Columbia Pictures just pulled the trigger on the official trailer for The Dark Tower, which I would say looks like a ripoff of various sci-fi classics if it had not been adapted from a series of books by Stephen King.
Idris Elba plays 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. He’s accompanied by Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), with Matthew McConaughey playing the Man in Black.
Elba provides the trailer’s voiceover, which really, really, really makes him not only sound like a Jedi… but the last Jedi! His mind and heart guide his gun, while the battle of good and evil collide in what look like scenes straight out of The Matrix with a taste of modern effects from something like Doctor Strange. The most bizarre coincidence is the arc that’s built around the tower, which is nearly identical to Disney’s Tomorrowland (I guess writer Damon Lindelof is a Stephen King fan?). If you’re going to pull from other films, you may as well from the best, no? No matter, the trailer looks wild and I’m definitely drawing out my wallet and pulling the trigger on tickets as soon as it’s possible. You?
Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) is a young 11-year-old adventure seeker who discovers clues about another dimension called Mid-World. Upon following the mystery, he is spirited away to Mid-World where he encounters the lone frontiersman knight Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), who is on a quest to reach the ‘Dark Tower’ that resides in End-World and reach the nexus point between time and space that he hopes will save Mid-World from extinction. But with various monsters and a vicious sorcerer named Walter Padick (Matthew McConaughey) hot on their trail, the unlikely duo find that their quest may be difficult to complete.
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.
The film also stars Fran Kranz, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbey Lee, and Kathryn Winnick.
The Dark Tower, which was recently delayed to Aug. 4, 2017, was directed by Nikolaj Arcel and produced by Akiva Goldman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, and Erica Hughes.
