Remember “synergy,” that neat watchword that every big media company used to rationalize gobbling up smaller companies or merging and wiping out rivals? Well, synergy is alive and well at Universal, where the conglomerate’s film and TV divisions are joining forces to adapt Stephen King’s fantasy series ‘The Dark Tower’ — as three films and a TV show. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ron Howard will direct the first film and first season of the TV show, which will be written by Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman. In ‘The Dark Tower,’ Roland Deschain, the last of a mysterious order of gunslingers, travels across a desolate and vaguely post-apocalyptic American landscape, searching for a black tower in an attempt to save the crumbling civilization. Continue reading →