Mike Flanagan, the director ofStephen Kingfilms likeGerald’s GameandDoctor Sleep, is still on track to adapt the ambitious TV series inspired by the author’s book seriesThe Dark Tower. Despite keeping his hands full with, among other things, a future TV adaptation ofCarrie, Flanagan is also developing theDark Towerseries, a project that’s so massive that he’s comparing it to “building an oil tanker.”
The director is currently promoting his–you guessed it–latest Stephen King project, the feature filmThe Life of Chuck. The film, starring Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill, is set to be released on June 13. Early reviews confirm that it’s yet another triumph for Flanagan. The director behindhorrorfilms and shows likeOuija: Origin of Evil,The Haunting of Hill House,andThe Fall of the House of Usher, is in his prime, especially considering he seems to nail the right tone for King’s adaptations–which have often beendeemed difficult to adapt.
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While talking to Comic Book aboutThe Life of Chuck, Flanagan addressed the project that will take him down the rabbit hole of Mid-World. Details about the TV adaptation are being kept under wraps, and even though we haven’t heard much about it, the showrunner says that it’s “constantly in the works”:
“It’s not that I’ve put it down. It’s just that the thing is so big, it’s like building an oil tanker. We’ve been moving it forward this whole time. It’s just, that’s how big it is. It’s constantly in the works, and you better believe as often as you guys may want to ask about it, Stephen King is asking me about it more, and I’m not gonna let him down.”
The Dark Towerseries consists of eight novels, a short novella, and an eerie children’s book. It’s considered King’s magnum opus, and itspans several genres, including western, horror, and science fiction. The plot synopsis reads as follows:
The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.
Why Mike Flanagan Is the Right Filmmaker to Adapt ‘The Dark Tower’
The Dark Towerwas previously adapted into a feature film that wasn’t well received by Stephen King’s fans,general audiences, or critics. The 2017 film still holds a 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and King himself said that the reason why it didn’t work was because too many novels were compressed into one 95-minute film, and many characters and pieces of world-building were nowhere to be seen.
Fans seem to trust Flanagan enough to know that he will avoid making the same mistakes that were so obvious before. He has shown the proper sensibility to adapt works likeGerald’s Game, which was considered a project too risky to work on. Nevertheless, as much as fans trust him, the most important support Flanagan can have is King’s. It’s no wonder that he’s the modern go-to in regard to adapting the author’s work. Given that he always hits the bullseye when casting his movies, perhaps it’s time to start speculating on who will play Roland, Eddie, Jake, Susannah, and the Man in Black.
