The Dark Tower comes straight out of the brain of master of suspense Stephen King. Stepping away from the world of horror that he is known for this film comes from King’s Dark Fantasy/Sci-Fi series of the same name. King has declared that his inspiration for this enigmatic series of books came in equal parts from some auspicious places, namely poem ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower’ written by Robert Browning, JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and spaghetti western classics by Sergio Leone, an interesting mix. Each one of these inspirations is obvious in both the books and this summers blockbuster.
The long awaited launch of The Dark Tower has had fans brimming with excitement as unlike most film conversions of books, those with the name Stephen King above the title are guaranteed to deliver the same thrilling and atmospheric feel as the original manuscript. The ambitious story from one of the world’s most revered authors brings together celebrated British actor Idris Elba, American movie star Matthew McConaughey and prize winning Danish filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel.
The film itself was also co written by director Arcel and the story centres around an Old West style alternative universe and the Dark Tower being protected by Elba’s gunslinger Roland Deschain against his ageless nemesis, McConaughey’s The Man in Black. The mythical tower dwells in End World which must be protected from various monsters and nefarious sorcerer and deceiver Walter Padick is said to support all realities, including our own.
The story begins with adventurous 11 year old Jake Chambers (played by Tom Taylor) discovering unnerving clues about the existence of another dimension and after the inquisitive pre teen tries to unravel the mystery he finds himself in the dark world known as MId-World. There he joins Deschain on a quest to reach the nexus that ties together time and space in the hope of saving all existence from certain death.
The convoluted road from King’s books to the silver screen has been an arduous journey with both JJ Abrams and Ron Howard previously being connected to the project. Having been talked about since way back in 2007 with production finally beginning under the watchful eye of Arcel in 2017. After lots of non starter release dates this hot contender for summer smash will finally be on general release this August.
If you like your films darkly mythical , full of action, suspense and an interesting mix of genres then this epic tale should be on your must see list.
