The Dark Tower movie: Everything you need to know

From Digital Spy

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." So starts The Dark Tower, legendary horror writer Stephen King's seven-volume, multiverse-spanning, 22-years-in-the-making magnum opus.

In the spirit of full disclosure, we have to confess that we never thought The Dark Tower would ever see the light of day after nine long years of struggling to get the film off the ground. But the adaptation has shot, and is (slowly) making its way to a cinema near you.

So we'll break off from our delicious meal of crow (or forgetting the faces of our fathers, as we Dark Tower nerds would have it) for a moment to get you up to speed on the little horror/Western/post-apocalyptic mash-up that could.

Dark Tower trailer: enter the Man in Black

The first trailer has finally arrived after much anticipation giving us our first proper look at the Gun Slinger and the Man in Black who go head to head for the fate of the world aided by small red-headed child Jake.

And with it came these snazzy new posters. Yep. Snazzy - we said snazzy.

Dark Tower movie release date: It's finally coming

The Dark Tower is indeed coming. Eventually. Its release date was going to be February 17 – which obviously didn't happen.

It was postponed until July 28, apparently to leave more time for promotion and special effects. And then again, until August 18.

Dark Tower movie cast: Assembling the ka-tet

The film might not make full use of The Dark Tower's unique vocabulary, but we're not going to spare you a bit of an education, just in case. For starters, we have 'ka-tet', which refers to the series' heroes – it's the equivalent of the Fellowship in Lord of the Rings.

Leading the ka-tet is everyone's favourite James Bond hopeful Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, the eponymous Gunslinger of the first book in the series. The casting represents a change in race for the character, who is usually portrayed as white – one that remarkably seems to have attracted minimal 'I'm not racist but' complaints for a change (and writer/producer Akiva Goldsman has some choice words for any dissenters).

(Elba is already fully embracing the Dark Tower lingo, incidentally.)

Matthew McConaughey will appear as his nemesis, the sorcerer known as the Man in Black – a character that has actually shown up not only in the Dark Tower series but throughout King's stories (including The Stand) as an agent of chaos and general evildoing. And as you can see, we've already had a glimpse of him rocking his all-black look.

Young Doctor Foster actor Tom Taylor will join Roland as Jake Chambers, a young boy from New York and one of the ka-tet, with South African actress Alex McGregor as Roland's first (and very dead) love Susan, and Watchmen's Jackie Earle Haley as Richard Sayre, one of the creepy animal-human hybrids called the Low Men. Cabin in the Woods actor Fran Kranz is also on board as another villain from the books, Pimli Prentiss.

Abbey Lee Kershaw will play the Low Man Tirana – a very minor character in the books – and Avengers: Age of Ultron's Claudia Kim is Arra Champignon, an ally of Roland who featured in one of Marvel's Dark Tower comics. José Zúñiga is Dr Hotchkiss – Jake's shrink – and young actor Michael Barbieri will play the unknown character Timmy. Vikings' Katheryn Winnick is also on board in an unannounced role.

There are several key characters – including the members of Roland's ka-tet Susannah and Eddie Dean – who apparently won't be in the movie at all. Sony will surely be keeping their fingers crossed that the first film does well enough that we'll get to see them in instalments later down the line...

Dark Tower movie plot: There are other worlds than these

The Dark Tower was originally published in seven volumes between 1982 and 2004, with a further book set in the middle of the story released in 2012, as well as various expansions and adaptations published by Marvel Comics since 2007.

We've already got some funky names and concepts down, but how does it all fit together? Here's The Dark Tower series in a nutshell:

Roland is the last Gunslinger – a group of cowboy types descended from a King Arthur figure and charged with protecting the decaying kingdom of Mid-World. After failing spectacularly and seeing all his friends and family die, Roland becomes obsessed with finding the Dark Tower, the semi-mythic centre of all reality, and demanding answers to his questions from whatever lives there.

Along the way, he forms a new ka-tet with Jake, Eddie, Susannah and a billy-bumbler called Oy (a raccoon-like creature with the limited ability to speak). They face off against the Crimson King – a supernatural being who turns out to be involved in many of King's stories – and his minions, going through various trials in Mid-World and 20th-century New York City, and foil plots to destroy the Tower along the way.

The film will apparently be a "continuation" rather than a remake of the series. King, who seems to be heavily involved in the project in his role as producer, has said that the story starts "in media res" and has predicted that the project "may upset some of the fans a little bit" before they "get behind it".

And King seems to be taking the chance to address the controversial ending of the final book, hinting that the Horn of Eld, an object of mysterious significance in the story, will be in Roland's possession in this version.

The Dark Tower is currently being planned as a series of movies, and it's unclear if or how it will follow the seven original books, although one classic moment is being teased.

We won't spoil it for you, but it doesn't mean anything good for Jake.

Dark Tower movie director: Third time's the charm

In the nine years since the adaptation was first announced, The Dark Tower has passed through the hands of several studios and been planned as films, television series and a mix of both.

It has also attracted some major filmmaking names. First, future Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams was attached to the project, but by 2009 he was out.

Then, Ron Howard of Happy Days and A Beautiful Mind fame had a lengthy association with the adaptation. During that time, Aaron Paul, Russell Crowe and Liam Neeson were all rumoured for roles in the project.

When The Dark Tower was finally announced to be moving ahead in 2015, it seemed that Howard was out (though he remained on board as a producer) and Danish A Royal Affair filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel would direct instead.

And under Arcel, the film has miraculously gone into shooting in South Africa, with pictures of Idris Elba in full gunslinger gear already in circulation.

The Dark Tower TV series: Wizard and Glass

A companion TV series will also be released, and don't worry – Elba will be showing up in that too. Although he probably won't star in it.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the show will be based mainly on King's fourth Dark Tower novel, Wizard and Glass. The largest part of that book is given over to a story of Roland's youth, including his graduation to being a full Gunslinger and his first adventure, which takes him to a small Western-style town where he meets evil cowboys, a deadly witch and his aforementioned one true love, Susan.

Elba and Taylor will feature in the framing device, and a new actor will be cast as young Roland. No confirmation yet on whether McConaughey will put in an appearance, but he certainly isn't one of those Hollywood actors for who that would be completely out of the question.

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