By: Caitlin Elam
“For thousands of generations, the Gunslingers were knights, sworn to protect us from the coming of the dark,” Idris Elba’s bassit’s voice intones over dystopian sound effects with action clips and panning wide-angle lens shots.
The spine-tingling trailer for The Dark Tower promises to be every bit the acclaimed piece of work in film version that the best-selling book series by Stephen King is in print. Fans of the literary series should take caution though, because the movie is said to be more of a “sequel” to King’s “magnum opus” than a direct adaptation. They should, however, be heartened to know that King had a very hands-on influence as one of the movie’s producers, along with legendary Ron Howard.
Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), the Last Gunslinger, is from another dimension where he is in constant battle with Walter O’Dim (Matthew McConaughey), also known as the Man in Black, who is said by Deschain to be “worse” than the Devil. The Dark Tower, from which the movie is named, is the aptly-named structure that holds the whole universe together. Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), a youth displaced from Earth via portal who has had visions of this epic battle between Deschain and O’Dim, teams up with Deschain to protect the Dark Tower from destruction, lest billions of people on Earth are annihilated.
From the trailer, even someone who has not read the books can be excited for the promised non-stop thrilling race to prevent multi-dimensional ruin by The Man in Black and his army of monsters.
“I do not aim with my hand … I aim with my eye. I do not shoot with my hand… I shoot with my mind. I do not kill with my gun … I kill with my heart.”
Release date: August 4, 2017 (USA)
Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Adapted from: The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
Producers: Stephen King, Ron Howard, Akiva Goldsman, Brian Grazer
