Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
There are other worlds than these, but in this one, the first official international trailer for Sony/MRC’s The Dark Tower is upon us. The latest Stephen King feature adaptation stars Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba who teased the highly-anticipated movie in a Twitter exchange yesterday. Check out the full trailer above.
A Royal Affair‘s Nikolaj Arcel directs the post-apocalyptic story of Roland Deschain aka The Gunslinger (Elba) who is seeking a Dark Tower, the nexus of all universes, which would preserve his dying world. Along the way, he faces off with Walter O’Dim aka The Man in Black (McConaughey) who is determined to prevent him from toppling the Tower. Caught in the battle of good-vs-evil is young Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) whose earthly visions of the Gunslinger turn out not to be the stuff of dreams.
In the trailer, The Gunslinger tells Jake that The Man in Black is worse than the devil. MIB confirms that, saying, “Did you tell the kid whoever walks with you dies by my hand?” Elba’s Gunslinger also waxes mystical: “I do not aim with my hand,” he says while demonstrating some fancy chamber-loading techniques. And ultimately, “I do not kill with my gun, I kill with my heart.” With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.
Based on the eight-book series of the same name published between 1982 and 2004, the film pulls themes and story threads from all of the tomes. It also pays homage to and links together other King novels; in the trailer, there’s a photo of the exterior of Oregon’s Timberline Lodge where Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was shot.
The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman & Jeff Pinkner and Anders Thomas Jensen & Nikolaj Arcel. Goldsman, Ron Howard and Erica Huggins are producers. Offshore rollout begins July 27 with domestic release set for August 4.
