Warner Brothers has turned down an adaptation of Stephen King‘s epic Dark Tower series.

Both Ron Howard and Brian Grazer were in line to adapt the seven-book series for television and film. King published The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole, earlier this year. This statement was posted in the Unofficial News Section of King’s website:

While no single reason was given for the studios withdrawal, it appears that most insiders believe that series would require a strong R rating that would greatly cut into the profitability of creating such an expensive mega-franchise. Additionally, the constant reader will learn, no final version of the script was ever agreed upon by all team members regardless of the studios official decline. When asked about the status of the project, Stephen commented that there is still much interest in the project and that news regarding the series should be announced this fall. (Via HuffPost Books)