The Dark Tower Finally Begins Production; Stephen King Confirms Stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey

After years of development hell, the film adaptation of Stephen King's magnum opus The Dark Tower is finally moving with Idris Elba confirmed as the gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as the mystical villain known as the man in black.

Stephen King confirmed the news on his Twitter page:

It's official: The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed. #DarkTowerMovie@McConaughey@IdrisElba

— Stephen King (@StephenKing)

March 1, 2016

The film's director and co-writer, Nikolaj Arce, spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the plan to start the production for the tale, which spans eight novels, assorted comic books and short stories. He says:

"The thing is, it's been a looong trip from the books to the film. When you think about it, I started these stories as a senior in college, sitting in a little sh-tty cabin beside the river in Maine, and finally this thing is actually in pre-production now. I'm delighted, and I'm a little bit surprised."

Arcel, who is best known for he 2012 Danish film A Royal Affair and for co-writing the Swedish version ofThe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, says he will start filmingThe Dark Tower in South Africa in seven weeks, and that the film will be released in theaters on Jan. 13, 2017.

Arcel is co-writing the screenplay with Anders Thomas Jensen, Akiva Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner.

"What Stephen King does best is mixing the everyday, or what you might call the mundane, with the fantastical," says Arcel. "In my view, [The Dark Tower] novels are a mix between sci-fi and fantasy and modern times. That exact mix is so Stephen King."

King says the film will open with the first line from the first book: "It should start that way," he told EW. "I've been pretty insistent about that."

King says the film will not adapt the plot of the first book, The Gunslinger, published in 1982. "[The movie] starts in media res, in the middle of the story instead of at the beginning, which may upset some of the fans a little bit, but they'll get behind it, because it is the story,"

Arcel didn't say which book the film will focus on, but he said, "A lot of it takes place in our day, in the modern world."

You can read more of Arcel's views on the characters and production on EW.