Idris Elba & Matthew McConaughey to star in film version of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower"

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Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 03/01/2016 - 10:10

From Short List Magazine:

The film adaptation of Stephen King's legendary Dark Tower series is finally about to begin: Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey have been confirmed as the two leads.

The news came via a tweet from the man himself:

Stephen KingVerified account ‏@StephenKing 2h2 hours ago

It's official: The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. #DarkTowerMovie @McConaughey @IdrisElba

The film will not be an adaptation of the first book of eight in the series, The Gunslinger, which had been widely expected. It is not known which book, or books, will be the source material but seemingly "a lot" of the movie will take place in the modern world - which seems to mean it won't be based on the fourth book, Wizard and Glass, which deals with flashbacks to Roland's youth.

Elba will play Roland Deschain, the gunslinger, with McConaughey lining up as his mystical foe: Randall Flagg, aka The Man in Black.

Source: Short List Magazine

Commentary: We had been hearing this for a while, so it's nice to finally hear it confirmed. I am a huge Dark Tower fan. I actually have no idea if a movie or series of movies can do justice to the series, but I still want to see it. The casting so far sounds pretty perfect. I love Idris Elba, and he should be awesome as Roland! I will probably do a Critical Depth column in the near future about The Dark Tower.