The Dark Tower is finally being developed for the screen with Universal leading the multi-platform release of Stephen King’s incredible Seven novel fantasy adventure series. Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman are already onboard to create the first film and the following first season, with Howard Directing and Akiva Goldsman writing, this will be part of a planned Trilogy of films and a TV series that link the films together. Now that the production has well and truly started, the inevitable casting rumours have begun.
Indiewire.com has brought us the news of some suitable and some very unsuitable casting rumours, and they are incredibly creative rumours at this point, for the lead character of the Dark Tower series called Roland Deschain; the last Gunslinger on a life long journey to reach the mysterious Dark Tower and to save the world.
Those that don’t know about the character of Roland, ideally he needs to be an weathered man of about 40-50 with striking blue eyes and able to look bloody cool with two big irons on his hip, Stephen King compared Roland to ‘the man with no name’ as played by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s films. Now having said that, Ron Howard recently spoke freely with the LA Times about who could play Roland and the names mentioned were Daniel Craig, Hugh Jackman, Jon Hamm and Dark Tower fansite Roland of choice, Viggo Mortensen. Although Ron Howard didn’t confirm if they had actually started casting he did say that he doubted the named stars would commit to such a project due to other commitments. A fair point, the Dark Tower would end up being at least 7 years of someone’s career unless they condense the books and choose to ignore parts of the plot, and if it fails to make a financial gain at the boxoffice, the cost of tying one of these A-List actors down for the duration of the franchise would be a financial risk straight away.
This could mean that a lesser known actor could be chosen to fill the gunslingers boots which is slightly worrying as the film will need a big name to get the box office draw it needs to launch the Dark Tower to more than the fans of the books, however Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman would be terrible choices for the role and could never offer enough character to suit Roland’s personality, Viggo would be absolutely perfect but I agree he would unlikely commit to such a large franchise and Jon Hamm is likely to be committed to Madmen for a few more years, but of course these are just rumours but as rumours for castings go, The Dark Tower characters are the ones that interest more than any other film on the horizon.
I’ve just finished reading the Dark Tower series over a three year spell and it is one of the most engaging and incredible stories I’ve ever experienced and I, like many fans, expect the source material to be followed as closely as possible which would mean an adult rating has to be maintained to get the most out of Roland and his Ka-Tet’s adventures through parallel worlds and time travel. The look of the production and casting has to be completely right or instantly the fans will react negatively which is what the adaptation does not need.
Love to hear your thoughts on who you think should be cast, use the comments below.
