While Javier Bardem and Viggo Mortensen are both in the running to play the lead character Roland Deschain in Ron Howard's sprawling film and TV adaptation of The Dark Tower, we haven't heard any more about the casting of this massive project. Now word is that Pirates of the Caribbean favorite Naomie Harris is the front runner to play the female lead.

Harris will portray Susannah Dean, whose backstory needs at least two movies to tell properly. Her full name is Susannah Odetta Holmes Dean, but she also goes by the names Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker. She is a wheelchair-bound amputee who suffers from multiple-personality disorder and becomes a member of Deschain's group known as the Ka-tet. Though she doesn't appear until the second book, she is a major character throughout rest of the series.

There is no word yet on how Howard plans on splitting up the books to cover three films and two seasons of a television show, so it is possible that she could appear in the first theatrical installment. Or, she might be introduced in the first season of the television series. Who's to say at this point.

Official casting announcements are expected soon, as Ron Howard is preparing to shoot the film later this year.