Dark Tower trailer: Idris Elba faces off with Matthew McConaughey

It’s the moment Stephen King fans have been waiting for – his fantasy epic ‘The Dark Tower’ has finally been brought to life.

After some teasers from its stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey on Twitter yesterday, and some pretty cool motion posters released online, we’ve got our first proper look at the forthcoming movie.

Elba plays the ‘gunslinger’ Roland Deschain, the last of his kind who roam the post-apocalyptic Mid-World, which exists in parallel to Earth, in search of the ‘dark tower’, the nexus of all universes. He hopes to save all life from extinction. Nothing trivial, then.

Pitted against him is McConaughey’s Walter Padick, aka the Man In Black, a warlock who wishes to destroy the tower.

In the midst of the power struggle is Tom Taylor’s Jake Chambers, who has visions of the other world, and will become Deschain’s protege.

Written over eight books, King’s vision is labyrinthine, with the movie having been in one stage of development or another for over a decade (and it’s already had its release date pushed back twice by Sony).

J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard have both been involved in the past, but it eventually fell to Danish director Nikolaj Arcel to bring it to the screen, director of arty European dramas like ‘A Royal Affair’ with Mads Mikkelsen.

Also starring Jackie Earl Haley, Katheryn Winnick, Abbey Lee Kershaw and Frank Kranz, it’s due out in the UK on August 4.

Read more
Bardem: I hate movie violence
Ridley Scott says aliens exist and could kill us all
Fast 8 hits $1 billion