Idris Elba frontrunner for Stephen King's Dark Tower Movie

Idris Elba is set to land another big Hollywood part, after news emerged the 43-year-old is the frontrunner to play the lead gunslinger in the new movie adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

Matthew McConaughey is already in talks to play his nemesis, the villainous Man in Black, with Elba set to face off against him as Roland Deschain.

The much-delayed project has picked up pace over the past months, with Nikolaj Arcel - responsible for the Oscar-nominated A Royal Affair - confirmed to direct. He's also been working on a rewrite of a script, written by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner, with Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen, who won an Oscar for the short film Election Night.

Elba is currently tipped for an Oscar nomination following his performance in Beasts Of No Nation, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga for Netflix, and we're all counting the days until he reappears as Luther for the fourth series of the BBC detective series, which kicks off on 17 December. He's already been widely-touted for the job as James Bond whenever Daniel Craig hangs up the tuxedo.

Javier Bardem and Russell Crowe had previously been rumoured for the part of Deschain, although that was on shuffled versions of the project. Sony is now confirmed to distribute the film, with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Erica Huggins and Stephen King himself down to produce. Both Universal and Warner Brothers have previously developed the concept before dropping out. A complementary TV series is also being developed by MRC, meaning that, if it ever gets off the ground, this could be a long-running film saga - there's certainly plenty of material to work with.

The first instalment will focus on the first book in the series of eight, The Gunslinger, which establishes the relationship with Deschain and his young protege Jake Chambers - there's no word as yet on who is likely to perform that role.

[via Deadline]

(Image: Rex)