'TRYING TO REV MYSELF UP!': STEPHEN KING AND MIKE FLANAGAN GIVE UPDATES ON THE DARK TOWER ADAPTATION

Mike Flanagan is one of the directors who's had multiple takes on Stephen King's work so far. With the latest one, The Life of Chuck, recently premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and in search of a distributor, Flanagan can focus on his next King project: The Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower is King's series of eight novels, a novella, and a children's book. Previously adapted into the critically panned 2017 movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, holding an abysmal 15% approval rating from the critics, Amazon purchased the rights to the series in February 2018, but it was stuck in development hell until December 2022, when Mike Flanagan took over and announced it will develop the book series into a TV series with plans for a multi-season release. Speaking to DreadCentral, Flanagan and King shared exciting updates about the adaptation.

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When which one of the adaptations still in development King would want to see most, King quickly replied. "The Dark Tower." The author also explained why he kept posting references to the book series on his X account. "I’m trying to rev myself up," King answered to the question of whether his posts were nostalgia or teasing something new about the upcoming adaptation.

When asked the same question, Flanagan also played coy. "Who knows," Flanagan said. "I think with The Dark Tower, for anybody who is familiar with it, when you’re on the path of the beam it’s an incredibly long journey. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going forward with it. It just means it takes time."

King had nothing but praise for the director, who previously handled other adaptations. "He’s able to take the story flat and develop it in a way that doesn’t fix it," King noted about Flanagan’s approach. "He’s able to respect the material in a way that keeps him from getting too cute with it. And he’s great at what he does; he’s a real craftsman, he’s really creative."

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Mike Flanagan's Stephen King Adaptations Received Critical Acclaim

The upcoming The Dark Tower adaptation has all the indications of a successful project. Mike Flanagan's track record with adaptations proved he is resourceful, creative, and understands the source material, as per his Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher. He's also received great feedback for his work on King's novels.

Gerald's Game, a novella that was deemed "unadaptable," had Mike Flanagan prove everyone wrong. Starring his muse and frequent collaborator Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood, the film holds a Certified Fresh score of 91% from the critics and 70% from the audience. His second take on King's work was Doctor Sleep, the adaptation of the sequel to The Shining. With a bigger budget, Doctor Sleep failed to impress at the box office, but it pulled strong feedback from the critics, as it's Certified Fresh with an approval rating of 79% and 89% on the Popcornmeter from the audience. His third adaptation, The Life of Chuck, which recently premiered at TIFF, has an approval rating of 86% from the critics.

Having tackled the King universe before with psychological horror in Gerald's Game, horror in Doctor Sleep, and drama in The Life of Chuck, his experience will come in handy for The Dark Tower, which blends genres like dark fantasy, science fiction, horror, and Western.