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The Dark Tower: First official look at Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in the Stephen King adaptation

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Nikolaj Arcel will direct the film based on the iconic author's epic series of books 

Clarisse Loughrey
Friday 15 July 2016 09:25 BST
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A new Stephen King adaptation is always good cause for excitement.

Yet, a Stephen King adaptation starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey? Consider us triple-sold. King's The Dark Tower series of eight novels, with other books contributing to his world-building, is truly epic; a mix of fantasy, horror, and western set in a realm known as Mid-World, and centered around Roland Deschain.

The last living member of the knightly order of gunslingers, his fabled quest is to find The Dark Tower that is rumoured to be the nexus of all universes before it's destroyed by The Man in Black, Walter; a warlock who has already reigned destruction on the people of Mid-World.

The project has been hot property in Hollywood for a while now, with Ron Howard, J.J. Abrams, and Brian Grazer amongst those who attempted to launch a big screen adaptation of the book series. Sony has now, finally, successfully started production on the film; with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Nikolaj Arcel onboard as director.

And we've finally been offered our first official look at the film thanks to Entertainment Weekly, after a small flurry of set pics allowed a glimpse at Elba and McConaughey's character looks. First up, is Elba's take on Roland Deschain himself. "When we meet Roland he’s a bit lost," Elba says of his character. "He’s been walking around for a long time, so he definitely feels like a man who’s… coiled."

Idris Elba in The Dark Tower (2017)

"There’s a mystical element to him. He’s about 200 years old. He’s been around for a long time, and has a deep-rooted connection with the [supernatural] nature of the film. Roland’s completely tuned into that. When you meet him, he’s very much a stoic man, doesn’t want to talk. But when you get to know him, he really knows quite a bit about the world and his world’s history."

In his way is McConaughey's The Man in Black, though the actor doesn't consider the character a straight villain. "Well, he is a man, actually. They wanted to go very human and grounded with this. Obviously, there are mythical proportions of good and evil in Walter. But we didn’t want to go overly fantastic. That would drop the humanity. So Walter, for me, is a man who exposes hypocrisies."

Matthew McConaughey in the The Dark Tower (2017)

"You know, he’s not literally the Devil, but I sure as hell think about him like the Devil. I think like the Devil would."


The Dark Tower hits UK cinemas 17 February 2017.

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