The road to bringing Stephen King's mulit-book fantasy/western epic "The Dark Tower" series to the big screen has been almost as treacherous as the long road walked by the books' protagonist Roland Deschain. 

"Tower" was first planned as an epic multi-film/TV series under Ron Howard at Universal, which morphed into a cheaper, but still-ambitious HBO series with Javier Bardem in talks to play Roland, the last gunslinger. When that fizzled, "Dark Tower" transitioned over to Warner Bros., where Howard and producer Akiva Goldsman initially planned to make just a single film with Bardem in the lead. Plans stalled on that version as well, which bring us to the present -- and Russell Crowe. 

Deadline is reporting that Howard and Goldsman have reignited the project at Warner and are in talks with Crowe (who starred in the pair's "A Beautiful Mind" and "Cinderella Man") to play Roland in what could again be a three-film series with two TV mini-series on the side (likely back at HBO). Goldsman has turned in a new draft of the "Lord of the Rings"-sized epic screenplay.

The studio is reportedly mulling over the decision whether to green light the pricey project, which could very well go kaput like the previous efforts. Stay tuned. 

Crowe has several big films coming up, including "Man of Steel," in which he plays Superman's father, and Darren Aronofsky's biblical epic "Noah."