Ron Howard’s sprawling, mega-budget, multiplatform adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower proved too rich for Universal’s blood over the summer, but it may have found a new home at Warner Bros., where it can have a way bigger room and swim in a pool filled with Harry Potter and Batman money. Deadline reports that the studio has already hired Akiva Goldsman to put a second coat of polish on his script, and it’s currently working to secure a deal with Ron Howard to direct at least the first of the planned three feature films by 2013, with the two TV miniseries that will run in between presumed to land at Warner Bros.’ sister studio HBO. Javier Bardem, previously a lock for the lead when the project was at Universal, is ostensibly also still attached, depending on how the timing works out. It’s something of a surprise turnaround for the ambitious, expensive undertaking (particularly one with Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman as its undertakers), but probably not too surprising that the franchise-hungry, franchise-wealthy Warner Bros. would pick it up—especially given that it thinks Ben Affleck can even turn King’s The Stand into a franchise. At least Howard’s The Dark Tower already has its sequels and spinoffs mapped out.

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