Fans of Stephen
King's The Dark Tower book series should start adjusting their expectations for what the
upcoming film based on the much beloved book series starring Idris Elba and
Matthew McConaughey will be. Although it will begin the same way the book does ("The
man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed"), the
Nikolaj Arcel film will "remix the novels much the way superhero movies
often draw from decades of comics mythology to create a new cinematic origin
story."
Speaking to EW, Elba
explains that his character Roland Deschain, a.k.a. The Gunslinger is at the
start of the film driven by rage even though deep down inside he is something
else entirely. "‘He’s a protector,’"
Elba says. "He just needs something to reawaken that part of himself."
That something is a
young psychic boy named Jake (Tom Taylor), who is being tracked by a powerful
warlock called Walter, aka The Man in Black (McConaughey, who wants to use the
boy's Shine ability to bring down the ethereal beams that keep the Tower
standing and maintain order in the multiverse, including Mid-World, the film's
setting. "Until he meets Jake, he doesn’t
have anything to believe in, really," Elba adds. "He’s really pent up
and releases his soul through [defending] the boy."
In King's novels,
Roland is described as a white male, but Elba looks beyond the character's
physical description and says that what truly matters is what is inside.
"It’s better
just to treat it like no big deal," Elba
answers. "There should be no difference. The character that was written in
Stephen’s imagination, it could be any color. It just happens to be me and, you
know? In the artwork, it just so happens to be a white guy, but I don’t think
that makes any difference. … I think what’s great about it, if I want to say
anything about it, is that it is a sign of the times in terms of a colorless
society. People go, ‘A good actor is a good actor,’ you know?"
"There’s a
mystical element to him," Elba continues. "He’s about 200 years old.
He’s been around for a long time, and has a deep-rooted connection with the
[supernatural] nature of the film. Roland’s completely tuned into that. When
you meet him, he’s very much a stoic man, doesn’t want to talk. But when you
get to know him, he really knows quite a bit about the world and his world’s
history."
Opening in theaters
on February 17, 2017, The Dark Tower also stars Claudia Kim ("Avengers:
Age of Ultron"), Jackie Earle Haley ("Preacher"), Abbey Lee ("Mad
Max: Fury Road"), Katheryn Winnick ("Vikings"), Franz Kranz ("Cabin
in the Woods"), Michael Barbieri ("Spider-Man: Homecoming"),
José Zuñiga ("Victor"), Alex McGregor ("Young Ones"), and
Nicholas Hamilton ("Captain Fantastic").
Source - THR
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