Its been a long hard road for a film version of Stephen King’s 'The Dark Tower,' but now production is finally getting underway with news that Idris Elba is confirmed as the gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey will be joining him as the mystical foe known as the man in black.
Both King and the film’s director and co-writer Nikolaj Arcel confirmed the news to EW, while speaking about the film, which Arcel revealed will begin shooting in South Africa in just seven weeks, the director said:
“What Stephen King does best is mixing the everyday, or what you might call the mundane, with the fantastical,” says Arcel. “In my view, [The Dark Tower] novels are a mix between sci-fi and fantasy and modern times. That exact mix is so Stephen King.”Arcel went on to talk about casting Idris Elba in the role, saying:
“For me, it just clicked. He’s such a formidable man,” says Arcel. “I had to go to Idris and tell him my vision for the entire journey with Roland and the ka-tet. We discussed, who is this character? What’s he about? What’s his quest? What’s his psychology? We tried to figure out if we saw the same guy. And we absolutely had all the same ideas and thoughts. He had a unique vision for who Roland would be.”Arced also noted the casting of Matthew McConaughey made just as much sense.
“Matthew is an incredible actor who can do anything. That’s how I feel about Walter Padick. He could do anything…He is this timeless sorcerer, and being a Stephen King fan, I’ve read and experienced Walter in various iterations. He has a very interesting way of seeing the world. He sees it with a sort of delight, even though he is obviously on the wrong side of the light-and-dark spectrum. He’s someone I’ve been having a lot of fun with.”'The Dark Tower' is set for a release on January 13, 2017.
