Idris Elba: There are "definitely talks" for The Dark Tower movie sequel
The Luther actor starred in the Stephen King movie and now he's keen to come back for another go at the "last Gunslinger"
Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower may have been obliterated by the critics, but its star Idris Elba is gun(sling)ing for a sequel.
Elba played "the last Gunslinger" Roland Deschain in the 2017 movie, which also starred Matthew McConaughey as his nemesis Walter O'Dim. It has a rating of just 16% on Rotten Tomatoes, with film critics calling it "lifeless", "a dud" and "turgid cinematic slop".
Despite those awful reviews, many Stephen King fans were more positive and the movie still made more than $110 million at the box office. Now, could we actually be about to see a sequel?
A TV version of The Dark Tower has already been announced, as producers hoped to create a cross-platform cinematic and TV universe drawing on King's eight-part book series. Sure, details are still hazy: at this point it's not clear if Elba will star in the small-screen version or if it's more of a prequel. But this may not be all...
"I think any TV series that is an offshoot from the film can have more time to explore some themes," Elba tells RadioTimes.com.
"I'd personally prefer to do another Dark Tower film, exploring some more of the gunslinger - as a film."
And apparently there's a realistic prospect of this happening: "I don't know much about where they are with the TV show – but I think there's definitely talks to try and do another one."
For now, Elba has other things on his radar. The actor is about to launch into four more episodes of Luther, and he is currently starring in The Mountain Between Us alongside Kate Winslet.
The "romance disaster survival film" tells the story of English surgeon Ben (Elba) and American photojournalist Alex (Winslet) who survive a plane crash and are stranded in the snowy mountains.
They bond, they argue and they help each other with their wounds as they struggle to survive and reach civilisation.
"The idea that complete strangers have to rely on each other as a theme is a good one," Elba tells us.
"I'm glad that people can go away and watch this film and go, 'Hm, what would I do?' Because I think in this day and age you probably look at your phone more times than you look someone in the eyes. Right? And that's not how it was designed to be."
Of course, up in the mountains Ben and Alex have no phone signal to summon help. They are completely disconnected from the rest of the world.
"I think that a film like this, which doesn't have any green screens or any major plots or anything like that, it's quite a simple story," Elba says. "I think the take-home is, 'I wonder what I would do actually?' And I'm proud to be part of a film that asks those questions, makes people think a bit more.
"I think our evolution is being altered by the fact that we're so technically - we rely on technology and we rely on phones for communication, where empathy has been sidelined."
The Mountain Between Us is in UK cinemas from Friday 6th October
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