Ron Howard to take on the Dark Tower?

Just a few months after J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof decided that the project was just too daunting to pull off successfully, Ron Howard is trying his hand at adapting Stephen King’s sprawling Dark Tower saga. From /Film:

Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman are reportedly taking the rights to The Dark Tower, and their plans are just as ambitious as the books.

THR and Deadline both report on this, and each outlet describes a slightly different deal. In each, Akiva Goldsman would write a feature that Ron Howard would direct and Goldsman and Brian Grazer would produce. That feature would lead into a TV series that finished out the story. But THR says one feature, and Deadline says a trilogy, before the TV series begins. Quite a difference.

If this goes through, the feature(s) would likely have a home at Universal, which could use some sort of monster summer hit, even one that wouldn’t come down for a couple years. The TV division of Imagine Entertainment would produce the television show. (Warner Bros. has also been vying for the property).

Before you go getting too excited/riled about this bit of news, it’s in your best interests to realize that The Dark Tower series is such a massive undertaking that nothing will likely ever come of these plans. But let’s pretend that all parties involved can figure out a way to crack how the story unfolds for the screen, do you think Howard and company can pull it off? And how could anything they do be any worse than the fan trailer you see embedded here? Sound off in the comments folks.