A long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, the film sees Elba’s gunslinger take on McConaughey’s evil sorcerer The Man in Black

The first trailer for The Dark Tower has been revealed.

The fantasy epic, an update of the Stephen King novel of the same name, stars Idris Elba as fabled last gunslinger Roland Deschain, who is seeking to find the titular tower and save his dimension, Mid World, from destruction by Matthew McConaughey’s evil sorcerer Walter Padick, AKA The Man in Black.

Ahead of the trailer’s release, Elba and McConaughey teased its launch by tweeting lines of dialogue from the film at each other on Twitter.

Idris Elba (@idriselba) @McConaughey To find the tower is my purpose. I'm sworn.

Idris Elba (@idriselba) @McConaughey I deal in lead. #DarkTowerMovie pic.twitter.com/IvpjVKFHCH

The Dark Tower has endured a protracted journey to the the big screen. It was originally being developed by JJ Abrams before Ron Howard took over in 2010. In 2015 it was announced that Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) would direct the movie, with filming beginning in 2016. Since then, the film’s studio Sony has pushed back the release date of the Dark Tower twice, eventually landing on a US release date of 4 August. The UK will see it from 18 August.

The film is the second King adaptation to reveal a trailer in recent months. The first trailer for a new version of King’s horror classic It was released in March, and went on to set a record for the most views of a trailer online in a single day.