Originally published August 2, 2017. Updated December 17, 2019.
The Dark Tower stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey recently say down with Cinemablend to discuss what convinced them to sign on to play The Gunslinger and Man in Black respectively in the upcoming Stephen King adaptation. Their answers are surprisingly simple: Originality. Check out what the pair had to say below:
Elba: “What brought me was this opportunity to make something original, something that was definitely going to be an exercise for the imagination of any audience, whether you read the books or not. Getting to play a gunslingin’ hero, that was my main one. Outside of wanting to work with Matthew [McConaughey] and Nic [Arcel] and the Sony team, it was really about this page one fantastic new idea, new film, new concept, new franchise, new hero.”
McConaughey: “There are franchises out there, and I’ve seen them, had some offers, and they were ones that I even liked. But I felt like they were the second or third one, and the characters I was being offered were sort of an amendment to the story, because they’d succeeded earlier. This came across my desk, and I said, ‘Oh, this is original, a chance to get in on the ground floor, to have some authorship with the character that I would go play.’ To get in with Idris, Nikolaj, and Sony, and the creators, and go ‘Hey, we’re gonna be the first to tell the story. We’re gonna be the first to present you The Dark Tower.’ And if it’s a success, we can come back and do another one.”
It remains to be seen how The Dark Tower will fare with critics. Delays, and recent reports of director Nikolaj Arcel fighting with producers over the final cut of the film does not leave one feeling optimistic. However, the source material is strong, and the trailers look promising enough. Hopefully this will be The Dark Tower movie that fans have been hoping for.
There are other worlds than these. Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, the ambitious and expansive story from one of the world’s most celebrated authors, makes its launch to the big screen. The last Knight Warrior, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter O’Dim, also known as the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.
The Dark Tower is set for release on August 4th in the States and August 18th in the UK, and sees Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) directing a cast that includes Idris Elba (Luther) as Roland Deschain, Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar) as the Man in Black, Tom Taylor (Doctor Foster) as Jake Chambers, Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Tirana, Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods) as Pimli, Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) as Richard Sayre, Michael Barbieri (Little Men) as Timmy, Claudia Kim (Avengers: Age of Ultron) as Arra Champignon and Katheryn Winnick (Vikings) as Laurie Chambers.
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