Fans of the Stephen King Dark Tower series may have more hope to see the film adaptation come to fruition.

Universal passed on director Ron Howard's vision of a three-film project with two television miniseries chronicling the sci-fi/western, which was looking at taking near a decade to complete and cost more than the studio was willing to allow.

Howard is teaming up with producer Brian Grazer, who commented they're looking for outside financing to complete the project.

Grazer said that plans for the TV miniseries will still go forward, and actor Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) is currently attached to the project playing the lead role of gunslinger Roland Deschain.

Howard's telling of Stephen King's opus will have to wait till he finishes Rush, a formula one racing movie about Niki Lauda.

Grazer also is working on a separate project, J. Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio (Inception).

The Dark Tower series began in 1982 and is currently at seven books, with another scheduled to be published in the spring of 2012.