Aaron Paul Says He Spoke With Stephen King About ‘Dark Tower,’ Loves Teasing the Internet
Aaron Paul (Associated Press)
Aaron Paul is having some fun with the Internet’s rabid appetite for movie casting news.
The Emmy-winning Breaking Bad star, who co-stars in this weekend’s drone warfare drama Eye in the Sky, has long played the Internet like a fiddle — see: his Twitter-driven scavenger hunts and embrace of the meme-ification of Jesse Pinkman — and now he’s teasing people with a potential role in director Nicolas Arjel’s upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s epic book series, Dark Tower.
On Tuesday, he tweeted at King, asking him for a role in the film (and retweeted another item about it), and when he spoke to Yahoo Movies on Wednesday, he suggested that he’d be joining the potential franchise.
“I think being in Dark Tower would be pretty cool,” he said, responding to a question about what kind of franchise, if any, he’d like to join. And when asked what he was shooting next, he responded “Dark Tower"… and then, a few moments later, his mouth curled a smile.
"I’m kidding. Or am I?” Paul, who has been connected to various stalled iterations of a Dark Tower adaptation since 2012, cracked to a very confused reporter. “Those rumors are floating around. I spoke with Stephen King last night.”
It’s unlikely that he’d be so openly joking about it if he weren’t taking a role in Dark Tower — which has already officially cast Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey — so don’t be surprised if he’s involved in the big screen adaptation (if it ever happens).
As much fun as Paul has with these things, he’s not always in total control of his casting opportunities. To wit: He ran into Disney Animation and Pixar head honcho John Lasseter at a post-Oscars party, who inadvertently set him up for a major disappointment.
“‘He was like, Hey, I have something for you. And I thought he was going to offer me a Pixar film, and so I, of course, got excited,” Paul remembered. “And he was like, 'Have you seen Zootopia?” And I was like, 'No, I haven’t yet.’ And he told me about the reference.’”
The reference in question was a very heavy-handed — and delightful — nod to Breaking Bad in the smash hit animated flick, which sees a sheep cooking blue drugs in a trailer, and then getting on the phone with people named Walt and Jesse.
“I was like, That’s cool, that’s great, but not the same,” Paul said. “I told him, 'I thought you were telling me I had a job.’”
Watch the trailer for ‘Eye in the Sky’ below:
