The Dark Tower is further away than we anticipated.
Production behind Nikolaj Arcel’s adaptation of the popular Stephen King series has hit a snag. According to Entertainment Weekly, Sony and MRC feel post-production and promotion couldn’t be finished in time for its February 2017 release without tampering with its nominal $60 million budget. Update: The film will now receive release on July 28th.
“It’s a very fiscally responsible budget, and trying to stay in budget to make money and stay profitable means the VFX won’t be finished in time [for February],” a source tells the publication. “Now that there’s more time, they’re not paying rush charges to get the effects where they need to be.”
(Read: The Top 10 Stephen King Adaptations)
The move makes sense, especially considering the fact that there’s been zero promotion outside of the occasional piece of viral marketing aimed at die-hard fans. There was originally supposed to be a trailer set to premiere last month at EW’s PopFest, but the studio pulled out a week ahead, citing the footage wasn’t ready yet.
However, a work print of a trailer did, indeed, leak a few weeks ago, but it was filled with green screens and unfinished special effects (not to mention, it also crudely shoehorned in an awful cover of The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes”.), At the moment, there’s no indication on when, or if, that trailer will ever surface. Hopefully not.
(Read: We Put Together an Entire Stephen King Cinematic Universe, You Welcome)
The good news is that more time means more opportunities to smooth out any of the film’s glaring creases. Which is important for Sony and MRC considering they want this to tip off a franchise that includes an accompanying television series. Of course, none of this would have happened had they just made it a TV series from the get-go.
Oh well! You live and you learn. Ka is a wheel. All that jazz.
