The Dark Tower is a series.
The Dark Tower is an upcoming American science fantasy western action horror film directed and co-written by Nikolaj Arcel . A continuation of Stephen King 's novel series of the same name , the film stars Idris Elba as Roland Deschain , a gunslinger on a quest to protect the Dark Tower -- a mythical structure which supports all realities -- and Matthew McConaughey as his nemesis , Walter Padick . The Dark Tower is a series of eight books written by American author Stephen King that incorporates themes from multiple genres , including dark fantasy , science fantasy , horror , and Western . The series , and its use of the Dark Tower , expands upon Stephen King 's multiverse and in doing so , links together many of his other novels . The series was chiefly inspired by the poem `` Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came '' by Robert Browning , whose full text was included in the final volume 's appendix .