A pair of Dark Tower TV spots has hit the airwaves to pit good against evil; one focusing on Idris Elba’s Gunslinger Roland Deschain, the other on Matthew McConaughey’s Devil incarnate The Man in Black.
The highly anticipated (and several times delayed) adaptation of Stephen King’s books is due to hit screens on August 4th, and also stars Fran Kranz, Abbey Lee, Jackie Earle Haley and Katheryn Winnick, under the direction of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo scripter Nikolaj Arcel. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are producing the film under their Imagine Entertainment banner, together with Stephen King and Erica Huggins.
Rather than directly following the stories laid out in one or all of King’s Dark Tower books, the film is something of an amalgamation-cum-continuation of The Gunslinger’s journey, walking its own path within the book series’ universe.
The recent full trailer for The Dark Tower contained nods to both The Shining and It, kicking off the multiple tie-ins we can expect to see in numerous upcoming adaptations of the author’s work. Suffice to say, this could be the beginning of the most exciting cinematic ‘expanded universe’ yet.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)
