It’s been a bit of a strange journey for The Dark Tower, Sony and Nikolaj Arcel’s long-in-development – and we do mean long-in-development – adaptation of Stephen King’s undisputed magnum opus that’s booked in for release on August 4th. As we just mentioned, the project’s been in various stages of development for years now, passing through numerous actors and directors until it finally started to come together in its current form.
That’s not the only concerning thing about it, though. Far from it. What’s perhaps more worrying is that it was only recently that Sony began to market the pic, which is surprising given that it’s a fairly major release and is quickly approaching. For a film like this, you’d usually see the promotional campaign start far in advance, but the studio’s only kicked things into gear in the past month, with the first trailer finally debuting about 3 weeks ago. That’s not very much time for audiences to familiarize themselves with this world and these characters, and it may end up hurting The Dark Tower‘s box office business.
Time will tell on that front, but at least the marketing is now well underway and earlier this week, Sony delivered two brand new character posters for the film. One features Idris Elba, who’s attached to the part of Roland Deschain, a man who journeys through Mid-World and beyond in his quest to understand the titular, towering edifice – the nexus of time, essentially – and you’ll be able to get another glimpse at The Gunslinger decked out and ready for combat via the character posters in the gallery above. He’s sworn to protect the titular tower, while Matthew McConaughey’s enigmatic Man in Black, who features on the other one-sheet, is sworn to destroy it. That conflict fuels an old-fashioned duel between good and evil, but who will triumph? We’ll have to wait and see.
“For thousand of generations, the Gunslingers were knights. Sworn to protect us from the coming of the dark.” Roland Deschain begins his quest toward The Dark Tower on August 4th. But will you be joining him on that journey? Let us know your early impressions of Sony’s adaptation via the comments section below.
