AceShowbiz -

Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television are teaming up to bring "The Dark Tower" to the screen. The companies are set to make three films as well as a TV show based on the Stephen King's "Dark Tower" novels, short stories and comic books.

The Hollywood Reporter, which first heard rumor about the project, reports that Ron Howard will serve as a helmer for the first film of the trilogy and the first season of the TV show. Meanwhile, Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman will write the script. Howard and Goldsman, moreover, will join forces to produce the project, which has been in development for a while. Kerry Foster, Todd Hallowell and Erica Huggins are executive producing the first film.

The first season of the TV series will be released after the first movie and will bridge the second film. After the second film, the TV series will show the adventures of The Gunslinger as a young man as a bridge to the third film and beyond.

"The Dark Tower" is a horror sci-fi story which follows a Gunslinger Roland Deshain as he travels across a desolate and vaguely post-apocalyptic landscape in his quest for a black tower. Portals along the way eventually allow contact with our own modern world.