The Dark Tower is a 2017 American neo-Western science fantasy film loosely based on Stephen King's novel series of the same name. Directed and co-written by Nikolaj Arcel, the film stars Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, a gunslinger on a quest to protect the Dark Tower—a mythical structure which supports all realities—while Matthew McConaughey plays his nemesis Walter Padick, and Tom Taylor stars as Jake Chambers, a boy who becomes Roland's apprentice.
Originally intended as the first installment in a multimedia franchise, the film combines various elements from the eight-novel series, mostly from the first and third volumes, and takes place in both modern-day New York City and in Mid-World, Roland's Old West-style parallel universe. The film is also a canonical sequel to the novels.
The production of the film was complex and difficult, as production began ten years before the release of the film. Efforts to adapt The Dark Tower series for the screen started in 2007, with periodic reports and official announcements. The project was then shelved before the rights were transitioned to a different production company. Development experienced starts and stops with various filmmakers and studios at different times, including Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Lionsgate Entertainment. The adaptation went through three major phases of planning: with J. J. Abrams from 2007 to 2009, Ron Howard from 2010 to 2015, and finally, the current iteration, announced in March 2015, produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Media Rights Capital, with Arcel directing and Howard remaining in a producing role.
The Dark Tower premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on July 31, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States by Sony Pictures Releasing on August 4, 2017. The film grossed $113.2 million worldwide on a $66 million budget and received negative reviews, with criticism aimed at its compression of the multiple-novel source material into a single film, though Elba's performance, Holkenborg's musical score, and the action sequences earned praise.Box office and reviews
Plot Eleven-year-old Jake Chambers experiences visions of a mysterious warlock, the "Man in Black", who seeks to destroy a "Tower" and bring ruin to the "Universe" while a lone "Gunslinger" opposes him. Jake's visions are dismissed by his mother, stepfather and psychiatrists as nightmares resulting from the trauma of his father's death. At his apartment home in New York City, a team claiming to be from a private psychiatric facility arrive to pick up Jake. Recognizing them from his visions as monsters wearing human skin, the boy hides in an abandoned house from one of his visions, where he discovers a high-tech portal that leads to a post-apocalyptic landscape called Mid-World.
In Mid-World, Jake encounters the Gunslinger, Roland Deschain. Roland is pursuing the Man in Black, Walter Padick, seeking revenge for Padick's role in the deaths of his father Stephen and the other Gunslingers. He explains to Jake that for decades, Walter has been abducting children with psychic powers, attempting to use their "shine" to bring down the Dark Tower, a fabled structure located at the center of the Universe. This will allow his master, a monstrous being from the darkness outside, to cross over and consume all reality.
Roland takes Jake to a local village in order to have his visions interpreted by a seer. Having learned of Jake's escape, Walter is informed by his minion Sayre that Jake has "pure Shine", enough psychic potential to destroy the Dark Tower single-handedly. The warlock tracks down Jake's parents, brutally murdering his stepfather and torturing his mother for information.
Back in Mid-World, the seer determines that the machine is six months away on foot; the only shortcut is through one of Walter's secret labs. Jake realizes that Walter has a lab in New York that he recognizes from a vision. Suddenly, Walter's Taheen minions attack the village; Roland guns most of them down but is forced to return to New York for modern medical treatment. Jake learns the location of Walter's lab from a homeless man who helped him earlier, but when he tries to find his mother, he discovers only charred remains and breaks down crying. Seeing this, Roland vows to avenge her death and bonds with Jake by teaching him gun-fighting as well as the "Gunslinger's Creed", which he has not uttered since his own father's death.
Roland is ambushed by Walter while obtaining fresh ammunition at a gun store; Jake is captured and forced into a machine that will convert his "shine" into a beam capable of destroying the Tower. Through telepathy, Jake helps Roland find the base and buy time while Roland kills Sayre and most of the remaining Taheen in a brutal shootout. Walter faces Roland in personal combat and effortlessly disarms and wounds him using his magic. When Jake reminds him of the Gunslinger's Creed, Roland improvises a trick shot to disable Walter before swiftly killing him. Finally, he destroys the machine and saves the Dark Tower, Jake, and the other children.
Preparing to make a personal journey to the Tower itself, Roland offers Jake the chance to become his companion and an apprentice Gunslinger. Jake accepts, and they permanently leave New York for Mid-World.
Cast Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, the last of the Gunslingers. On the choice of Elba, director and co-writer Nikolaj Arcel stated, "For me, it just clicked. He's such a formidable man." He added that he had been an admirer of Elba's since The Wire, and stated, "I had to go to Idris and tell him my vision for the entire journey with Roland and the ka-tet. We discussed, who is this character? What's he about? What's his quest? What's his psychology? We tried to figure out if we saw the same guy. And we absolutely had all the same ideas and thoughts. He had a unique vision for who Roland would be." Stephen King himself spoke highly of Elba, stating: "I love it. I think he's a terrific actor, one of the best working in the business now." On the character of Roland, King noted: "For me, the character is still the character. It's almost a Sergio Leone character, like the Man with No Name," while remarking, "He can be white or black, it makes no difference to me. I think it opens all kind of exciting possibilities for the backstory," despite Roland specifically being described as white in the books. Elba's performance was one of the few aspects of the film consistently praised by critics. Matthew McConaughey as Walter Padick, a ruthless deceiver and sorcerer who seeks to unleash eternal darkness into the world by bringing down the Tower. On the choice of McConaughey, Arcel stated, "Matthew is an incredible actor who can do anything. That's how I feel about [Walter]. He could do anything." About the character of Walter Padick, Arcel added, "He is this timeless sorcerer, and being a Stephen King fan, I've read and experienced Walter in various iterations," making reference to The Stand and The Eyes of the Dragon. "He has a very interesting way of seeing the world. He sees it with a sort of delight, even though he is obviously on the wrong side of the light-and-dark spectrum. He's someone I've been having a lot of fun with." King made mention of him never having a clear image of the character's face, to which he explained: "I never really thought of him. But [in the movie] he becomes a character who isn't just a mirage that Roland is chasing. The way things are set up, he's right there." Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers, a young boy whom Roland must call upon to complete his journey, and a son-like figure to Deschain. Taylor got the role after an international search. Claudia Kim as Arra, a seer enlisted to study Jake's visions Fran Kranz as Pimli, one of Walter's Taheen technicians Abbey Lee as Tirana, another of Walter's Taheen technicians Katheryn Winnick as Laurie, Jake's mother Nicholas Pauling as Lon, Jake's stepfather Jackie Earle Haley as Sayre, a Taheen enforcer serving Walter Michael Barbieri as Timmy, Jake's neighbor Eva Kaminsky as Jill, the fake clinic representative, sent by Walter to retrieve Jake Nicholas Hamilton as Lucas Hanson José Zúñiga as Dr. Hotchkiss Dennis Haysbert as Steven Deschain, Roland's father
Production
Development and pre-production
J. J. Abrams (2007–2009) By early February 2007, a film adaptation of The Dark Tower series was in the works. J. J. Abrams, co-creator of the television series Lost, was said to be attached to produce and direct. Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof, who co-created Lost with Abrams, optioned The Dark Tower from King for a reported amount of $19, a number that mysteriously recurs throughout the series. According to issue #923 of Entertainment Weekly, King "is an ardent supporter of [Lost] and trusts Abrams to translate his vision" into a film franchise, with Lindelof being "the leading candidate to write the screenplay for the first installment." It was around this time that Marvel Comics launched their graphic novel adaptation of The Dark Tower with The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born. Later, in March 2007, Abrams noted in an interview with Wired that the project is "something that we are just now talking about with Stephen, so it's too early for me to say that we're even officially doing it yet just because the thing is in the early stages of discussion."
A year later, in February 2008, Abrams reiterated that The Dark Tower adaptation was in the early stages of development, when interviewed by Reelz Channel. When interviewed by AMC in September 2008, Abrams admitted that the project needs time he does not have because of Lost, especially since he would like to see a seven-film series (the eighth novel was published in 2012). However, in May 2009, Abrams stated to IGN that he and Lindelof were planning on beginning work on The Dark Tower as soon as Lost finished its run. Speaking to MTV News around the same time, Lindelof revealed some apprehension regarding the project, noting that his "reverence for Stephen King is now getting in the way of what any good writer would do first when they're adapting a book, which is take creative license." In a July 2009 interview with C21 Media, Lindelof revealed that he and Cuse had indeed optioned the rights for The Dark Tower, but said he was wary about committing to such an ambitious project: "The idea of taking on something that massive again after having done six seasons of Lost is intimidating and slightly frightening, to say the least."
With these reservations being voiced by the producers, this initial phase of the project came to an end at the end of 2009 after three years, since this was a three-year option. In an interview with USA Today in October 2009, Damon Lindelof stated: "You'll be hard-pressed to find a huger fan of The Dark Tower than me, but that's probably the reason that I shouldn't be the one to adapt it. After working six years on Lost, the last thing I want to do is spend the next seven years adapting one of my favorite books of all time. I'm such a massive Stephen King fan that I'm terrified of screwing it up. I'd do anything to see those movies written by someone else. My guess is they will get made because they're so incredible. But not by me." Finally, in November 2009, Abrams stated that he would not be adapting the series. During an interview with MTV News, Abrams made the following comments: "The Dark Tower thing is tricky. The truth is that Damon and I are not looking at that right now."
Ron Howard and Universal Pictures (2010–2015)