Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey confirm involvement in “Dark Tower”

PanARMENIAN.Net - "The Dark Tower" is finally getting some good news after years of attempts at being made into a movie. Author Stephen King confirmed that the screen version will feature two heavy-weight actors Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, AceShowbiz reveals.

"It's official: The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed," King tweeted on Tuesday, March 1, referring to the two protagonists in the book and the line that kicks off the book series. Elba tweeted a link to King's tweet and wrote, "@McConaughey you have one new follower. #DarkTowerMovie." McConaughey replied, "@idriselba come and get me, I look forward to it."

McConaughey's name was the first to pop up as the possible contender for the role of Walter Padick aka the Man in Black. The Oscar winner was said to be "in talks" in November last year while Elba's name was linked to the role of Roland Deschain aka the Gunslinger the next month.

King himself thought that Elba was the perfect choice for the Deschain. "For me, it just clicked. He's such a formidable man," he told Entertainment Weekly. "We discussed: who is this character? What's he about? What's his quest? What's his psychology? We tried to figure out if we saw the same guy. And we absolutely had all the same ideas and thoughts."

Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner write the screenplay, which is primarily based on the first book in the series, "The Gunslinger". The novel centers on Deschain, part of a knightly order of gunslingers, who is on a quest to find the tower before evil invades and destroys it. Nikolaj Arcel is directing the pic which is set to open in the U.S. on January 13, 2017.