Abbey Lee Kershaw In Talks To Play Female Lead in ‘The Dark Tower’

The much-anticipated movie series adaption of Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower series may have a female lead, Deadline reports. Abbey Lee Kershaw is currently in negotiations to star as Tirana and if things work out, she will star opposite Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Lee is originally a model who transitioned into acting last year Mad Max: Fury Road. She is also featured in Gods of Egypt and The Neon Demon. Nikolaj Arcel will direct.

What is confusing about this announcement is that Tirana, in the books, doesn’t appear until the seventh volume. Also, Tirana is very much not a lead in the novel, some hardcore fans don’t even remember who she is. Some speculate that Tirana is a renamed version of a more prominent character of the series, Susan or Susannah. The latter is a female lead in the series, but doesn’t appear until the second book and is black. The only certain details about Lee’s possible character are that she is “sexy and dangerous” with “fake human skin and cold snake-like eyes.”

Sony will distribute the planned Dark Tower series and a complementary TV series is being developed by MRC. King, along with Akiva Goldsman from Weed Road’s, and Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Erica Huggins from Imagine Entertainment are producing. They have been working on this project for years, even after Universal and then Warner Bros developed then dropped it.

The first installment of the series will be called The Gunslinger, following the first book in the series by the same name. The plot centers around Elba’s character, Roland, and his protege, Jake Chambers, who has not yet been cast.

The film is on track to be released on January 13, 2017.

PHOTO: NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 18: Abbey Lee Kershaw attends the Calvin Klein Collection Fall 2016 fashion show during New York Fashion Week at Spring Studios on February 18, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)