Two major stars could be climbing Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. One hopes to cancel the apocalypse…
Supreme badass Idris Elba is in early talks to play gunslinger Roland Deschain in The Dark Tower, with Matthew McConaughey in negotiations to play the villainous Man in Black, TheWrap writes.
Sony Pictures and MRC are co-financing the ambitious feature film, which Nikolaj Arcel will direct from a script by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner that’s primarily based on the first book in King’s series, “The Gunslinger.” Arcel is currently working with Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen (Election Night) to rewrite the script.
Some interesting additional news is that Elba, who starred in Prometheus, had recently been sought to star alongside Tom Cruise in The Mummy for Universal but he passed on the project last week. The site’s insiders suggest he was waiting for McConaughey’s talks for The Dark Tower to progress before entertaining the idea of scaling The Dark Tower, as the two actors are keen to work together.
McConaughey had previously been offered the role of Roland several weeks ago but found himself drawn to the Man in Black upon reading the script.
King’s book blends horror and fantasy to tell the tale of a gunslinger who has taken up the lifelong quest of locating The Dark Tower – which is the nexus of the universe — before evil invades and destroys the tower, ending all existence.
Pinkner is expected to executive produce with MRC, which is also developing a companion TV series that’s long been part of the adaptation plans.