Matthew McConaughey was offered but passed on the lead in “Doctor Strange” and the villain in the upcoming “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”
In an interview with Playboy, McConaughey explains why he turned down the Marvel films… and why he accepted the starring role in another science fantasy saga, “The Dark Tower.”
“I like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ but what I saw was ‘It’s successful, and now we’ve got room to make a colorful part for another big-name actor.’ I’d feel like an amendment,” said McConaughey.
McConaughey, who will play The Man in Black in the film adaptation of the Stephen King novel, added “‘The Dark Tower’ script was well written, I like the director and his take on it, and I can be the creator, the author of the Man in Black — a.k.a. the Devil — in my version of this Stephen King novel.”
“The Dark Tower” blends horror and fantasy to tell the tale of a gunslinger (Idris Elba), who has taken up the lifelong quest of locating the Dark Tower — which is the nexus of the universe — before evil invades and destroys the tower, ending all existence.
Sony Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, and MRC are co-financing the ambitious feature film, which Nikolaj Arcel will direct from a script by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner that’s primarily based on the first book in King’s series, “The Gunslinger.” Arcel is currently working with Oscar-winning Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen (“Election Night”) to rewrite the script.