The scale of Universal's The Dark Tower project has always been incredibly daunting. In order to pull off a trilogy of films with two full television series in between, the studio would be required to put up an incredible amount of money with no guarantee of success. Now, the project close to starting production, the studio is feeling like a bride on the night before her wedding day.

Variety is reporting from unnamed sources that Universal is considering putting The Dark Tower into turnaround. According to the story, executives have "run into budgetary complications" and will be holding a meeting in the next few days to determine the project's future. Set to be directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman, Javier Bardem remains in talks with the studio about playing hero Roland Deschain. As of now the project is still moving forward and the studio declined to comment about the status.

It's hard to say that this situation was completely unforeseeable. While the Stephen King series has more than its fair share of fans, one has to wonder if the concept would appeal to mainstream audiences to the point that it could justify the hundreds of millions that the project requires. Until we hear more, May 17, 2013 remains the release date of the first Dark Tower movie. Let's see if they can actually do it.