Stephen King confirms Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey in 'Dark Tower'

After a long trek to the big screen, Stephen King's The Dark Tower adaptation is finally getting off the ground.

King confirmed the casting of Idris Elba as Roland, the gunslinger protagonist, and Matthew McConaughey as the mystical "Man in Black" who Roland spends much of the series pursuing.

The Dark Tower is a spaghetti western/fantasy story in which a lone gunslinger embarks on a quest for mysterious tower, and pursues his enemy, the nameless "Man in Black," along the way.

Elba and McConaughey already seem to be inhabiting their roles, tweeting King's confirmation with ominous messages toward each other.

The Dark Tower series was one of King's earliest works, with the first part, The Gunslinger, published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1978. King eventually published the rest of The Dark Tower series in eight books over the next three decades.

The movie adaptation will be co-written and directed by Nikolaj Arcel, according to Entertainment Weekly, who is best known for the 2012 film A Royal Affair and for co-writing the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Anders Thomas Jensen, Akiva Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner will be sharing screenwriting duties. Shooting for The Dark Tower will begin in seven weeks in South Africa.

Sony Pictures plans for the movie to hit theaters Jan. 13, 2017.