The Dark Tower Casts Jackie Earle Haley in Another Villain Role

Jackie Earle Haley is very busy and very in-demand right now. While the actor is playing the recurring character of Odin Quincannon in the AMC TV show Preacher, adapted from a comic book, and will appear as The Terror in the Amazon TV show The Tick, adapted from a comic book, he's also been cast as Richard Sayre in The Dark Tower, a film adapted from a book series by Stephen King.

The actor's character helps confirm that The Dark Tower will not be a film adaptation of just the first book in the seven book (eight with a later spin-off) series, "The Gunslinger," but will instead cover a much larger portion of the story, perhaps adapting the entire 7-book and worlds-spanning epic in one film. Either that, or the film will be pulling in characters from much later in the series for cameos or set-up for future film adaptations.

Sayre didn't show up until book five, Wolves of the Calla. He's also one of the more complicated characters to adapt to film. The Dark Tower series of books crossover into many of Stephen King's other novels, and Sayre interacts directly with Father Callahan, who first appeared in King's "Salem's Lot." Sayre is also a Low man or Can-Toi, who appear in "Hearts in Atlantis," and are mentioned in "Desperation."

Just how Sayre, who in the "Dark Tower" books (again, he only appears in books 5, 6, and 7) also leads a Vampire clan and has an extremely pivotal role in what brings about the end game for Roland Deschain (Idris Elba), but not until the final book, will play in the movie remains to be seen. He's the second character cast from the back half of the book series, as Abbey Lee was cast as a relatively minor character named Tirana, another one of the Low Men known as the Regulators, who don't appear until those later books.

The Dark Tower, starring Idris Elba as Roland, the last Gunslinger, and Matthew McConaughey as The Man in Black, is directed by Nikolaj Arcel and began principal photography this week for a February 17, 2017 release from Sony Pictures Entertainment.