Just a warning: The first full-length trailer to The Dark Tower, the upcoming film adaptation to writer Stephen King’s sprawling epic novel series, isn’t going to please every fan of the book source material. However, the spirit of King’s story–which follows gunslinger Roland Deschain as he searches for the Dark Tower in his quest to safeguard his world and all of existence itself–is intact, at least judging from the footage.
When stars Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey were cast as Roland and Walter Padick–the Man in Black–respectively, there was little doubt that the two had the gravitas and the thespian chops to do well by the gunslinger and his quarry. Whether or not your feathers are ruffled at the changes director Nikolaj Arcel and his team have made to the original tale–and, frankly, those changes are difficult to assess in just three minutes’ worth of footage–it’s hard to argue that Elba and McConaughey don’t have chemistry. Their interplay with one another in the trailer is electric and their performances seem to be upping one another’s game.
And if you’re still upset about the vision Arcel and company have for The Dark Tower, think of it this way: there are thousands of worlds, thousands of Rolands and Walters. This is just the tale of one of them.
The Dark Tower hits theaters on August 4th.