From Sony, director Nikolaj Arcel and based on the acclaimed series of novels by Stephen King comes The Dark Tower. Starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Jackie Earle Haley, Katheryn Winnick, Abbey Lee, Fran Kranz, Jake Chambers and Claudia Kiim the film is scheduled to hit theaters January 13, 2017.
Gunslinger Roland Deschain roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world.
EW has released the first OFFICIAL looks at Dark Tower stars Idris Elba as Roland the Gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as the villain Randall Flagg. Also, some important story details have been revealed including the most major one in my opinion – the fact that the first movie in this potential blockbuster franchise is a sequel to Stephen King’s novels and not a direct adaptation of the books or Marvel Comic series.
“The hardcore fans of The Dark Tower series will know that this is actually a sequel to the books in a way.It has a lot of the same elements, a lot of the same characters, but it is a different journey,” said Director Nikolaj Arcel.
Other important characters from the series: Eddie and Susannah Dean, will NOT be featured in this movie but if the film is successful we can all expect to see them join up in a sequel down the road. King himself went over the script and made some important adjustments to Roland specifically as well…
“I took a pen and cut Roland’s dialogue to the bone.The less he says the better off, and why not? Idris Elba can act with his face. He’s terrific at it. He projects that sense of combined menace and security. [Roland] is the Western hero, the strong, silent type: ‘Yep,’ ‘Nope,’ and ‘Draw.’” said King.
When it comes to Randall Flagg, who fans know to be an evil and very mythic sorcerer in the novels – McConaughey revealed that the film will ground his character in reality a bit more, saying:
“They wanted to go very human and grounded with this. Obviously there are mythical proportions of good and evil in Walter. But we didn’t want to go overly fantastic. That would drop the humanity. So Walter, for me, is a man who exposes hypocrisies,” said McConaughey.
For the entire story and images head to EW.com