Director Mike Flanagan Offers Optimistic Update on His Adaptation of THE DARK TOWER

A few months ago it was announced that director Mike Flanagan was developing an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, which has been a long-time dream project of his. There have been efforts in the past to make this happen, and the one time a movie got made, it didn’t really hit the way fans hoped it was.

Flanagan is the filmmaker behind projects such as The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, Gerald’s Game, and Doctor Sleep. The Dark Tower is a project that he’s been wanting to take on for years and he envisions the adaptation of the books as a five-season series that will be followed by two standalone movies.

During a recent panel with Flanagan at the Tribeca Film Festival, he offered an optimistic update on the project amid the writer’s strike saying:

“That’s the one I want to do the most. I have the rights. We’re on strike. But I’m very optimistic that we’re on a great path with that, we have good partners, we can’t talk about it, but I think it’s going to happen. I can’t say for certain, but we look good. So I’m hoping that’s up there.”

When Flanagan first announced the project, he said that the pilot script is “one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on.” He shared at the time:

“I wrote a pilot, we view it as a as a series that’s going at least five seasons. And having lived with this project as long as I have, I have an enormous amount of it worked out in my brain. But I have a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons. I think eventually, if we’re able to get it going, there are some other writers I want to fold into that process whom I’ve worked with before; I think they would be really fabulous for a very small, intimate writers room where we can continue to break it.

“I’ll tell you, more than half of my life, I’ve closed my eyes and been able to watch a lot of this play out, I’ve dreamed about this. That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head.

“The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on. It’s been surreal working on that. So we’ve been floored and grateful that Stephen King trusts us with such an undertaking, something so precious to him, and we hope to find the right partners to realize it.”

Flanagan also said that he’s looking to include characters from Doctor Sleep in The Dark Tower. He explained how that would be possible saying:

“The thing about the King universe is, it’s all connected. And the nexus point of those connections is The Dark Tower. In the Dark Tower universe, there are all these other characters from the King world that come into play in different ways. When you make changes to the source material to introduce characters who could have played a very important role in that story… Doctor Sleep was written after The Dark Tower was finished.”

He also went on to talk about the potential for adding those characters to his Dark Tower project, saying:

“Abra Stone in the Dark Tower universe, as a Breaker [telepathic agent], is really interesting. There’s a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who’s this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear. But there’s room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there’s room for Rose The Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance. There’s all kinds of stuff that could be amazing, if we’re able to get that property on its feet. There’s ways to pull in other things rom the King universe, and I think The Shining universe – the Doctor Sleep universe – could very seamlessly dovetail into it. Especially since, in our movie, Dick Hallorann all but points to The Dark Tower in his last scene with Dan.”

Flanagan is an incredible filmmaker, and I’m very excited to see what he does with King’s The Dark Tower. If anyone is going to be able to pull off a great and proper adaptation, it’s Flanagan.