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Matthew McConaughey Offered To Star In Stephen King’s ‘The Dark Tower’

By Lawrence Arboleda
Published on: 19:25 PST, Nov 17, 2015

Oscar award winning actor Matthew McConaughey has been offered two main roles for the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series.

The Wrap broke the news Monday that Matthew McConaughey has been offered to choose between two main roles in the forthcoming big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower saga. Interestingly, the two roles are polar opposites – the first one representing the good side and the latter representing the evil side. First up is as Roland Deschain, otherwise known as “The Gunslinger,” whose quest for the elusive Dark Tower takes him through a vast array of strange lands filled with terrifying creatures and magic. The other role offered is the villainous “The Man in Black,” the mysterious and robed figure Roland Deschain was set to follow in the first film to learn important clues that will lead him to the mythical tower. Thus the series’s iconic first line: “The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed.”

The film adaptation for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series is currently being developed by Sony Pictures and MRC. It took a while to get there, as proposals were made to Warner Bros and Universal since 2010 to no avail. Nikolaj Arcel, the critically-acclaimed director of 2012’s A Royal Affair was tasked to direct the film based on the script penned by Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) and Jeff Pinker (Amazing Spiderman 2).

The script for the first film is based on the first book in the eight-part series, The Gunslinger. The Gunslinger begins Roland’s long quest for the mythical Dark Tower. The entire saga drew inspiration from the Robert Browning poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.” Combining elements and tropes from fantasy, horror, Westerns, and science fiction, The Dark Tower series is considered by many as Stephen King’s magnum opus, not just because of its sheer size but also in how it draws references from both the real world and from other books previously written by the iconic author.

It took Stephen King decades to complete the entire The Dark Tower series, taking breaks and writing other books not related to series in between. King started the series with The Gunslinger in 1982 and concluded it with the eighth volume in the series, The Wind Through the Keyhole, in 2012.

“I’m excited that ‘The Dark Tower’ is finally going to appear on the screen,” King previously said. “Those who have traveled with Roland and his friends in their search for the Dark Tower are going to have their long-held hopes fully realized. This is a brilliant and creative approach to my books.”

Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard made plans on directing The Gunslinger since 2010. Warner Bros and Universal, however, passed on the filmmaker’s proposals. In April, Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman saw the project’s vast potential and teamed with MRC to co-finance The Dark Tower films. As reported by Deadline, the big screen adaptation of The Dark Tower will be accompanied by a tie-in TV series being developed by MRC. No one knows yet whether Matthew McConnaughey is set on to star in the big screen adaptation or the small screen spin-off, but sources reveal that he’s leaning towards “embracing his dark side.”

Matthew McConnaughey, who just finished filming Gary Ross’s Free State of Jones and Stephen Gaghan’s Gold, has recently opened up his schedule for 2016, giving him the opportunity to consider a lead role for The Dark Tower film.

[Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images]

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