In a dream come true, Mike Flanagan announces he’s adapting Stephen King’s The Dark Tower
Horror auteur Mike Flanagan's long-held dream to adapt The Dark Tower was granted by Stephen King
Aux News Mike Flanagan
It’s a new era for horror auteur Mike Flanagan, who recently made the jump from Netflix (where he has one final project on the horizon) to Amazon Studios. In a new Deadline interview, Flanagan and Intrepid Pictures production partner Trevor Macy discuss their decision to leave one streamer for another, but they also drop another exciting bombshell: Just as Flanagan has always dreamed, they are working on an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.
This is not—it should be noted—a development under the new Amazon deal. While the company could end up partnering on the project, Intrepid Pictures obtained the rights directly from King after Flanagan sent the author “a very, very detailed outline of what I wanted to do with it.” What he wants to do with it is “five seasons of television, followed by two stand-alone features,” though they’re “not going to put the cart too far ahead of the horse on such a challenging project.”
Flanagan describes the opportunity as “my Holy Grail of a project for most of my life,” explaining that it’s “something we’ve been developing ourselves and are really passionate about finally getting it up on its feet at some point.”
“I wrote a pilot, we view it as a as a series that’s going at least five seasons. And having lived with this project as long as I have, I have an enormous amount of it worked out in my brain,” he shares. “But I have a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons. I think eventually, if we’re able to get it going, there are some other writers I want to fold into that process whom I’ve worked with before; I think they would be really fabulous for a very small, intimate writers room where we can continue to break it.”
The filmmaker teases that the pilot is “one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on,” adding that they’re “floored and grateful” for the support from King (whose work they previously adapted with Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep) and that they “hope to find the right partners to realize it.”
“I’ll tell you, more than half of my life, I’ve closed my eyes and been able to watch a lot of this play out, I’ve dreamed about this,” Flanagan passionately adds. “That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head.”
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I’m in. He and Darabont understand the source material. I still wish we could see the unaired Amazon pilot which covers much of Wizard and Glass.
I’ve complained before about him taking source material that worked perfectly for standard-length feature films (a format he’s done good work in) and then warping it into multi-episode miniseries, so I’m glad to see he’s now applying serialization to the right material. Plus, this means no reason to watch that Dark Tower movie.
There’s one and only one good reason to watch the movie: Roland does the reloading trick.
The reloading trick is fucking awesome. Idris Elba COULD have been a great Roland, Matthew Mcconaughey COULD have been a great Man in Black, and . . . that’s it. End of positive things about that tedious, bullshit, piece of crap movie.
Pretty much, yeah.
Idris Elba does the reloading trick.
The one thing I liked about the movie—and it’s not even actually part of the movie itself, but sort of quasi-meta-canon based on a Stephen King tweet—is the idea that it’s actually a sequel to (or reboot of?) The Dark Tower (which won’t make sense unless you’ve read the series, but that’s what King seemed to imply). I thought that was a pretty neat concept, on paper at least, since they could mess around with the story all they wanted, and technically it wouldn’t “ruin” the original since they weren’t really adapting the original.The movie obviously failed to rise to that interesting premise, but I did like the way it felt almost like a remix of The Dark Tower, taking all these elements and characters from the later books and working them into earlier events, but then just shuffling all of it into a crazy mess. I think it could have worked if they had given the story any room whatsoever to breathe, and if they hadn’t inexplicably decided to make it a children’s adventure movie.I’m still hopeful that a good DT adaptation can be made. Because of the whole ramshackle nature of the source material—written gradually over decades, giving King time to rethink and add things, even going back and revising the first book, and then rushing through the last three books in a despondent haze because King wasn’t sure how much time he had left—it would be fascinating to see a take on the story with the benefit of King’s complete vision of this world. It’s the rare literary adaptation where I don’t want it to be totally faithful, but to basically rethink the entire story from scratch.
That’s also kind of what House of the Dragon is doing, with Fire and Blood being a history textbook based on three contradictory sources, and the writer’s own biases, while the show is what actually happened.
yeah I got the meta/quasi-sequel thing too. maybe if they avoided condensing like the whole series into one 2 hour movie it would’ve worked, but as it is it was like a desperate attempt to hold onto IP.
Dude sounds excited. Good for him!
DO: Strip away the more esoteric links to King’s work (i.e., no Patrick), strip away King as a character, focus on the Ka-Tet and the mechanics of the world having moved on.DON’T: Try to cram seven books into 90 goddamned minutes.
Given his age and how long development is on these things, you’d probably have to strip King as a character just for practicality’s sake. Having said that, I really liked that aspect of the story and would like to see *some* version of it retained. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea and even I don’t always enjoy meta stuff, but I did enjoy it in that series.
Eh, I wasn’t huge on it, but I loved the occasionally-reviled Wolves of the Calla, so what do I know? 😀
Same. I really disliked parts of books 6-7 (especially the King as a character parts, say sorry do it please ya or whatever), but I quite liked Wolves. And of course, books 1-4 are amazing.
I want to visit the parallel Earth where King wasn’t injured in that car accident while jogging, and see how the last few books of the Dark Tower series were.
In all sincerity-I have spent an embarrassing amount of time wondering what the DT Series would have been like if that accident had not happened.Mr. King has said that the accident prompted him to finish the series (“tomorrow isn’t promised” and all that), so maybe we would still be waiting for a conclusion. But, and I say this with all due respect about an author I really enjoy-it seems clear to me that those events were part of the reason he lost the rope on the story. Book 5 was solid and Book 7 had its moments, but man-the conclusion of the saga was a mess, and the parts relating to his accident were a huge reason why.I guess we should be glad we got a conclusion at all………
I agree 100%. Wolves was maybe a bit more pulpy and loose than its predecessors (except maybe for Wastelands, which was also pretty shambling), but it was FUN. Of all of the random inclusions of other characters from the King canon, Callahan was the best, both the best character and the only one who really had an unfinished story, so that all worked. The Seven Samurai / Magnificent Seven thing bordered on being too much of an obvious ripoff, but it was saved by the characters’ recognition of it as such, along with the Doctor Doom / sneetch stuff. It was maybe the last time that showing the author’s hand in the work actually worked.There’s almost nothing to like in books 6 or 7, except maybe the coda, which was what it should be.
Well, King would be played by an actor. Gary Cole was born for the role.
Have you seen his son? Joe Hill could totally play a younger Stephen King with no issue whatsoever — just as perfect as James Gandolfini’s son playing a young Tony Soprano.
Can we ditch the spider-baby too?
Yep! Don’t care, never did. Dandelo, too.
And the Detta stuff, and the “incident” with Susannah in Book 6…
IIRC, even King regretted writing himself into the series and has considered revising the books to remove himself!
Why doesn’t he write a new book where he writes himself out of the books he wrote himself into initially?
The only way you could possibly make this sound any better is to sprinkle it with unsalted sunflower seeds.
All things serve the Beam.
“Five seasons and TWO movies”? He thinks big.
Yeah, no way in hell that this gets more than 5 seasons, and even that’s a tall order. The books turn into a mess. Viewership would be in the toilet by the end of the fifth season if it had somehow stayed high enough up till then for people to keep tuning in, and my guess is no big movies are going to get funded unless the views on season 5 are at, like, GOT levels.
I feel like this is just not accurate. The books continue on and tell the story how King decided it should be told. I loved them all but then I’m not an amateur book critic
Timothy Olyphant for Roland
I’ve been hurt too many times before.
Yeah, I’m not getting my hopes up until it’s literally ON THE SCREEN, but it’s nice that he’s got serious passion for the material and SK personally gave him the rights (and that he envisions it starting as a series, because the format, the story and the pacing is just too fucking weird to try to make into a movie/movies from the get-go). Unlike the ‘17 film, was was written and directed with all the passion of a bored middle schooler writing an essay on Moby Dick the night before it’s due.
Go shop at Hot topic thenPumped for this.
I’d still rather see Imajica but I’ll take The Dark Tower until then…
If they can turn a one-room play that’s mostly internal dialogue like Gerald’s Game into an excellent film, then I’m going to give them benefit of the doubt that third time with Dark Tower will be the charm.And he’s right, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed” is about as grabber a first line as you’ll read.
Hm, skeptical. Was a big fan, but it seems the more money and success Flanagan gets, the worse he does. Dude just waters down his stuff with too much sentimentality and eyerolling monologues. And getting really lazy with the jump scares…
There’s an element of truth to that charge, but hopefully the large quantity of existing material will mean less space for inventing such monologues.
I agree in general, but Flanagan has a knack for nailing King’s tone. And while his usual “the real journey was the friends we made along the way” shtick gets increasingly tired with each iteration, it’s a natural fit for The Dark Tower.
well, i would argue king’s work drips with sentimentality so it’s a good match.
Hard disagree. Midnight Mass was the best thing he’s done so far, IMO.
However, I have noticed that if he’s only producing and not directing, the shows suffer. Bly Manor and Midnight Club were pale shades of Hill House and Midnight Mass. I can’t imagine he’ll direct 50 episodes of TV for the next five years, but hopefully he takes the lion’s share.
I agree, Midnight Mass was overall the strongest. Hill House might have beaten it, but it kinda shat the bed in the last 15 minutes.
I dunno, “it’s all confetti” is a pretty powerful speech. I rewatched HoHH earlier this year, and the ending had me misting up all over again.
Ah, so THAT’S why I didn’t care as much for Bly Manor!!Flanagan is a King fan. I think this project can only really be done justice by somebody who’s a fan- I loved Doctor Sleep, but primarily because I was such a big fan of the Shining (book & film) and I think Flanagan made a great sequel.
I think the reason Flanagan and King get along so well is that they both live and die by the characters. King’s writing can be very hit or miss in the plotting (especially, famously, in the endings), but it’s very, very rare you read a King book and don’t find yourself drawn in by the characters. Flanagan does very similar character work— and its why his films and shows tend to hit a little harder than a lot of other horror filmmakers’ work.
Don’t know too much, but hasn’t Flanagan talked about how he doesn’t like jump scares, and he tries to avoid them as much as he can? I remember reading something about how he put an obnoxious amount of them in his newest show to try to get executives asking for more of them off of his back.
Midnight Mass was pretty fucking perfect, as the best version of a Salem’s Lot / Dracula story to ever hit the screen.
Just give me a joke contest with a living train and I can die happy.If anyone hasn’t read the books, trust me, it’s a thing.
“When is a door not a door?”
When it is a man crawling while young, walking in the prime of life, and walking with a cane in the autumn years.
False love?
He’s a pain!
That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger,
I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an
undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really
need to get it out of my head.”How this wasn’t the entire first trailer for that terrible film, i will never understand
I knew that movie was going to be trouble when it failed to start with a crane shot of the Man in Black running across the desert and booming down to reveal Roland stepping into frame to follow him.
Is Flanagan a he or a they?
One of the most overrated book series ever, sweet. Should go swimmingly.
Never read the books but when the first trailer for that movie dropped, I was ALL IN on the concept. So I’m cautiously optimistic?
That 2017 movie fucking sucked. I was deeply disappointed by it. Confusing, rambling, impenetrable and yet another movie which pointlessly has a precocious idiot child taking Centre stage.
I wanted King to be the end boss. One of King’s best worlds, but worst endings.
yeah, i hated the end as well.
Crimson King? I’d be there for that.
The ending is so powerful and makes so much sense. I can’t believe anyone didn’t understand it would end like that or a version of it. Besides, King warns you not to read on if you couldn’t handle it
Maybe…Although i have no desire to go back and test that theory. I am digging Billy Summers, tho, and his last few books have been pretty good.
One season.
The world going back around to cowboy times and Excalibur being melted down into guns is one of the best story hooks ever