He’s played characters with distinctive names like Stringer Bell, Stacker Pentecost, and John Luther, but lately Idris Elba has been rumored to play characters even more high profile. While James Bond and he have yet to meet, it seems Elba might get to add the name Roland Deschain in the film adaptation of Stephen King‘s massive fantasy/sci-fi/horror book series, The Dark Tower—due to be adapted for the screen by Sony as directed by Nikolaj Arcel.
This would be huge for Elba, as Deschain is the central character in the story, being the titular Gunslinger in the very first book. Elba’s shown his acting chops in both big studio movies, like Pacific Rim and the Thor films, and smaller dramas like the low-budget Beasts of No Nation for which he’s receiving much-deserved awards buzz. But he’s yet to headline a franchise, and something as huge and as anticipated as this would prove the actor’s drawing power.
No deals are in place yet, but Deadline is reporting that Elba is the front-runner for the role. Like 007, Deschain is written as white, as described by King, and given how a certain (incorrect) subsection of Bond fans have reacted to the possibility of a non-white James Bond, it may lead to similar Dark Tower backlash. However, we can all hope that fans of these books would like the best actor for the job, and that at the present appears to be Idris Elba, who is number one in our books, too. Matthew McConaughey has already been cast as the Man in Black (an evil entity at odds with our favorite post-apocalyptic gunslinger), and we’re stoked to see these two square off. Let’s hope everything pans out.
What have been your favorite Idris Elba roles. What other celebrated hero from modern literature should he be in the running for? Let us know in the comments below!
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HT: Deadline
Image: BBC
