Mike Flanagan Teases THE DARK TOWER Series and Makes It Clear the 2017 Movie Isn’t the Final Word
It’s been three years since Mike Flanagan officially announced plans to tackle The Dark Tower, and it sounds like the long-gestating project is finally picking up real momentum.
The filmmaker is opening up about where things stand, why this adaptation matters so much to him, and why the 2017 movie version can’t be the last stop for Stephen King’s epic saga.
Flanagan recently shared an update with Empire Magazine, describing the series as a massive undertaking that’s steadily moving forward. He compared the project to an “oil tanker,” not something that turns quickly, but once it’s in motion, it’s hard to stop.
“It’s moving,” Flanagan said. “We’ve got a lot of scripts done for it. It’s the first priority.”
The 2017 film, directed by Nikolaj Arcel and starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, struggled to satisfy fans of the books. The movie currently sits at a rough 16% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and Flanagan clearly doesn’t want that adaptation to define the property.
“We can’t let that be the final word. We really can’t,” he said.
For longtime King fans, Flanagan’s passion for The Dark Tower is nothing new. Back in 2022, he said that he had already completed a pilot script and mapped out an ambitious plan. His vision includes five seasons of television followed by two standalone films, allowing the story the room it needs to breathe.
“You’re the first person we’re saying it to, but yes,” Flanagan said. “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.”
The rights situation is just as interesting as the creative plan. Flanagan and producing partner Trevor Macy secured the property through Intrepid Pictures, and those rights exist outside of their broader deal with Amazon.
Flanagan explained, “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.”
Between completed scripts, a clear long-term roadmap, and a creator who genuinely understands what The Dark Tower means to fans, this adaptation is sure to be shaping up to be something special.
It may be moving at the speed of an oil tanker, but for a story as massive and strange as King’s genre-bending saga, that might be exactly what it needs.
