Russell Crowe in talks to play Deschain in The Dark Tower

Russell Crowe is poised to give the troubled Dark Tower movie adaptation a boost by signing on to play gunslinging lead Roland Deschain.

The Dark Tower has had one heck of a troubled pre-production, with director Ron Howard still attempting to convince Warner Bros that the cost of making the Tower movies would be worth it.

If Crowe signs on, his blockbuster heft should convince the studio to finally give the project a greenlight - something that Javier Bardem, who was previously attached to the role, wasn't able to do .

Should that happen, Howard will direct the first in at least three Dark Tower movies (all adapted from Stephen King's books for the screen by writer Akiva Goldman), with two TV series plugging the gaps between movies.

The last we heard about The Dark Tower , Warner Bros was considering resurrecting the project after numerous delays .

Just before that, in October 2011, producer Brian Grazer revealed that they had to find a way to slice $45m off the film’s budget .

Though Crowe wouldn’t exactly be our first choice for the role of Deschain - the wandering gunslinger on a quest to find the Dark Tower - he could be just the big name Howard needs to finally bring The Dark Tower to the big screen.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.