Stephen King, the “King of Horror” himself, has given his official stamp of approval toMike Flanagan’supcoming adaptation ofThe Dark Tower. Flanagan has been developing a TV series adaptation of the sprawling, genre-bending epic for Amazon Studios, and while it’s unclear exactlywhenwe might get to see it, King just offered fans the most promising update so far.
During a recent appearance onThe Kingcast podcast(viaBloody Disgusting), King praised Flanagan’s take on his epic book series, saying:
“I’ve seen screenplays and pitches, and he starts where he should start. The beats are perfect. They’re just perfect.”
This is high praise from the horror legend, who regardsThe Dark Towerseries as his magnum opus. Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures acquired the rights to King’s story back in 2022. The duo signed a multiyear series deal with Amazon Studios and many expect the streamer to pick up the dark fantasy epic. Flanagan toldDeadline:
“Predating our deal with Amazon, we acquired the rights to The Dark Tower, which if you know anything about me, you know it has been my Holy Grail of a project for mostof my life. We actually have those rights carved out of our Amazon deal, which doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t get behind it at some point — you don’t know. But that’s something we’ve been developing ourselves and are really passionate about finally getting it up on its feet at some point.”
The Dark Towertells the story of Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger in Mid-World, as he traverses the post-apocalyptic landscape in search of the Dark Tower. King is currently working on a thirdTalismannovel.The Talismanexists within the same multiverse as theDark Towersaga and shares a few overlapping elements. Flanagan previously spoke about how he hopes the new series spawns feature films forThe Dark Towersaga.
Flanagan’s ‘Dark Tower’ Will Have a Better Chance Than the First Adaptation
This is not the first adaptation of the epic eight-novel fantasy series. In 2017, Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey starred inThe Dark Tower, a feature film loosely based on King’s novel.The film earned a 44% score on the Popcornmeter and a 16% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes. While the film bombed theatrically, King did not blame the script adaptation. Instead, the writer extended credit to screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, tellingEntertainment Weeklyhe did “a terrific job in taking a central part of the book and turning it into what I thought was a pretty good movie.”
The writer went on to say that he believes the real reasonthe film failed to attract many fanswas the studio’s approach:
“The real problem, as far as I’m concerned is, they went in to this movie and I think this was a studio edict, pretty much, this is going to be a PG-13 movie. It’s going to be a tentpole movie. We want to verify that we get people in there from the ages of, let’s say, 12 right on up to whatever the target age is. Let’s say 12 to 35. That’s what we want.”
By holding to the PG-13 rating, the story “lost a lot of the toughness” that the novels feature. This latest adaptation, however, may fare better than its predecessor. One benefit of streaming is its reach, as well as fewer limitations in terms of subject matter. Fans of Flanagan’s previous adaptations will know his work holds nothing back.
This is also not the first Stephen King adaptation Flanagan has tackled. He directed bothGerald’s GameandDoctor Sleep. Flanagan and Macy were also behind the acclaimed Netflix seriesThe Haunting of Hill House, andThe Fall of the House of Usher, which is based on the classic works of Edgar Allan Poe. Flanagan’s upcoming film,The Life of Chuck, is based on a King short story. The sci-fi drama stars Tom Hiddleston, Kate Siegel, Karen Gillan, Matthew Lillard, Jacob Tremblay, and Mia Sara. With an already impressive history of successfully adapting King’s complex, imaginative, genre-blending narratives, Flanagan isclearly the perfect choice to revisitThe Dark Tower.
