You could be forgiven for thinking a movie adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series never actually saw the light of day. Attempts to bring the film to life have been going on since 2007, and there seemingly had not been a lot of chatter about the current iteration. However, a trailer for The Dark Tower has finally surfaced, giving us our first (non-leaked) look at The Gunslinger and The Man in Black.
It certainly is a daunting task to try and bring King’s sprawling, strange series to the screen, which is perhaps why director Nikolaj Arcel’s film is being considered an atypical adaptation that is sometimes called a “sequel.” What does appear to be typical, though, is the movie itself. Or, at the very least, that’s the way the trailer is cut. It seems like your usual modern action film, but on the other hand it seems like your usual modern actual film starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, which could be quite cool.
Elba plays Roland Deschain, aka The Gunslinger, who is on a quest to stop Walter Padick, The Man in Black, who is played by McConaughey. The relative unknown Tom Taylor plays Jake Chambers, who rounds out the main trio of the film. The Dark Tower was supposed to be released in February, but is now scheduled to come out August 4. That may not be a good sign, especially since it was swapped out of a July release date for The Emoji Movie, but you’d like to remain optimistic for now.