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Amazon orders Dark Tower pilot, casts Gunslinger and Man in Black

By Dan Selcke

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 01: Sam Strike attends the Inside Soap Awards at Dstrkt on October 1, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 01: Sam Strike attends the Inside Soap Awards at Dstrkt on October 1, 2014 in London, England. (Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images) /
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In 2017, Sony released a movie adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, starring Idris Elba as the heroic Gunslinger and Matthew McConaughey as the villainous sorcerer Walter Padick, aka Randall Flagg, aka the Man in Black, aka Marten Broadcloak, aka a bunch of other names because this character is basically immortal and turns up over and over in King’s work. Anyway, around the same time, Amazon started to plan a Dark Tower series that was originally going to tie in to the movie, but backed off after the movie came out and it was terrible and didn’t make any money. Now, after some retooling, the show is back.

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Deadline reports that Amazon has ordered a pilot for the show, and cast actors in the two lead roles. As the Gunslinger, aka Roland Deschain (everybody has an aka in this thing), we have British actor Sam Strike, lately of Nightflyers on Syfy. He looks a little babyfaced, but according to Deadline, the show will start with the Gunslinger’s early years, which probably means the first season will adapt parts of Wizard and Glass, the fourth book in The Dark Tower series, which dives into the lead character’s past. Time is slippery in the Dark Tower series, but it sounds like Amazon is going to try and adapt the story chronologically.

Meanwhile, as the Man in Black, Amazon has tapped Jasper Pääkkönen, from Vikings and BlacKkKlansman.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 21: Jasper Pääkkönen attends the 2019 Hollywood For Science Gala at Private Residence on February 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 21: Jasper Pääkkönen attends the 2019 Hollywood For Science Gala at Private Residence on February 21, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) /

The Dark Tower series is eight books long, and ties in to with many of King’s other books. If Amazon plays its cards right, this series could go on for a very long time. It’s part of the shipping giant’s major investment in prestige genre TV. Beyond the Dark Tower, the company is also adapting Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and mounting a tremendously expensive show based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I can’t wait to see if these big gambles pay off.

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h/t The Wertzone

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