So Stephen King’s cult classic series of novels has been talked about, rumored, green light, red light, tossed aside picked back up, dusted off, only to be tossed aside again and again. Fans of the series of novels that started with The Gunslinger back in the early 80’s have been chomping at the bit only to have their hopes and dreams dashed over and over, well that has finally changed as filming is set to begin this spring with two heavy weights as the stars and some solid talent behind the lens. Idris Elba has been cast as Roland the series protagonist, The Gunslinger on a quest to reach The Dark Tower and none other than Matthew Mcconaughey (Alright, Alright, Alright) has been cast as The Man in Black, Rolland’s nemesis.
Fans can rejoice, well for the most part. One of the major problems with launching this series has been just how the hell will they possibly cover that much epic territory, the books are massive and there are seven of them. Stephen King and The Dark Tower director Nikolaj Arcel recently sat down with EW and revealed that the film will not start off at the beginning of the series that starts with The Gunslinger but instead will pick up somewhere near the middle of the series. King had this to say about the approach to the upcoming film adaptation:
[The movie] starts in media res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they’ll get behind it, because it is the story.
Needless to say we will find out just what they have in store for us as production starts in a few weeks with an opening set for a January 13th release date next year.