Stephen King and Mike Flanagan Share Status Updates on ‘The Dark Tower’ TV Series: “I’m revving myself up!” [Exclusive]
It’s already been one of the most exhilarating TIFF seasons in recent memory. This year’s festival has unveiled some of the finest horror films, including the much-anticipated The Substance (review forthcoming), the brilliantly savage Nightbitch, Dead Talents Society, and the spine-chilling Heretic.
Adding to the excitement, two of Dread Central’s favorites appeared in Toronto for the debut of their intriguingly heartwarming inter-dimensional apocalypse drama, The Life of Chuck. Legendary author Stephen King, who penned the 2020 novella the film adapts, and visionary director Mike Flanagan (Midnight Mass) walked the red carpet at its TIFF world premiere. That’s where we caught up with them about their poignant new movie and on the status of The Dark Tower, their next likely collaboration.
I pestered both men about the long-delayed series adaptation of The Dark Tower, a topic that I recently covered last month on the DREAD podcast Development Hell. Interestingly enough, King has been consistently posting about the epic book series online recently, leading us fans to speculate that there could be some sort of news on the horizon. King and Flanagan had some interesting—albeit coy—comments on the topic.
Check out what Stephen King and Mike Flanagan had to say about their upcoming series here:
When I asked King, of all his adaptations still stuck in development hell that he’d want to see the most he had a quick answer. “The Dark Tower,” he told me with a smirk.
“I’m trying to rev myself up,” King insisted when asked if his recent Twitter posts on the topic are a possible tease of an upcoming announcement. Flanagan was also coy about the question.
“Who knows,” he told me with a similar grin. “I think with The Dark Tower, for anybody who is familiar with it, when you’re on the path of the beam it’s an incredibly long journey. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going forward with it. It just means it takes time.”
Given Mike Flanagan’s stellar adaptation of King’s Gerald’s Game, a novella once deemed impossible to translate to the screen, I also questioned the iconic author on what makes Flanagan uniquely adept at bringing his stories to life.
“He’s able to take the story flat and develop it in a way that doesn’t fix it,” King remarked on Flanagan’s approach. He further praised the director’s discipline, saying, “He’s able to respect the material in a way that keeps him from getting too cute with it. And he’s great at what he does; he’s a real craftsman, he’s really creative.”
King admires Flanagan partly because he appreciates his adept nac for storytelling and his meticulous attention to detail.
What Stephen King really thinks:
Well, it seems like we won’t be pulling much more information out of these two for the time being. But, I’ve gotta believe these responses are indicative of good news still yet to come. Ka is a wheel, I suppose…
Are you as excited about the idea of a Mike Flanagan-helmed TV adaptation of The Dark Tower as I am? Let me know on Twitter/X via @joshkorngut. I am always around to chat about anything Dark Tower!
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