Movies
Matthew McConaughey Chose ‘The Dark Tower’ Over ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’
Deciding between two franchise is the hardest decision a Matthew McConaughey will ever make.
McConaughey’s next big role is in the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower in which he’ll play the antagonist, the Man in Black, opposite Idris Elba.
And while Dark Tower is a fantasy, it’s also grounded in reality, which is just one of the reasons he chose the role over an undisclosed one in James Gunn’s Guardian’s of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
“I like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, but what I saw was ‘It’s successful, and now we’ve got room to make a colorful part for another big-name actor,’ ” he tells Playboy. “I’d feel like an amendment. ‘The Dark Tower’ script was well written, I like the director and his take on it, and I can be the creator, the author of the Man in Black — a.k.a. the Devil — in my version of this Stephen King novel.”
He continues: “We’ve done the first one. It’s a fantastic thriller that takes place in another realm, an alternate universe, but it’s very much grounded. For instance, the gunslinger’s weapon isn’t a lightsaber or something; it’s a pistol. I enjoyed approaching my character as if I were the Devil having a good time, getting turned on by exposing human hypocrisies wherever he finds them.”
So, while McConaughey is playing the Devil in Dark Tower, he loves that it’s both realistic and that he had the opportunity to bring his epic acting chops to the character. Instead of jumping into a role that’s prescribed, he can now be inventive and bring the Man in Black in the way that he wanted, allegedly.
In theaters July 28, 2017, Elba stars as Gunslinger Roland Deschain, who roams an Old West-like landscape in search of the dark tower, in the hopes that reaching it will preserve his dying world. The film is not a direct adaptation of any of the books in the series from author Stephen King but is rather a continuation and semi-amalgamation of what’s already out there. It’s hinted that the film takes place towards the end of Deschain’s journey. Fran Kranz, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbey Lee, and Kathryn Winnick also star.
The Dark Tower was directed by Nikolaj Arcel and produced by Akiva Goldman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Erica Hughes.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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