Javier Bardem Ready to Sling Guns in ‘The Dark Tower’

It is official, we have our gunslinger ‘Roland Deschain’ for the upcoming Dark Tower franchise in the form of Javier Bardem. According to IGN, Bardem’s agents are in the final stages of sealing the deal.

The Gunslinger and The Dark Tower…

The Dark Tower, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a series of books written by Stephen King that take place in a land called Mid-World. The story follows one Roland Deschain, the last of an ancient order of warriors known as the Gunslingers. The story observes Roland as he searches for the elusive ‘Man in Black’ and his ultimate destination; The Dark Tower. The storyline starts off simple but eventually branches off into an epic, unlike anything that Stephen King had undertaken before. We are introduced to a dark and foreboding world filled with magic, guns and all manners of weirdness. The series of novels is complete, but King and Marvel Comics have come out with several prequel graphic novels that familiarize you with the story. I definitely recommend checking them out first if you’ve never read the Dark Tower but would like to.

The Dark Tower in it’s film form is looking to be a huge undertaking by Universal and director Ron Howard, whereas it might seem if the first part fails then the whole thing might have to be scrapped, however I don’t see any project by Stephen King failing. The first movie will be released on May 17th 2013 and a TV series will bridge the gap between the first and second movie. Then a second TV series will fill the gap between the second and third movie. I think this has the opportunity to be something extraordinary with the big screen and small screen coupling to tell the entirety of the story.

With the choice of Bardem himself, I haven’t had the chance to see him in anything besides No Country for Old Men and Eat, Pray, Love. He is definitely able to play the grim, foreboding gunman as he did in No Country for Old Men. He’ll just have to bring down the creepy psychopath levels a little bit from the character of Chigurh that he portrayed.

Javier Bardem in his role of Chigurh (No Country For Old Men)

Sound off in the comment section below to let us know what you think of Bardem being cast as Roland Deschain in the Dark Tower movies. Also tell us what you think about the Dark Tower film and TV series projects!