Elba stars in Dark Tower film

Idris Elba

NEW YORK • Idris Elba is stepping into a legendary gunslinger role - but it is not James Bond.

He has been cast alongside Matthew McConaughey in the long-awaited film adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. King confirmed the news on Twitter.

The Dark Tower is an eight-book fantasy series that made its debut in 1982. The books have regularly appeared on bestseller lists and have been spun into comics, short stories and an online game.

But a film adaptation has proved more elusive: Talks swirled over the last decade involving various studios and leading men, including Russell Crowe and Javier Bardem.

Now, Sony Pictures has picked up the project, which will be directed by Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair, 2012) and is slated for release in January next year.

Elba will play the gunslinger Roland Deschain and McConaughey will play his nemesis, known as the man in black.

Akiva Goldsman, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Erica Huggins will serve as producers.

According to an interview with EW.com, King said the movie would cover material from the middle of the book series and take place in the modern day.

The first lines of the movie will be the first lines of the book: "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed."

NEW YORK TIMES

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 03, 2016, with the headline Elba stars in Dark Tower film. Subscribe