A film or TV adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series of novels has been in the works for more than half a decade at this point, with a various studios and networks picking up and passing on the project, and a number of big-name actors supposedly considered for the starring role as gunslinger Roland Deschain (Javier Bardem and Russell Crowe to name a few).
But now Sony and MRC are partnered on the project and moving forward and it looks like they're negotiating with an even cooler actor to play Deschain: Idris Elba. Deadline broke the news that the English actor is the "front-runner" for the role.
According to The Wrap, sources say that Elba passed on the chance to star opposite Tom Cruise in The Mummy reboot, and was waiting to see what happened with Matthew McConaughey's negotiations with the Dark Tower producers. McConaughey was reportedly offered the Deschain role for himself, but zeroed in on the villain role, The Man in Black, after reading the script.
Nothing is official at all yet, as McConaughey is reportedly still negotiating a deal for that role as well.
The script for the film is reportedly based heavily on King's first novel in the eight-book series, The Gunslinger. The series, which King has described as his magnum opus, has sold more than 30 million copies altogether.
The film is currently set for a January 2017 release.
