Last month we learned that there might still be hope for the long-awaited big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Following a couple of false starts at Universal Pictures and Warner Brothers, Sony and MRC recently announced that they are teaming up to co-finance the first in what will hopefully be a series of successful films. Akiva Goldsman is still on board as a producer along with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Erica Huggins of Imagine Entertainment. Howard will no longer be in the director’s chair, but now this week it looks like those duties will be passed on to Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel.

According to Deadline, Nikolaj Arcel has been chosen to direct the first installment in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower for Sony and MRC. Arcel’s previous credits include the period drama A Royal Affair as well as the family adventure Island of Lost Souls. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the original Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The article states that negotiations are not yet underway but should start soon with Arcel also overseeing a rewrite of the script by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner. As with the original proposal from a few years ago, they are still planning some sort of TV show to tie-in with the movies, although it’s unclear how they will divide everything up. Last we heard, Russell Crowe was being talked about as a possibility to play the lead role of gunslinger Roland Deschain. Are you looking forward to a big screen version of The Dark Tower?