'The Dark Tower' Director Explains the Film's Short Running Time

08/31/2017 04:12 pm EDT

Fans of Stephen King have been waiting decades to get a live-action adaptation of the Dark Tower series of books, a dream that will finally be fulfilled on August 4. The series itself encompasses eight novels, which makes the mythology rich with history, so when fans found out that the upcoming The Dark Tower film was only 95 minutes long, many grew concerned over how much story could be fit into the relatively slender running time. When speaking with /Film, the film's director, Nikolaj Arcel, attempted to quell those fears by detailing that this film's purpose is merely an "introduction."

While at San Diego Comic-Con, the director revealed, "The good news here…the reason why many fans are worried about the run time is that they think we are trying to do everything in this film. Which we are not. This is ideally the first film. This is an introduction to the world and the characters. It's not meant to be all the novels and we're just trying to cram everything in there."

He continued, "So that's one thing. And the script was really lean and tight. When I got on board, the script was very short, very lean. That's one of the things that attracted me to it. I said, 'This is smart.' You start with a lean, mean story and you don't try to cram everything in there. You just build the basic ideas. And if people enjoy it and if they like this world and these characters, we can start expanding."

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The film's synopsis is as follows:

"The last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter, also known as the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black."

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Arcel wasn't the only one to try to calm fans' nerves, as Stephen King also explained to fans why the running time was short on Twitter.

Considering the film isn't a direct adaptation of any one specific book in the series but rather a quasi-sequel to the original series, the film doesn't need to tackle eight books worth of material. Additionally, a TV series based on the story is still in development, which could delve further into the origins of the characters.

The Dark Tower lands in theaters August 4.

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