Mike Flanagan gives a candid update on his long-gestating The Dark Tower adaptation. The first attempt at adapting Stephen King’s classic occurred on the big screen, releasing in August 2017 and featuring an impressive cast that included Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. But despite its pedigree, with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Nikolaj Arcel directing, The Dark Tower movie was not well-received.
It performed solidly at the box office, grossing $113.2 million against a reported production budget of $66 million. However, the adaptation received sharply negative reviews and a planned sequel failed to materialize. However, in December 2022, The Haunting of Hill House creator revealed that he’d acquired the rights to develop a Dark Tower television series, with wide-ranging plans for multiple seasons.
During a panel with ScreenRant‘s Joe Deckelmeier and Grant Hermanns at Motor City Comic Con, Flanagan and actress Kate Siegel offered a brief update on the status of The Dark Tower. Flanagan shared that the project is steadily moving forward, noting that King frequently asks about its status and progress.
Flanagan cautions that the planned series will take “a long time,” but he’s pleased with the scripts so far. The prolific creatorbehind Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher reaffirms that the story begins at the start of the first book, which features a character being chased through an empty world, and mentions his love for that particular opening. He ends his remarks by underlining that part of the delay comes from securing rights to the necessary characters.
Flanagan is currently working on an adaptation of the seminal Stephen King story Carrie, which is planned as a television series for Prime Video. Described as a blend of teen drama and supernatural horror, the cast of the upcoming shows includes a mix of frequent Mike Flanagan collaborators and some newcomers. It’ll feature Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Joel Oulette, Matthew Lillard, and Samantha Sloyan, and is led by Summer H. Howell in the titular role.
Fans of The Dark Tower will know that it has been a struggle to bring the novel to the small screen, with one previous attempt failing to move forward. The first book was released in 1982, centering on Roland Deschain. The last gunslinger has been chasing his adversary, the Man in Black, for many years, with the story blending Western trappings with fantasy, science fiction, and horror. There are eight novels in total.
- Upcoming TV Shows
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The Dark Tower
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The Dark Tower
- Character(s)
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Roland Deschain, The Man in Black, Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Oy, The Crimson King, Stephen Deschain, Sayre, Tirana
