After much waiting, the hour has come. The first trailer for the adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower has arrived, and it brings mystery, intrigue, and super-cool magic gun trickery. Take a look below.
The clamour and anticipation for this particular trailer has been felt particularly keenly among some corners of the internet; with just four months until release, Sony’s marketing had offered only slim pickings, with a mere teaser posted and a couple of stills all we had to go on. Then yesterday, the film’s two leads, Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba, began exchanging cryptic messages on Twitter (“I deal in lead”) alongside short 15-second teases, before the full trailer was finally released.
Idris Elba plays Roland Deschain, a mysterious ‘Gunslinger’ in an alternative universe known as Mid-World, charged with finding the mythical Dark Tower that will save all existence from extinction. Accompanied by a young boy (Jake Chambers) from our world, the Gunslinger must embark on his quest pursued by the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey).
Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) is directing the film, which previously had J.J. Abrams and Ron Howard in the director’s chair. (Howard is now producing.) The adaptation of Stephen King’s book – considered his magnum opus – has been in various stages of development for nearly ten years. 1982’s The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger is the first of a series of eight books – so if things go well, expect a long-running franchise out of this one.
The quest is nearly upon us: The Dark Tower arrives in US cinemas on 4 August, before a UK release a couple of weeks later on 18 August.
First official look at Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in The Dark Tower