WhileThe Standmay be stalled at the moment, another long-developingStephen Kingadaptation is finally getting off the ground. After years of stops and starts,The Dark Toweris moving forward at Sony and Media Rights Capital withA Royal AffairfilmmakerNikolaj Arceldirecting, and now the movie has found its female lead. Per Deadline,Abbey Leeis in talks to play the role of Tirana in the film oppositeIdris Elba, who is set as gunslinger Roland Deschain. The cast also includesMatthew McConaugheyas the villainous Man in Black, so Lee joins an already esteemed ensemble.
If you don’t know her from her modeling career, the actress isprobably familiaras The Dag inMad Max: Fury Road, one of the wives at the center of the film’s propulsive storyline. Planned as the first in a series of movies,The Dark Towerwill draw mainly from the first book in King’s book series,The Gunslinger, which takes place in a parallel universe and revolves around Elba’s Roland Deschain trying to track down his ultimate adversary, The Man in Black, across a Western-esque landscape.
I’ve not read King’s book series, but as far as I can tell, no character named Tirana exists. I have a hard time believing they’d simply create a character for such a high-profile adaptation, but I suppose it’s possible. Either that or they renamed a main female character from the books. Hopefully someone more familiar with the material can weigh in in the comments, but I am happy to see this massive project finally getting off the ground.
Ron Howard, who was initially attached to direct, is producingThe Dark ToweralongsideBrian GrazerandErica Huggins, with MRC also developing a TV series component. Originally, the plan was to create a trilogy of films withone TV season in between each, to allow them to tell thefullstory. It’s unclear if that’s still the plan, but neither Elba nor McConaughey are strangers to the TV world, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Dark Towerfans, sound off in the comments below with your thoughts/answers on this casting and the character of “Tirana.”
