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Damon Lindelof and J.J. Abrams could begin work on their long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' series, as soon as they wrap hit TV show Lost.

The writer has been speaking to MTV News about the hotly anticipated project, and he admitted the scale of the challenge was on a par with adapting Alan Moore's similarly seminal tome - Watchmen.

"Having seen [Watchmen director] Zack [Snyder] go through what he went through on Watchmen in terms of saying 'where can I digress from the material', I just get headaches thinking about changing anything" he said. "It was the defining literary tale of my young adulthood."

His attachment to the material which makes writing the script difficult, says Lindelof: "My reverence for Stephen King is now getting in the way of what any good writer would do first when they're adapting a book, which is take creative license in changing stuff."

King's seven book series has become a cult classic due to its ambitious mix of fantasy, philosophy and narrative complexity. Such a wealth of source material would make it franchise material, according to Lindelof.

"Paramount is certainly looking at it as a franchise movie and thinking about sequels," he said. "But we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. Ideas have been thrown around that are very informal at this point."