Dark Tower, the movie

A massive new cover story on the film adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" has arrived online with plenty of new official shots of Elba and Matthew McConaughey as The Gunslinger and the Man in Black respectively. The pair have also spoken with EW about the project which has been shooting in South Africa and New York.

Of his character, Elba says:

"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…When we meet Roland he's a bit lost. He's been walking around for a long time, so he definitely feels like a man who's… coiled….Until he meets Jake. He's really pent up and releases his soul through [defending] the boy."

Jake Chambers, played by Tom Taylor, is focal point of both Roland and the man in black's plans in the film. Jake lives in our reality, as opposed to the apocalyptic Mid-World that Roland hails from, and has the ability to 'shine' - a power both Roland and the Man in Black want from Jake. The Man in Black needs him to bring the titular tower crashing down, Roland needs the tower preserved for his own journey. McConaughey talked about his character, essentially The Devil of the Stephen King books:

"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."

Author Stephen King spoke about his role in developing the film and the changes he made to the script:

"I took a pen and cut Roland's dialogue to the bone. The less he says the better off, and why not? Idris Elba can act with his face. He's terrific at it. He projects that sense of combined menace and security. [Roland] is the Western hero, the strong, silent type: 'Yep,' 'Nope,' and 'Draw.'"

Director Nikolaj Arcel confirmed one of the more recent theories about the film - that it's actually a sequel to the book series and not a straight adaptation:

"The hardcore fans of The Dark Tower series will know that this is actually a sequel to the books in a way. It has a lot of the same elements, a lot of the same characters, but it is a different journey.”

The mag also confirms that the key characters of both Eddie and Susannah Dean will not be a part of the first film, but could appear in the sequel if the first proves a success. "The Dark Tower" is scheduled for release on February 17th 2017.


Oh, and Jake is a Breaker.