Idris Elba in talks to play The Dark Tower’s Roland

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Last month, we learned that Matthew McConaughey had been offered his choice of two roles in Sony and MRC’s epic adaptation of Stephen King’s THE DARK TOWER series – he could play either the hero, gunslinger Roland Deschain, or the villain, the Man in Black. McConaughey chose the Man in Black, but it hasn’t taken long for producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer to find the Roland they want to pit against him.

Idris Elba has entered negotiations to play Roland Deschain, passing on the chance to co-star in THE MUMMY with Tom Cruise (despite denials, the trades insist Cruise will be in THE MUMMY) and Sofia Boutella so he can focus on closing the DARK TOWER deal. Elba and McConaughey are reportedly wanting to work on something together, and THE DARK TOWER may just be it.

Howard and Grazer have been trying to get an extremely ambitious adaptation of THE DARK TOWER that will span across films and television off the ground for years. Before landing at Sony, the project had been set up, and fell apart, at Universal and Warner Bros. Javier Bardem and Russell Crowe were attached to play Roland in earlier iterations.

Nikolaj Arcel is set to direct THE DARK TOWER from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner that he is currently rewriting with Anders Thomas Jensen.

The Dark Tower saga centers on 

a gunslinger who has taken up the lifelong quest of locating The Dark Tower – which is the nexus of the universe — before evil invades and destroys the tower, ending all existence.

Elba and McConaughey had never crossed my mind as possibilities for their characters, but if they are able to close their deals to star in the film I think Roland and the Man in Black will be in very good hands.