By The Academy Award-winner Javier Bardem, after months of being bandied about in the rumor mill, is in the final stages of negotiations to play Roland Deschain in Ron Howard’s televsion and film adaptation of Stephen King’s sci-fi/fantasy/meta epic The Dark Tower. The deal is so far along that Ron Howard is already casting the other roles specifically with Bardem in mind as Roland. For those unfamiliar with the book series, Roland is the last of a line of warrior-diplomats known as gunslingers in a time many thousands of years after a mysterious war destroyed everything of the technologically advanced “Old People.” Roland’s eternal quest is to find the Dark Tower, a point in space and time central to all possible universes, where he can reverse some of the terrible damage done to his universe.
I’m very excited to hear this. Not only is Bardem one of the best male actors we’ve got right now, his casting represents a step back from the “racebending” that’s been happening more and more, especially in more popular movies. We’ve got a sea of white faces for The Last Airbender (not that a racially diverse cast would have helped that piece of crap) and Hunger Games, as well as a mainly-white prospective cast for an unnecessary Akira remake. Now, we’ve got a Spaniard playing a character that was effectively built around Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name. It’s good casting, to be sure. If you want some more tl;dr on the subject of The Dark Tower, check out my How to Do It on the series right over here.
More importantly, what do you think about this casting? Let us know in the comments. Or, if you’ve got the song of the Rose in your heart about Dark Tower, let us hear it in the C-blogs!
[Via Deadline]