MUMBAI: Universal Pictures is in a quandary about the big investment needed to make The Dark Tower, a literary saga by Stephen King, that will have Javier Bardem playing the leading role. Bardem is to play pistol-packing Roland Deschain, who has spent his life in search of the Dark Tower, humanity‘s last chance to save civilization.

Executives of the production house have been putting their heads together over the last few weeks to try and cut down the estimated production costs or not to proceed with the film at all. 

The original idea consisted of making the audiovisual version of King‘s seven books in three feature films and two TV mini-series.

The first instalment of The Dark Tower was to go on the floors this summer but as things stand today, the production house‘s rethinking of the project could mean filming might be delayed.

The Dark Tower is Stephen King‘s personal vision of the Far West, where the fantasy of a magical universe blends with his own brand of terror and elements typical of the traditional western. The project has been compared in its magnitude by some of the media to The Lord of the Rings.

Suppose in case, Universal Pictures fails to start production before July next year, the film rights will revert to the author.