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EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment have closed a deal to turn Stephen King’s mammoth novel series The Dark Tower into a feature film trilogy and a network TV series, both of which will be creatively steered by the Oscar-winning team behind A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code. Ron Howard has committed to direct the initial feature film, as well as the first season of the TV series that will follow in close proximity. Akiva Goldsman will write the film, and the first season of the TV series. Howard’s Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer will produce, with Goldsman and the author. When Deadline revealed in April that Howard, Goldman and Grazer planned to team with King, Universal was battling Warner Bros—home of Goldsman’s Weed Road--for the property. The multi-platform deal was so comprehensive, it took months to close. It will be announced later today by Universal Pictures chairman Adam Fogelson, co-chairman Donna Langley, NBC Universal Television Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin, and NBC & Universal Media Studios Primetime Entertainment president Angela Bromstad, all of whom pulled it together.

Bale in the lead

From "Dark Knight" to "Dark Tower?" Fresh off his Golden Globe win for the "The Fighter," sources say Christian Bale has pulled ahead of Javier Bardem and Viggo Mortensen as Ron Howard and Stephen King's choice for "Tower" main character, gunslinger Roland Deschain. We previously reported that Howard's adaptation of King's books has set off a casting frenzy, with agents battling to land their clients roles in what promises to be a blockbuster franchise. A source said "Dexter" star Jennifer Carpenter is rising on the short list for the role of Susannah, as is French/Moroccan Ghita Tazi.

Javier Bardem Wanted For 'The Dark Tower'

EXCLUSIVE: After Javier Bardem's terrifying Oscar-winning turn as the assassin in No Country For Old Men, is there any doubt he'd fit as the gunslinger Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, the mammoth adaptation of the Stephen King 7-novel series that’ll span three movies and a limited run TV series in between?

I'm told that Bardem has officially been offered the lead role by director Ron Howard and Universal Pictures. While formal negotiations haven't yet begun, there's a high level of enthusiasm internally that they've got their cowboy. Akiva Goldsman has scripted the first movie, and will write the TV component as well. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer is producing with Goldsman and the author. Universal is financing and distributing the films, and NBC Universal Television Entertainment is backing the TV component, which will either be a limited run series or a miniseries.

It has been a heady week for Bardem. He received a Best Actor nomination for his performance as a terminally ill street hustler in the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu-directed Biutiful, and Bardem and Penelope Cruz just welcomed their first son into the world. Since Deadline first revealed that King, Goldsman, Howard and Grazer were joining forces on the ambitious project that would tell the story on multiple platforms, speculation has been rampant over who'd play the lead role. Bardem has been mentioned, as has Viggo Mortensen and Christian Bale. Deschain is the last living member of a knightly order of gunslingers, and humanity’s last hope to save a civilization that will fall unless he finds the Dark Tower. At the time, Howard and Goldsman told me they saw the trilogy as their answer to the Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Instead of Middle Earth, the venue has an old West feel, which Goldsman described at the time as “an alternate Americana, one part post-apocalyptic, one part Sergio Leone.”

Bardem just wrapped the untitled next feature by Terrence Malick.

Howard plans at this point to direct the initial film as well as the TV component that will create a bridge to the second feature. The plan calls for the original actors to headline the TV version as well. The second film will pick up where the first left off. That would be followed by a TV installment that would be a prequel that introduces Deschain as a young man. The third film brings back the original cast once again return and complete the screen trilogy. So if Bardem closes a deal, he’ll likely appear in all three films and that first TV stint. Imagine's Erica Huggins will be executive producer with Kerry Foster of Weed Road. Bardem's repped by WME.