New posters for The Dark Tower have arrived ahead of the movie's release. The long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King's The Dark Tower finally found its home at Sony Pictures, and stars Idris Elba as Roland Deschain, aka. the Gunslinger, and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black. The movie is set to release this summer, and is touted as a variation or continuation of King's epic series of novels and comics. Within The Dark Tower universe, there exists the possibility for Roland to relive his journey over and over again, with changes to the events each time. It is this that director Nikolaj Arcel has chosen to capitalize on, and The Dark Tower will use elements from across all King's novels, while excluding major characters and events from others.

Promotion for The Dark Tower has been scant - but since the arrival of the first Dark Tower trailer, there has been a little more in the way of marketing. Most recently, additional posters for the movie have been released online by Sony, with Roland and The Man in Black featured prominently, standing back to back to one another.

The background in these posters (see below, via Flickering Myth) clearly shows The Man in Black still in Mid-World, with the Dark Tower visible behind him, while Roland is in New York. Fans of The Dark Tower book series will know that Roland enters New York with his young companion, Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), but the Man in Black both peruses and leads them on their quest - which is to reach the Dark Tower and prevent it from falling as a result of The Man in Black's evil powers.

Sadly, as with a lot of The Dark Tower promotional material we've seen so far, these posters aren't all that impressive. To be fair, that doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of the finished movie, of course, and other movies have certainly had their fair share of poor posters. Even so, King fans, and especially those for whom The Dark Tower is a favorite, could well be forgiven for feeling a little worried right now. The Dark Tower has had its release date pushed back in order that more time could be spent on effects, but with a rumored running time of just 85 monutes, it begs the question of exactly what story Arcel is able to tell in that time.

The Dark Tower is an epic tale, and worthy of multiple movies in a franchise, as well as the planned Dark Tower spinoff TV series. Whether that will happen will depend largely on the success of The Dark Tower movie adaptation. Right now, it seems that there's plenty of  buzz around the film from King fans, but it's not all positive. The question is; will the casual moviegoer want to go and see this film? With weak posters, a trailer that didn't give much plot away, and very little promotion, it seems unlikely.

NEXT: How The Dark Tower Movie Differs from the Books

Source: Sony Pictures [via Flickering Myth]

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