The long, winding saga of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Akiva Goldsman’s attempt to bring Stephen King’s Dark Tower series to various screens in an ambitious blend of movies and TV shows has taken another turn. Back in March, Warner Bros. rescued at least the first movie from limbo after Universal shut the project down for budget reasons. With Goldsman due to hand in the latest draft, word arrives that Howard and the rest have been talking to Russell Crowe about playing main character Roland Deschain.

Yes, while Javier Bardem was long considered the team’s first choice for the last living member of a knight-like order of gunslingers, he’s no longer involved and Team Tower has been instead approaching their Beautiful Mind star about taking over.

Crowe would certainly help sell the idea to the studio, especially given his recent turn for Warners on Man Of Steel. And the fact that he’s unafraid to tackle big, complicated projects such as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah.

Of course, everything is at an early stage still, and Warners may yet decide it doesn’t want to be involved. But this could just be the answer Howard and co were looking for…