Last year we were pretty stoked to learn that Idris Elba was the rumored favorite to play the iconic gunslinger Roland Deschain in the film franchise adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, and now, we need speculate no longer—Elba will officially be slinging some guns as Roland of Gilead. In other unbelievably perfect casting news, Matthew McConaughey is finally also confirmed to play The Man in Black.
Stephen King, who had already voiced his support for Elba’s casting, took to Twitter to confirm the news earlier today.
It’s official: The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. #DarkTowerMovie @McConaughey @IdrisElba
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 1, 2016
And Elba and McConaughey are already getting into character:
.@McConaughey you have one new follower. #DarkTowerMovie https://t.co/5fSKF02C7I
— Idris Elba (@idriselba) March 1, 2016
.@idriselba come and get me, I look forward to it. #DarkTowerMoviehttps://t.co/4gxqm2GPo3
— Matthew McConaughey (@McConaughey) March 1, 2016
The Dark Tower‘s first film will be directed by The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo‘s Nikolaj Arcel, and will also star Mad Max‘s Abbey Lee as Tirana—Tirana isn’t a character from the first few volumes of books, so I’m very curious what’s happening there. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, King offered up some hints as to what Tirana’s inclusion might mean, saying, “[The movie] starts in media res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they’ll get behind it, because it is the story.”
Arcel told EW in regards to some of the fan concerns about casting a Black actor to play Roland, “Some fans are asking, understandably, ‘What about the racial tension?’ But as the story progresses that will be made clear, how we’ll deal with all those things.”
According to Variety, the first The Dark Tower movie will premiere on Jan. 13, 2017.
(via Pajiba and Den of Geek)
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