Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey are set to bring Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels to life next February, kickstarting what is very clearly a massive franchise in the making. To mark King's 69th birthday Wednesday, the team behind the Dark Tower movie spilled some promising details about the series to Entertainment Weekly. MRC and Sony Pictures are so confident in the story, they've already committed to at least 10 episodes.
The untitled The Dark Tower series, which is still shy a distributor, will begin filming next year ahead of a hopeful 2018 release. The tentative release is timed to coincide with the VOD and cable arrival of the Dark Tower film, directed and co-written by Nikolaj Arcel. Elba has already signed on for the series, with McConaughey's involvement still considered a possibility.
The series will mostly take inspiration from Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in King's series of novels. Additionally, Roland Deschain (Elba)'s backstory will be filled in with the events of The Gunslinger. Tom Taylor will reprise his role as Jake Chambers, while McConaughey's character Walter will appear with or without the actor's involvement.
"If the movie chronicles [Roland's] final reach toward hope again, the TV show is the loss of that hope," co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman toldEntertainment Weekly Tuesday, adding that the series will be a more straightforward adaptation of King's work than the film.
The Dark Tower, the movie, arrives Feb. 17, 2017.
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