If you’re unfamiliar with the background of ‘The Dark Tower‘, let me quickly summarise it for you: Stephen King took a break from writing horror stories that he wrote himself into pseudonymously and decided to instead write a combination fantasy / western / science fiction story that he wrote himself into by name.
The series follows gunslinger Roland Deschain, the last of an order of half-samurai / half-cowboys, as he shoots his way through the multiverse and makes new friends – and now, like all things that are good, it’s being turned into a movie.
How the movie fits in with the books is a little bit unclear, with it variously being described as a sort of adaptation and a sequel, but it looks like it will centre around 11-year-old boy Jake Chambers (played by Tom Taylor) as he assists Roland (Idris Elba) in taking out Walter Padick / The Man In Black (Matthew McConaughey), a sort of eternal villain who has featured in a lot of King’s work.
Luckily for both of us, not enough info is really available this stage for me to spoil the movie for you, so instead, you can just shovel this trailer directly into your face:
The film is directed by Nikolaj Arcel, whose previous noteworthy credits as a director are nearly entirely Danish drama films, so this should be a bit of a change.
It comes out in Australia on August 17th.
Photo: YouTube.
