heap once more. But in relentless pursuit of a life-consuming goal, Howard is still carrying the torch for adapting The Dark Tower into multiple films and a limited television series—even though he now says he’s taken a “vow of silence” on the project. But that doesn’t mean other people can’t talk about it in passing, such as when Ain't It Cool News talked to Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul at Sundance in connection with family drama Hellion, and Paul briefly mentioned that he’s met with the director about the part of Eddie Dean, which many people have been fantasy casting him for ever since the the project was announced:
“I've had a ton of meetings on that. I just had a general sit down with Ron Howard, who is a huge fan of the show, which is such a crazy thing to even think that Ron Howard even knows who I am. They're definitely planning on making it.”
“Their goal is to do three films, but also have a television element to it, which will be very interesting. From what I hear, Eddie Dean is a pretty epic, iconic character.”
Judging by the fact that the film/television crossover commitment is still part of the vision, and that two major studios have already turned Howard and Goldman down, production on The Dark Tower certainly isn’t imminent. But if the gunslinger epic ever does get made, well, Paul has played a vulnerable, drug-addled young man under the influence of a more powerful protagonist before.