It's easy to see how the character of Roland Deschain was inspired by Clint Eastwood when Stephen King wrote The Gunslinger in 1982. But the man playing Deschain in upcoming adaptation The Dark Tower knows King’s creation would give Dirty Harry and Blondie a run for their money. “He has a ridiculous amount of skill,” Idris Elba tells Empire in our brand new issue. “I did a lot of preparation on gun handling and mechanics. That aspect is definitely not ignored.”
See King's creation in brand-new-movie-still form below:
With his trusty guns at his side, Deschain is in search of the film’s titular Dark Tower – the nexus of existence – to save it from Matthew McConaughey’s tricksy Man In Black.
Director Nikolaj Arcel’s (A Royal Affair) adaptation (one that could also span to TV) sees the gunslinger joined by Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), a boy from our Earth; not Deschain’s Mid-World. “The relationship is the central heartbeat,” says Elba. “The worlds are huge and weird, and it’s a lot to take in if you haven’t got anything to bite onto.”
The Dark Tower arrives on 18 August.
For more on The Dark Tower, be sure to pick up the brand new issue of Empire, available in all Earth and Mid-World newsagents now.