It's been more than a year since Warner Bros. passed on Ron Howard's massive adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower. While many may think the project is completely dead, the filmmaker revealed that they are still working on it, although the filmmakers have remained silent on their progress.

"The Dark Tower is something that we're still working on. We've all taken a vow of silence about the progress, the headway, what we think our timetable is, because I don't think I realized how much media interest there was in the title and how much excitement there was. It's a fascinating, powerful possibility and even Stephen King acknowledges it's a tricky adaptation, but to be honest, from a financing side, it's not a straightforward, four-quadrant, sunny superhero story. It's dark, it's horror. That edge is what appeals to me, the complexities of those characters is what appeals to all of us. And I think Stephen King really respects that, with [regular screenwriting collaborator] Akiva Goldsman and myself, that that's what we love about it, and that's what we want to try to get to the screen. So my answer is: it got delayed, it's never gone away. We're working on it, and Stephen is very patient with us, and Akiva has just gone off and directed a movie [an adaptation of Mark Helprin's novel, Winter's Tale, starring Colin Farrell, Russell Crowe, Jessica Brown Findlay, Jennifer Connelly and Will Smith], I'm continuing to work, but the Dark Tower dreams - fever dreams, rather - are still there, but we're not going to give it a timetable."

Fans of the novel series know that Stephen King himself appears in the story. When asked how the director might approach this aspect of the story, he had this to say.

"Yes. And I will admit Stephen has said, 'I don't have to be in this.' But that's not to say that he won't be!"

The Dark Tower was originally envisioned as a movie trilogy, with two limited run TV series airing between each movie. It isn't known if that is still Ron Howard's plan or not. We also reported last August that Russell Crowe was being eyed to play gunslinger Roland Deschain, who sets off on a mission to The Dark Tower to save all of humanity. It isn't known if the actor is still being considered for the coveted role or not.