the dark tower
Stephen King’s magnum opus nabs an A-list cast.
Described by author Stephen King as his “magnum opus”, the eight Dark Tower books (totalling 4,250 pages) have been attracting, and defeating, film adaptations since 2007.
J.J. Abrams came and went. Ron Howard likewise. Javier Bardem, Viggo Mortensen and Russell Crowe all circled lead character Roland Deschain, the last of a knightly order of gunslingers who moves between the Old West-alike ‘Mid-World’ and the modern world as he quests for the Dark Tower, nexus of time and space. But now, at last, the gigantic project is truly headed our way...
Casting the die
Idris Elba has signed on as Roland, so quick on the draw he could out-shoot James Bond, and Matthew McConaughey is confirmed as his nemesis the Man In Black (who is also the Big Bad in King’s post-apocalyptic epic The Stand, though he goes by the name of Randall Flagg). On 1 March, Elba tweeted McConaughey saying, “You have one new follower” – a decent gag given first book The Gunslinger sees Roland pursuing the Man In Black – and the Oscar-winner replied ‘Come and get me, I look forward to it’. As do we.
The Man In Charge
The project began life at Warner Bros with sister company HBO also seen as a possible outlet (why not go multimedia, given there are not just the Dark Tower novels but also Marvel comics and a videogame?) but is now at Sony, with A Royal Affair’s Nikolaj Arcel at the helm. Arcel has said of the first movie, due in February 2017, that “a lot of it takes place in our day” – perhaps a ploy to hook viewers before the action morphs into a western. Did you see those Hateful Eight numbers?
Origin story
The Dark Tower is also a dark fantasy and science fantasy, tinged with horror. Originally inspired by Robert Browning’s poem ‘Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came’, King was also influenced by Tolkien’s Middle-earth, Arthurian legend and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. He even created a language for his characters, High Speech. It is a life’s work: “I started these stories as a senior in college, sitting in a little shitty cabin beside the river in Maine, and finally this thing is actually in pre-production…” gasps the 68-year-old writer.
Extended universe
So the big question is: how many movies can we expect? Is the 2017 film collapsing several novels into one film (King has confirmed that it starts in the middle of the books’ narrative), or might there be eight movies à la the Harry Potter series? Right now, nobody knows, and you can bet the answer lies in the box-office figures of the first instalment. But given the story takes in multiple universes, there’s enough material to run and run. We’ll certainly follow… JG
ETA | 17 February The Dark Tower opens next year.