Key Takeaways
- Flanagan’s focus: Mike Flanagan prioritizes adapting The Dark Tower as a major project.
- Previous adaptation: The 2017 film adaptation was poorly received and did not satisfy fans.
- Future plans: Flanagan envisions a five-season series followed by two films for The Dark Tower.
- Other works: Flanagan is also working on adaptations of Carrie and a new version of The Exorcist.
Horror maestro Mike Flanagan has no shortage of projects on his plate, but the most ambitious by far is his long-gestating adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. It’s been three years since Flanagan and his producing partner Trevor Macy secured the rights to King’s sprawling novel series with plans to develop it as a television event, and while progress has been deliberate, the project is still moving forward—slowly, but steadily.
The Dark Tower is First Priority for Flanagan
Speaking with Empire Magazine (via Deadline), Flanagan likened The Dark Tower to an “oil tanker,” adding, “It’s moving. We’ve got a lot of scripts done for it. It’s the first priority.” Flanagan has previously said that he envisions The Dark Tower story being told over the course of five seasons, followed by two feature films.
The Dark Tower has already had one ill-fated trip to the screen in the form of the critically maligned 2017 feature starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. Flanagan is well aware of the sour note that the film left with fans. “We can’t let that be the final word,” he said. “We really can’t.”
Why Did The First Dark Tower Movie Fail?
Despite widespread praise for Idris Elba’s take on Roland Deschain, there wasn’t much goodwill directed at the 2017 film itself. King’s The Dark Tower saga spans multiple novels, yet the adaptation somehow attempted to cram that sprawling mythology into a single 95-minute, PG-13 feature. The studio insisted the movie was technically a sequel to the books, with director Nikolaj Arcel explaining, “It has a lot of the same elements, a lot of the same characters, but it is a different journey.”
Fans weren’t convinced. The film tanked, taking any hope of a sequel down with it. In his review, our own Chris Bumbray summed up the disappointment, calling the film “a muddled mess of an adaptation that plays like someone wrote a young adult novelization of a couple of the books, and that was turned into a movie.”
Flanagan’s Other Projects
Aside from The Dark Tower, Flanagan has wrapped production on a TV series adaptation of Carrie for Prime Video, and he’s also set to tackle a “radical new take” on The Exorcist starring Scarlett Johansson.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter
[nospin]Here you can find the original article; the photos and images used in our article also come from this source. We are not their authors; they have been used solely for informational purposes with proper attribution to their original source.[/nospin]
<!– PLAN:
INTENT: informational
ENTITIES_PRIMARY: Mike Flanagan, The Dark Tower
ENTITIES_RELATED: Stephen King, Carrie, The Exorcist
PHRASES_CORE: Mike Flanagan adaptation, The Dark Tower series update
ASPECTS:
– project status: long-gestating adaptation
– previous adaptations: critically maligned film
SECTION_MAP:
– The Dark Tower is First Priority for Flanagan: Flanagan’s focus on adaptation
– Why Did The First Dark Tower Movie Fail?: reasons for failure
– Flanagan’s Other Projects: other adaptations in progress
PAA_QUERIES: Why did The Dark Tower movie fail? What is Mike Flanagan working on? How many seasons will The Dark Tower series have? What adaptations is Mike Flanagan involved in?
FIRST200_MUST_INCLUDE: Mike Flanagan adaptation, The Dark Tower series update
PREDICTIVE_PAIRS:
– adaptation ↔ project status
– failure ↔ previous adaptations
RICH_FORMATS: list
ENTITIES_CANONICAL: Mike Flanagan → Mike Flanagan; The Dark Tower → The Dark Tower; Carrie → Carrie; The Exorcist → The Exorcist
AMBIGUITIES_RESOLVED: None
FACT_OPINION_DISTRIBUTION: ~90% factual / ~10% opinion
OPINION_LABEL: Opinion:
OPINION_CARDS:
– Why Did The First Dark Tower Movie Fail?: Fans were disappointed by the film’s execution.
CENTERPIECE_PURPOSE: This article discusses Mike Flanagan’s adaptation plans for The Dark Tower.
PRIMARY_ACTION: read
ORIGINALITY_GAINS: comparison of adaptations
DERIVED_CALCS: None
QUERY_CLASS: fact
FIRST_SCREEN_SIGNALS: centerpiece/phrases/claim
AUTHOR_SIGNAL: absent
COMMERCIAL_TONE: neutralized
EVERGREEN_SIGNALS: timeless framing present
STRUCTURE_COHESION: yes
–>
