For years, the best of us have tried to make a movie adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, but now it’s finally happening. Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey were cast as the Gunslinger and the Man in Black in director Nikolaj Arcel’s film, and photos from the set have already begun leaking out to give us a first look. However, for as long as fans have been waiting for this moment, King says the movie won’t be a strict page-to-screen adaptation.
During an interview on the EW podcast (via BMD), the horror author at least promised the film will begin as the book does:
"I expect that the movie will start where the books start. Y'know, "The man in black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.” I think that nails it right in place for people...I've been pretty insistent on that, and I think everyone's onboard with it."
King continued to explain some of the changes fans can expect:
"It starts sort of in medias res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit. But they will get behind it, because it is the story."
The Dark Tower will be based primarily on the first novel, The Gunslinger, in which the titular hero and the mysterious, many-named magician, the Man in Black, play a cat-and-mouse game as they head to the mystical tower at the center of Mid-World, the fantastical world in which they live. But as King cautions, fans may want to brace themselves for the inclusion of story points from the author's entire Dark Tower saga and not just this first book.
Rounding out the primary cast are Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) as female lead Tirana, Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) as the vampire leader Sayre, Fran Kranz as the Man in Black’s righthand man, and Katheryn Winnick (Vikings).
The Dark Tower will hit theaters on February 17, 2017.
