Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" -- comprising seven novels, short stories and comic books -- will come to life in three films and a television series. The unique deal will have Ron Howard directing the first film in the trilogy and the first season of the TV series, Universal Pictures and NBC Universal Television Entertainment announced Wednesday afternoon. 

Akiva Goldsman, perhaps best known for writing "Angels & Demons" and "A Beautiful Mind," will write the first season of the television program and produce the film alongside Imagine Entertainment, which Howard runs with Brian Grazer.

“We are excited to have found partners at Universal who understand and embrace our approach to King’s remarkable epic,” Howard said in today's release. “By using both the scope and scale of theatrical filmmaking and the intimacy of television we hope to more comprehensively do justice to the characters, themes and amazing sequences King has given us in The Dark Tower novels. It might be the challenge of a lifetime but clearly a thrilling one to take on and explore.”

The first film will be quickly followed by the television series, which will lead to the second film. The TV series will then resume until the third film is released. No word yet on when production is slated to begin on the first film.

--Amy Kaufman

Twitter.com/AmyKinLA

Photo: Stephen King in 2009. Credit: Mark Lennihan / AP

We thought Lindsay Lohan's life was full of drama--but it turns out that the people behind her new movie "Inferno" are creating some commotion of their own.

On Tuesday, we reported that Lohan has signed on to play Linda Lovelace in a new movie about the troubled life of the late '70s porn star. The word came from Wali Razaqi, who says he is a producer on the film. Razaqi also told us that Bill Pullman was attached to the project to star as Hugh Hefner, but now says he was "misinformed" and that the actor will not be in the movie after all, which Pullman's manager confirmed.

Ever since our story was published, we've also been bombarded by messages from two other filmmakers, Chris Hanley and Jordan Gertner, who say they've never heard of Razaqi and that they are the rightful producers on the project. Razaqi maintains he is a producer on the film and says his company's name has been on the "Inferno" script that's been sent around town for months.

The film's director, Matthew Wilder, says Razaqi is an old friend who has been involved with the movie, but says Hanley and Gertner are the "bona fide" producers.

This all sounds like a messy producer squabble to us -- one which we'll leave up to the Producers Guild of America to arbitrate down the road -- although it does highlight the chaos of the indie-film world, where even a seemingly innocuous word like producer can be a relative (and loaded) term.

The important point in all of this is that Lohan will star in the project. Perhaps ironically, for once it's her movie -- and not the actress herself -- that's creating a stir.

--Amy Kaufman 

Photo: (From left) "Deep Throat" star Linda Lovelace and Lindsay Lohan. Credit: AP Photo/File.