Mike Flanagan Is Developing a TV and Film Adaptation of Stephen King's THE DARK TOWER!

Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures have acquired the right to Stephen King’s epic fantasy book series The Dark Tower, and they developing in for TV and film! 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. He’s been wanting to take a crack at The Dark Tower for years, it’s his dream project, and now he’s actually going to do it, which is so cool!

Fans have been waiting for a proper adaptation of The Dark Tower series, and I think that Flanagan has what it takes to deliver it! He’s going to do it right, and he envisions it as a five-season series that will be followed by two standalone movies. This was similar to the plan that director Ron Howard had when he was developing it all those years ago.

When talking to Deadline, Flanagan revealed The Dark Tower news and confirmed that it’s a project he’ll be developing for Amazon:

“You’re the first person we’re saying it to, but yes. Predating our deal with Amazon, we acquired the rights to The Dark Tower, which if you know anything about me, you know it has been my Holy Grail of a project for most of my life. We actually have those rights carved out of our Amazon deal, which doesn’t mean that they can’t or won’t get behind it at some point — you don’t know. But that’s something we’ve been developing ourselves and are really passionate about finally getting it up on its feet at some point.”

When asked how far along in development he is on the project, he shared his progress and excitement:

“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 was also asked about talking to Stephen King about the adaptation and how he landed the rights to the property and said:

“Absolutely. This happened because I sent him 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.”

He then explained his plans for the ambitious project:

Well, to be honest, the way that I have seen it breaking out is five seasons of television, followed by two stand-alone features. But I think our priority has been trying to get the television side of it going first. We’re not going to put the cart too far ahead of the horse on such a challenging project, but that I think is the perfect way to do it.

As you know, The Dark Tower is considered to be one of the hardest book series to adapt and that’s something that Flanagan is very aware of. But while it is a daunting task, he feels like he’s ready to take it on and he’s been preparing for it with the previous projects that he’s developed over the years. He seems ready, and I’m ready to watch what he creates! I’m so excited about this, and I’m confident he’s going to deliver an adaptation that fans are going to love.