Many, many writers and filmmakers have attempted to adapt Stephen King’s epic tome The Dark Tower, but so far none have succeeded. If there’s any writer/director who could succeed at such an adaptation, however, Mike Flanagan has to be at the top of the list. The horror filmmaker has made two King adaptations thus far, each wildly successful according to King fans – the contained thriller Gerald’s Game and the Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. And now, in a new interview, Flanagan says he’d love to take a crack at The Dark Tower.
Speaking with fellow filmmaker Mick Garris as part of a virtual conversation for Fantasia Fest 2020, Flanagan was asked if there’s still a dream project he’d love to tackle. His answer was The Dark Tower (via Syfy Wire):
“I’ve got the answer that most Stephen King fans are going to have. The Dark Tower is forever going to be the story I wish I could tell. That would be the Holy Grail. I mean, talk about an adaptation challenge… So many very talented people have poured so much time and heart and soul and blood, sweat and tears trying to crack that… That for me would be the one. I don’t know how that would happen, or if it could happen. That property, it’s daunting. Just to think about even taking first steps toward it.”
Hollywood has been trying to adapt King’s sprawling eight-book series for years. At one point J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof were going to take a crack at it, then Ron Howard took over and had Javier Bardem in line to play the lead character Roland Deschain. Howard’s adaptation was planned as a movie trilogy that would also include two seasons of a miniseries to fill out the backstory, but budget became an issue. A watered down version of Howard’s adaptation made it onto the screen in 2017 starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, with a different director, but it kind of came and went. Most recently, former The Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara spent a year developing a TV series adaptation for Amazon, but the streaming service passed on the pilot.
Flanagan is plenty busy – he’s about to release the follow-up to the Netflix horror anthology series The Haunting of Hill House called The Haunting of Bly Manor, and he’s in production on a new Netflix horror series called Midnight Mass. But time and again Flanagan has proven capable of threading the needle between faithful adaptation and something new and unique, so I say again: if anyone can make The Dark Tower work, it’s Flanagan. Make it happen, people!
