Six months ago, we learned that genre filmmaker Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, etc.) is getting the chance to make his dream project a reality: his company Intrepid Pictures has secured the rights to make a series based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower saga. Although Flanagan is currently participating in the writers strike, his script for the pilot episode of the series is already complete – and he is very happy with how it turned out. He’s also feeling optimistic that The Dark Tower is going to start moving forward once the strike has ended.
Speaking with Deadline months back, Flanagan said, “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.“
During an appearance at the Tribeca Film Festival this month, he said, “That (series is) 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.“
Intrepid was able to get the Dark Tower rights because Flanagan sent Stephen King “a very, very detailed outline of what I wanted to do with it. And it was in response to that, that he gave us the rights. A project like this, I wouldn’t want to be involved in it at all If we were taking it in a direction that was going to be blasphemous to the Stephen King material, but he’s been very, very supportive and very excited about what we’d like to do with it.“
Flanagan says he envisions The Dark Tower story playing out over the course of five seasons, so here’s hoping that he’ll not only be able to get a first season of the show made, but also that he’ll be able to continue through the remaining four seasons worth of story. He has also said that the five seasons could be followed by two feature films, but he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself. The focus right now is on getting the series up and running.
Are you interested in seeing a series based on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower saga? Are you glad this project is in the hands of Mike Flanagan? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Many of Stephen King’s stories and novels are connected to The Dark Tower in some way, but the Dark Tower series itself consists of The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Waste Lands, Wizard and Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole, Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, The Dark Tower, and the short story The Little Sisters of Eluria.
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