Good news, Stephen King fans: Deadline has reported that Media Rights Capital and Sony Pictures are going to try and strike a deal with Danish writer/director Nikolaj Arcel to helm the first part of their adaptation of The Dark Tower series. Cinephiles may recognize Arcel as the man who wrote the Swedish adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and, directed the film The Royal Affair, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar. Securing a director will be yet another battle won in the long war of The Dark Tower adaptation.

At a time when George R.R. Martin was still trying to get his science fiction novels published, before J.K. Rowling had even dreamed of a boy wizard with a scar, Stephen King was publishing the first part of his multi-part fantasy epic, The Dark Tower. A strange story about an other-worldly gunslinger named Roland Deschain trying to put a stop to inter-dimensional turmoil, the series was a major departure from the norm for King. It took 30 years for King to publish the 8 books in the series, and has even hinted that he’s not quite done yet.

While Rowling’s Harry Potter series saw quick and massive commercial success as both books and films, and Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series awaiting its next novel despite Game Of Thrones forging on ahead anyway, King has had a bit more hardship with adapting his series. Since 2007, the series has bounced from studio to studio in an attempt to find funding and production for an adaptation that would incorporate several films as well as a television series. MRC has been clinging to the distribution rights ever since Warner Bros. passed on the project in 2012. The recent addition of Sony Pictures and subsequent hunt for a director are all signs that this could finally happen.

Are you excited to see The Dark Tower series come to life? Think Nikolaj Arcel would be a good choice? Let us know in the comments below.

Featured image courtesy of deviantArt // artist: Diosboss